China Unicom and Ericsson in managed services contract

The longstanding partnership between China Unicom and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) passed a landmark as Anhui Unicom – a provincial company of China Unicom – signed a three-year integrated field maintenance agreement with Ericsson, making Ericsson its largest managed services partner in Anhui Province. Ericsson will take care of the maintenance work for base station sites, as well as fixed network and transmission.

This is the largest managed services contract between the two to date. By outsourcing field maintenance, more time is freed up for the operator to focus on its existing and potential customers.

Li Chao, General Manager of Anhui Unicom, says: “Anhui Unicom and Ericsson have been strategic partners for many years and we have a very high opinion of Ericsson’s expertise in all aspects. We believe that Ericsson will extend its successful managed services business model and world-leading capabilities to Anhui and help us improve our network efficiency, lower operational cost, and fulfil our commitment to the consumers.”

Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson China & North East Asia, says: “China represents the largest telecom and internet market in the world with some 800 million mobile subscribers and 420 million internet users. It also has the largest telecom infrastructure, with more than 320,000 3G base stations. We hope that by becoming Anhui Unicom’s largest managed services supplier we will set a benchmark for field maintenance services throughout China Unicom.”

Anhui is the eighth most populated province in China and has a mobile penetration of around 50 percent. The field maintenance agreement between Ericsson and Anhui Unicom covers five major cities of China’s eastern Anhui province including Wuhu, Xuancheng, Bengbu, Chuzhou, and the province capital city Hefei.

In the past, Ericsson has been one of the major suppliers to Anhui Unicom and its largest GSM supplier. Ericsson has also long-term cooperation with the customer in professional services, including network rollout, network performance improvement, learning services and spare-part management.

About Ericsson’s service portfolio: http://www.ericsson.com/ourportfolio/services

Global Services press backgrounder: http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/press/facts_figures/doc/BUGS_Press_Backgrounder_Q1_2010_100503.pdf

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Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the “prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 80,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 206.5 billion (USD 27.1 billion) in 2009. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

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