Romtelecom Cosmote shifts 730 Romanian staff to Ericsson under new managed services contract

Telecom services and equipment supplier Ericsson has recently signed an externalization contract with Romtelecom Cosmote group. Ericsson has agreed to take 730 people from the Romtelecom Cosmote group Passive Network Maintenance, Fixed and Mobile Network Monitoring & Operations business units, for seven years. The staff that will shift to Ericsson manage the fixed and mobile networks for the group. The staff transfer will take place this week. “This partner was selected following a tender to which important players on the local and international telecom market were considered. Starting the next period, around 730 employees within the Romtelecom and Cosmote upper-mentioned teams will join Ericsson’s Global Services organization,” according to Romtelecom Cosmote. The new employer has to keep the existing work contracts in place as they are for a year. Ericsson will take responsibility for network operations and maintenance of wireline and wireless access, transmission, core and IP domains, as well as network operations for operations support systems, for Romtelecom and Cosmote Romania. “The Managed Services concept represents a business model aimed at improving focus on core activities while obtaining increased cost efficiency. Our continuous endeavor to operate better, faster and more efficient, while offering customer excellence, determined us to go with this option”, stated Nikolai Beckers, Chief Executive Officer Romtelecom & Cosmote Romania (pictured, left, together with Jean-Claude Geha, Vice President and Head of Managed Services at Ericsson) The two companies have not mentioned the value of the externalization contract. The recent deal pushes Ericsson’s number of employees in Romania to 2,500. Ericsson has one of its four global service centers in Romania. The three other such centers are in China, India and Mexico. editor@romania-insider.com