Ericsson today confirmed the availability of managed services for IT solutions, explaining that as telecommunication operators’ IT environments play a central role in ensuring a quality subscriber experience, and significant capital investments are required for these environments to function seamlessly, Ericsson has launched its IT managed services offering. The new offering enables operators to improve processes such as customer relationship management, services management and billing, which all translate into an enhanced subscriber experience. IT managed services will also create shareholder value by lowering the operating expenditure and the capital expenditure, which improves the return on capital investment.

“We have pioneered with IT managed services in the past, but this milestone represents our statement that we have all the elements in place to offer a full and comprehensive solution,” said Staffan Akesson, VP and head of managed services, Ericsson, Region Middle East.

In February 2011, Ericsson announced that UAE telco Du had signed a five-year IT management contract with it. As part of the managed services agreement, Ericsson agreed to augment Du’s IT applications and deliver development and maintenance for the UAE telco’s IT applications.

IHS, a telecommunications infrastructure provider, with headquarters in Nigeria and operations across Africa, has invested US$8 million to upgrade its network operations centre (NOC) in Lagos. The upgrade allows IHS to offer state-of-the-art infrastructure management and professional services and site monitoring systems to mobile network operators in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and other neighbouring countries in West Africa.

“With the eventual evolution of 4G in Africa and the surge in mobile traffic, operators will be looking to differentiate their services by offering the best customer experience. Tower management will play an important behind the scenes role in this and our investment in NOC underscores that IHS is well positioned for the imminent arrival of 4G,” Issam Darwish, CEO, IHS said.

The NOC will provide a range of comprehensive professional tower management services to network operators while leveraging cost and value synergies. These services include a holistic approach to tower utilisation with the aim of turning every base station and tower into its own profit and loss centre; green power management; preventative and corrective maintenance of all devices and procedures on site; minimising site down time closer to zero; and a new approach to customer service management. The NOC will enable IHS to operate its proprietary and customer infrastructure more efficiently, enhancing its regional service delivery and competitiveness.

Bharti Airtel’s African arm is reported to have bought the tower network infrastructure owned by Rwanda’s bankrupt Rwandatel.

Bharti Airtel paid US$15.5 million for the towers, according to local media reports, and will use them to boost its own network which is being built after it was awarded a licence last September. At the time, the company said that it planned to invest over US$100 million in the country over the next three years.

Rwandatel is having its assets sold after the company was put into liquidation by the courts last year. Before that, the regulator had cancelled its mobile operating licence for allegedly failing to meet its conditions.

The telecom company was partially owned by Libyan investment group – Lap Green – with an 80 per cent stake and the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) which owned the remaining 20 per cent.

Nokia’s 14-year stint as the world’s largest handset-maker looks to have come to an end in Q1, according to a Reuters poll of analysts, which suggests the Finnish vendor has been overtaken by Samsung.

Based on average estimates, the poll shows that Samsung is expected to have sold 88 million devices in the period, compared to 83 million for Nokia.

Samsung is not due to release its official Q1 numbers until April 27, but Nokia revealed its shrinking sales figures in a profits warning.

According to Reuters, Nokia became the world’s largest handset maker in 1998 when it overtook Motorola – at a time when Samsung had just entered the industry. The Finnish vendor maintained a 40 per cent share of the market for some years prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, which ushered in the smartphone era. Nokia was still the smartphone leader at the beginning of 2011 but has since been surpassed by both Apple and Samsung.

Nokia said this week that it expects to ship 71 million regular phones and 12 million smart devices in Q1, compared with 84.3 million and 24.2 million, respectively, a year earlier.

Some analysts believe that losing the top spot would be a blow to Nokia, but would have little impact on its attempt to turn around its fortunes.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has ordered operators Etisalat DB and S Tel to reactivate their mobile services within three days, after they shut down their networks in response to a Supreme Court decision to cancel 122 2G licences, reports Business Line.

The regulator said that these firms illegally shut down their networks as they should have continued to deliver the services until the Indian government actually cancels the licences on June 2.

In response operators said the order from the TRAI is illegal as they were already complying with the Supreme Court’s order to cancel 2G licences after they were issued under controversial circumstances in 2008.

The regulator also said the operators failed to give the necessary 60 days’ notice to customers before terminating services.

Several other operators, such as Loop Telecom, have announced they will stop offering their services in India and the TRAI said it would issue similar orders to those companies.