Zain selects Ericsson to transform its Bahrain network

Ericsson and Zain in Bahrain have entered into a partnership to transform the operator's network. The agreement includes the latest LTE technology and prepaid charging including consulting and systems integration services.

Ericsson will replace existing 2G and 3G radio network equipment while adding 4G functionality with the Ericsson RBS 6000 family of base stations. Ericsson will also deploy Evolved Packet Core with triple-access SGSN-MME and Ericsson Evolved Packet Gateway based on Ericsson SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers as well as MINI-LINK PT and SP for IP backhaul.

"Entrusting Ericsson with the transformation of our network will enable us to achieve standards of the desired quality at a predictable cost and will also help us focus more on our customer requirements with direct service offerings," said Mohammed Zainalabedin, CEO Zain Bahrain.

As a part of agreement, Zain will also implement Ericsson's Charging System for prepaid subscribers as phase one of the convergent charging and billing in one solution (CBIO). This business support solution (BSS) will enable Zain to market its services with greater flexibility in pricing with the possibility of cross bundling and packaging multiple services supported by real-time charging. As a part of project, Ericsson is also responsible for systems integration and solution deployment services.

" With our continued partnership, we support Zain in delivering the latest technologies that combine enriched information, communication and entertainment experiences to their customers," said Anders Lindblad, Head of Region Middle East, Ericsson.

Ericsson has delivered more than 150 LTE/Evolve Packet Core networks worldwide of which more than 80 have gone live commercially. These include networks for all of the top ten operators ranked by number of subscribers worldwide in 2012. Ericsson's LTE technology offers end-to-end networks with superior performance when it comes to stability, throughput, and latency - the most important factors for end-users of LTE.