Ericsson makes breakthrough with contract in Africa

Ericsson makes breakthrough with contract in Africa Ericsson has signed the first customer management contract in Africa. Ericsson will deliver and install a complete set of applications for customer care and billing to Botswana Telecom Corporation (BTC). The new solution will be installed in the fixed telecoms network. It contains systems for billing, the processing of customer orders and complaints, as well as systems for inter-operator accounting and call collection. "Ericsson is the main supplier of our exchanges. This solution will supply BTC with appropriate applications and will also support our goal of becoming the leader in the provision of innovative services," says Mr. Olebile Gaborone, Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Telecom Corporation. BTC's infrastructure is one of the most modern in Africa. The current customer base stands at 93,000 lines which translates into a teledensity of six phones per 100 people. This figure is currently the fourth highest teledensity in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Ericsson's strategy is to provide total solutions in the Telecom Management area based on word-class software components. A new product portfolio, Ericsson Telecom Management, was recently launched. The framework encompasses solutions for network operation, customer management, service provisioning, data warehousing, customer network management and IT & systems management. Ericsson´s 10,000 employees are active in more than 130 countries. Their combined expertise in fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones and infocom systems makes Ericsson a world-leading supplier in telecommunications. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Johan Bergendahl, General Manager, Telecom Management Business Unit Public Networks, Ericsson Infocom Systems, Phone: +46 8 719 3118, or +46 70 519 3118 Ann-Sofi Sjöberg, Press Relations Manager, Business Unit Public Networks, Ericsson Infocom Systems Phone: +46 8 719 58 18, or +46 70 693 3224 Technical notes Inter-operator accounting: Inter-operator accounting helps telecom operators minimize their interconnect costs. Telephone calls are often handled by several operators before they reach their destinations. The inter-operator accounting system calculates payments between operators for calls they handle during this process. Call collection: Once calls have been completed it is necessary to collect information regarding these calls as quickly as possible and send it to other systems, like billing, for processing. This is the function of the call collector module.