TIRANA (Albania), February 5 (SeeNews) – Telekom Albania has selected Swedish information and communication technology provider Ericsson as the sole supplier to modernize the company’s radio and core networks in the span of five years, Ericsson said.
“Ericsson will upgrade Telekom Albania’s network capabilities to Gigabit LTE class while also making the network 5G ready using the latest Ericsson Radio System equipment,” Ericsson said in a statement on Tuesday.
A new virtualized core network based on the Ericsson Cloud Core, Ericsson Cloud VoLTE and system verified Network Function Virtual Infrastructure (NFVI) solutions will also enhance the customer experience, the company added.
“Our partnership with Telekom Albania will bring the best solutions on the market to life in their nationwide network. This will help to ensure that Telekom Albania delivers the best user experience possible to its customers in an increasingly demanding market,” head of the Western Balkans at Ericsson, Antonio Passarella, said.
Telekom Albania’s strategic goal is to become the first choice for Albanian users when it comes to mobile communication services, the chief executive officer of the company, Emil Georgakiev, said. “This means ensuring a superior customer experience. We believe that a full network swap and modernization is the right way to start this journey.”
Headquartered in Stockholm, Ericsson develops and manufactures network equipment and software, as well as services for network and business operations. The company's portfolio also includes products for the enterprise, cable, mobile platform, and power module markets.
In December, Telekom Albania signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar strategic digital transformation agreement with global data networks innovator STL, in partnership with European systems integrator Cognity, STL said.
Albania Telecom Invest, a company controlled by Spas Roussev, controlling shareholder of Bulgarian telecoms group BTC trading as Vivacom, completed the acquisition of Telekom Albania from Greece’s OTE Group for a total gross equity consideration of 50 million euro ($55.2 million), OTE said in May last year.
($ = 0.90488 euro)