OREANDA-NEWS. Russian mobile operator MegaFon (LSE: MFON) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announce the signing of a strategic partnership agreement to jointly develop telecommunications infrastructure in the next seven years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will supply equipment and software for MegaFon's 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE radio and core networks for their development and modernization. The agreement includes the possibility of substituting Ericsson equipment for other vendors' equipment in any region in Russia.

The first stage of this cooperation will involve an upgrade of MegaFon's core network in the North-Western region.

In the highly competitive telecommunications market, high quality customer service is a key factor in maintaining technological leadership. The agreement between Ericsson and MegaFon will deliver a full range of solutions and services that will allow MegaFon to rapidly introduce new products and provide the highest level of service through increased network capacity and extended coverage.

Evgeny Chermashentsev, MegaFon's Deputy CEO for Infrastructure stated, “With this agreement we are opening a new page in the relations between the two companies. The choice of such a reliable and trustworthy partner as Ericsson will allow us to offer our customers up-to-date technological solutions. I would like to express my gratitude to the Ericsson team for the incredible work that they have done on the project and their customer-oriented approach”. Charlotta Sund, Head of Northern Europe and Central Asia at Ericsson stated: “The agreement with MegaFon reflects a new level of our cooperation. Our portfolio and global market knowledge allows us to be confident that we can solve problems of any complexity and scale in the shortest possible time and with maximum efficiency. Like MegaFon, Ericsson attaches great importance to improving the availability of high-quality mobile services and will support the operator in development of its telecommunications infrastructure”.