Significant Managed Services contract for Nokia Siemens Networks in Africa.
Zain, one of the leading mobile operators in Nigeria, announced that its customers will soon experience significantly improved network availability and service for which it has entered into a managed services and care contract with Nokia Siemens Networks. The agreement covers full network management, operations and maintenance, which will ensure network availability at all times across Nigeria. The management of the network will be handed over to Nokia Siemens Networks in mid-October, 2009.
“It is our commitment to deliver high standards of service that has allowed us to give Zain customers the most reliable and high quality communication experience. Reliability and coverage of our network is therefore key to ensuring customer satisfaction and growth. Our agreement to have Nokia Siemens Networks manage and maintain our network not only allows us to benefit from their competencies in ensuring network availability and minimizing potential revenue losses but also enables us to aggressively pursue our growth plans,” says, Khaled Khorshid, COO, Zain Nigeria.
As part of this agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide managed services for Zain’s multi-vendor Fiber and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing “DWDM” network in Nigeria which is 4000km long countrywide outside plant network. This includes overall network management, monitoring for fiber and DWDM via OSS, field maintenance on a 24 X 7 or 12 X 7 basis and tight service level assurance on response and rectification. Corrective and preventive maintenance will predict and prevent potential network problems to provide ongoing high network quality along with an efficient management of spare parts for fiber repairs within guaranteed response times. This will help Zain Nigeria in its extreme need to secure fast service restoration time for any outage in the critical backbone network. Zain will benefit from a robust network with high reliability and availability at all times, smooth operations and avoidance of revenue losses allowing it to move further ahead as a fast growing telecommunications operator.
“This is our first outside plant managed services contract in Africa and therefore provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate our leadership and success in managed services in the region. This agreement is also a reiteration of the close relationship we share with Zain that is based on trust and our ability to exceed customer expectations. We are confident that we will raise the standards for network reliability and connectivity for mobile customers in Nigeria,” says, Ashish Chowdhary, Head of Services, Nokia Siemens Networks.
About Zain
Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to 69.5 million active customers as at 30 June 2009. In terms of country footprint, Zain is the 3rd largest mobile operator in the world with a commercial presence in 24 countries.
Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine (currently known as Paltel Group), Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages ‘mtc-touch’ on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain owns 31% of Wana Telecom through a joint venture.
Zain offers innovative services in its markets such as ‘One Network’, the world’s first borderless mobile telecommunications network enabling customers when abroad to receive calls and sms without charge and to make voice and data calls at local rates throughout 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. This service allows a customer to top up airtime in one’s home country or from more than 1,000,000 outlets within Zain’s One Network footprint.
The Zain brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker: ZAIN). Zain is listed in the Financial Times’ Global 500 Index which ranks the world’s largest companies based on market capitalization (http://www.ft.com/reports/ft5002008). Zain aims to become one of the top ten mobile operators in the world by end of the year 2011. For more, please visit www.zain.com or email info@zain.com
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