Malaysian mobile network operator (MNO) U Mobile has extended a partnership with Swedish vendor Ericsson under which the latter will ‘transform its Business Support System (BSS) into an industrialised, real-time converged environment’. With the duo having initially signed a deal back in 2012, the partnership has now reportedly been extended for a further five years. Under the extension plan, Ericsson will be responsible for competence development, solution design, deployment and systems integration of the convergent billing solutions, as well as Managed Services. Ericsson’s BSS solution reportedly enables U Mobile to offer a wider range of unique services including real-time promotions and notifications, product and services cross bundling, real-time cost control for post-paid subscriptions, subscriber personalisation, and flexible mobile wallets.
It has been claimed that renewed five-year managed services contract will allow U Mobile to focus its efforts on product development while having clearer visibility and more control over capital and operating expense. To that end, U Mobile’s CEO Wong Heang Tuck said: ‘U Mobile prides ourselves for always being the first in the country to roll out unique plans and services. To successfully do so, apart from having an unlimited commitment to innovate, we need to ensure that we actively reduce time to market in a way that would not affect customer experience. Ericsson’s billing solutions has played a role in enabling our customers to enjoy our new services more quickly and efficiently.’