08 February 2019
Tigo Senegal has selected Ericsson for its nationwide network modernisation project.
Under the terms of a new three-year deal, the Swedish firm will cover more than 1,000 existing sites.
The three-year nationwide modernisation project covers more than 1,000 sites and includes the rollout of Ericsson’s Radio System.
It will deploy its latest radio system technology to refresh legacy infrastructure, roll out LTE across the country, and modernise and expand the operator’s backhaul network using its MINI-LINK microwave radios.
All sites selected for LTE will have a smart refresh of 1,800 radios that will be modernised to accommodate 1800MHz with the multi-standard 2219 radio.
Ericsson says it will also provide cloud packet core and cloud data management and policy solutions for the modernisation of Tigo’s core network to reduce opex and simplify the introduction of new user services.
Additional solutions include the vendor’s Mobile Packet Backbone Network and OSS migration to Ericsson Network Manager.
Ericsson’s MEA head Rafiah Ibrahim says: “By improving both indoor and outdoor network coverage, Tigo will be able to deliver digital services including mobile data and mobile financial services across the entire Senegalese market.”
In separate news announced in January 2019, Ericsson is ditching part of its BSS business.
It said that the business support system area is “not showing satisfactory progress” and is “jeopardising” its digital services segment’s overall profitability target for 2020.
In an online press release, Ericsson stated: “The company’s past BSS strategy included pursuing large transformation projects based on pre-integrated solutions, including development of a next generation BSS platform, the full-stack Revenue Manager. The strategy has not been successful and to date the full-stack Revenue Manager has not generated any revenues… Delays in product and feature development has also made the full-stack Revenue Manager less competitive.”
As part of a revised BSS strategy, the firm said there would be increased investments in its established platform, Digital BSS, and that it is refocusing the full-stack Revenue Manager to fulfil existing customer commitments only.
