Etisalat and Ericsson Announce Collaboration

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Etisalat have announced a joint committee to leverage synergies of both companies in the MEA region and beyond. Etisalat, the leading operator in the Middle East and Africa, and Ericsson, the world's leading supplier of telecommunications, announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will establish a joint committee to collaborate on common business objectives. The MoU was signed by Mohammad Omran, Chairman of Etisalat and Mr. Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of the Ericsson Group in Ericsson’s Stockholm Head Quarters.

Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, Chief Operating Officer for Etisalat said “Etisalat is known regionally for its reputation as an innovator, and we have introduced many new technologies to the market, particularly in the GCC region. This MoU is part of our ambition to bring these innovations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East so that more of our customers can benefit from these exciting services and products, many of which are not yet available in their country today.”

According to Mr. Bo-Erik Dahlström, President of Ericsson in the Middle East, the committee's task will be to pinpoint areas which will help drive positive business solutions and opportunities for growth for both companies. In that, Ericsson's leading edge in the technology market will consolidate expertise with Etisalat's infrastructural base.

Speaking on the occasion of the collaboration, Mr. Dahlström said, "Ericsson and Etisalat have a long history together built on mutual benefits for both parties. This MOU is part of our ongoing drive to leverage our collective global reach and expertise in a more coordinated way”.

Areas outlined in the MoU include;

Streamlining collaboration on international projects in order to assist Etisalat bring services to new markets faster.
Drive Network Transformation evolving towards an all IP Network in order to retain Etisalat’s technology innovation leadership in the region.
Optimise capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) to ensure that investment in equipment and manpower achieve new efficiencies across the Etisalat Group
Investigate centralized hosted applications and services in order to enable Etisalat to improve consistency, reduce total cost of ownership and still deploy new services faster across the group
Development of customized applications and services to address both the enterprise and consumer segment Specific areas of interest including Hosted Mobile Advertising, Content and Media Aggregation , IPTV and Intelligent Network / IMS end-to-end solution and strategy
 

“This collaboration will drive creativity and expand horizons for both parties at a time when delivering the right service to the right consumers at the right price are ever more critical. We feel very positive about this step,” Dahlström says.

June 20,2009