Home|Etisalat UAE – Network planning and optimization managed service

Etisalat UAE – Network planning and optimization managed service

Customer

Etisalat is the largest operator in the UAE, with over 11 million subscribers on its 2G, 3G and 4G network.

Challenge

Etisalat had contracted with 4 equipment vendors, each providing a managed service for a different region of their network, but not always overseeing their own equipment. Etisalat experienced a number of issues with this approach:

  • Cross vendor co-operation difficulties.
  • Vendors subcontracting to small, local suppliers, with no global or multi-vendor experience.
  • Each vendor brought many tools and different ways of working, making it difficult to achieve standardized measurements, reporting and benchmarking on a network level.

Etisalat was looking for the following from a new partner:

  • One partner to simplify contract management, tools environment and KPI assurance, on a network-wide level.
  • An independent supplier without any equipment vendor bias or interest in expanding network infrastructure, and global experience working in a multi-vendor environment.
  • A provider with a complete suite of market-leading planning and optimization tools and expert knowledge, to offer a more tailored approach to managed services.

TEOCO’s Solution

TEOCO won this contract based on our network equipment vendor independence, technical capabilities to cover the entire scope, multi-vendor product suite, the quality of the work demonstrated to Etisalat in the past, excellent service references and a cost-effective solutions approach.

TEOCO deployed state of the art tools and solutions operated by a team of over 90 RF consultants and field test agents, designated to perform countrywide radio design, optimization, network performance and customer experience management focused on improving KPIs and KQIs as per contractual obligations. The scope of the project included performance and feature optimization, customer complaint handling, VIP and event monitoring, competitor benchmarking, new device testing, spectrum refarming and many other activities.

Value Generated

TEOCO successfully delivered managed services for the 5-year contract. At the end of the term, Etisalat decided to bring operations back in-house, which was in-line with their revised company strategy.

During the project term TEOCO met all 2G, 3G and 4G SLAs. 3G KPIs were significantly improved and 4G KPIs were dramatically improved. While TEOCO was operating the network, Etisalat moved from being second in their market, to become the clear leader based on annual independent UAE network benchmarks. Other successes during the project included trialing and activating 16 LTE features, deploying and tuning VoLTE countrywide, and successfully completing an LTE-Advanced trial.