Kenya's Safaricom Awards Upgrade Contract to Ericsson

Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile operator, has awarded a multi-year contract to Ericssion to support the upgrade and expansion of its converged mobile network infrastructure. Ericsson will deploy Wi-Fi for the first time on the Safaricom network as well as expand and enhance its MINI-LINK microwave transmission network.

The upgrade includes the Ericsson SSR 8000 family, which will provide Safaricom with a highly scalable, consolidated platform for both fixed and mobile services for IP/MPLS routing. Ericsson's microwave transmission includes MINI-LINK TN, LH and PT, which support capacity growth and the use of new frequency bands such as V and E bands. It transports voice and data traffic from the radio access to the core network, enhancing the capacity of the mobile transmission network to cope with increased traffic in the radio network. The Wi-Fi solution, comprised of Ericsson Wi-Fi Access Points and Ericsson Wi-Fi Manager (Ericsson's Wi-Fi Network Management software solution), will complement the data services provided by the existing 3G network and ease the load on the 3G resources through traffic offload to Wi-Fi in selected areas. In addition, the Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) based on SSR 8010 is deployed by the service provider as the first aggregation point in the Carrier Grade Wi-Fi network.

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