Pakistan Mobile Communications (Jazz) has selected Ericsson for the optimization and performance management of its 3G and 4G network to enhance cellular experience of its mobile customers.
Ericsson engineers will be delivering optimization and performance management services for approximately 23,500 radio sites. One year ago, Jazz awarded a small portion of its network to Ericsson for optimization. Jazz has now decided to rely on Ericsson with its entire network for an additional three years, starting January 2018. .
Aamir Ibrahim, CEO of Jazz, said: “With our customers at the heart of every decision Jazz make, I am confident that Ericsson shares our commitment to providing the best user experience.”
Jazz, owned by VEON, achieved revenue growth of 4.2 percent in Q4 2017 – fuelled by 27.8 percent growth in mobile data revenue. Jazz customer base increased 4 percent — driven by customer satisfaction due to price simplicity and efficient distribution channel management.
Jazz sees data and voice monetization among its key priorities, underpinned by the ambition to offer the best network in terms of both quality of service and coverage. Jazz’s 3G coverage was available in more than 350 cities while 4G/LTE was offered in over 50 cities.
The Pakistan-based telecom operator said it reported EBITDA margin increased to 45.7 percent (+10.8 percentage points year-on-year), due to strong revenue growth, Opex synergies and benefitting for the positive impact of PKR 1.1 billion from the release of historic SIM tax accruals.
Jazz said Capex excluding licenses decreased to PKR 6.6 billion in Q4 2017 while the LTM Capex excluding licenses to revenue ratio was 15.7 percent in Q4 2017 (12.3 percent excluding integration Capex).
Jazz in Q3 2017 achieved the target annual run-rate of synergies announced alongside the transaction to merge Mobilink with Warid, and it completed the network integration by the end of 2017.