Telecommunications giant, AirtelTigo Ghana has partnered with Ericsson, a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company to combine and upgrade its network infrastructure.

The partnership will enable AirtelTigo to unify its network assets between the previously separate companies (Airtel and Tigo) and provide customers with fast internet experience and superior voice quality.

The agreement with Ericsson includes end-to-end consolidation and managed services for the AirtelTigo network.

Also, AirtelTigo will be able to expand coverage to all parts of the country including rural areas.

Speaking at a press briefing to announce the partnership, the Chief Executive Officer of AirtelTigo, Roshi Motman said their customers will benefit massively from this merger as they will get faster internet speed, superior voice quality and nationwide coverage once the integration is completed.

She is confident that Ericsson is well resourced with both the latest technology and expertise to do the consolidation and upgrade the network to world-class standards.

“What we are going to deliver is a nationwide coverage, faster internet speeds and superior voice quality. We have chosen a partner that is going to support us in this process. That partner is a world-class player; Ericsson,” she said.

She further indicated that the full merger will drag into 2019 before the full bloom experience is seen but until then, there will be disruptions with the network, which together with Ericsson, they will try to minimise it.

She assured that customers will be informed about the disruptions and be compensated for troubles caused by the network where there is the need to.

“It will take the end of year until we can see the full bloom experience. The full consolidation of the merger will drag a little bit into 2019 as well. There might be some disruptions happening but we are doing everything that we can together with Ericsson to minimise these disruptions but if they happen, we will make sure that customers are informed and if there is need, for sure we will also be looking at compensations”, she assured.

Jonathan Adams, Customer Unit Head of Ericsson for South and East Africa, said they will continue to partner with customers and take on the major role in complex multivendor integration and deployment projects.

According to him, the new partnership with Ericsson will enable AirtelTigo help the operator pave the way towards 4G and eventually 5G network evolution in Ghana.

He further stated that “Ericsson’s role, of course, will be to continue running the network with our managed services. We’ll be undertaking a lot of integration activities and helping AirtelTigo with all the design as well. It’s a huge opportunity of merging two networks together that gives a scale and efficiency which enables AirtelTigo to invest in a much better network which gives a better service to customers and more data speeds”.

Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers with about 40% of the world’s mobile traffic carried through their networks. They enable the full value of connectivity by creating game-changing technology and services that are easy to use, adopt and scale, making their customers successful in a fully connected world.