Ericsson says it has signed a strategic IT transformation deal with Bangladesh telco Grameenphone to upgrade its backend with what the vendor says is one of the largest catalog-driven charging and mediation deployments in the world, with added AI.
Under the new six-year agreement signed on Thursday, Grameenphone will expand its existing OSS/BSS footprint by introducing Ericsson Order Care including CPQ (configure-price-quote) capabilities and Ericsson Catalog Manager from the Core Commerce portfolio.
According to Ericsson, these additions will enhance Grameenphone’s ability to manage its product and service catalog (including third party components), modernize its service delivery to create a more efficient and scalable system, and introduce new innovative offerings quickly with an effective and simple user experience.
The deal also includes an AI element, with Ericsson expanding the scope of its IT Managed Services to support the OSS/BSS with automated business service management, which includes AI applications in the BSS domain such as intelligent usage analysis of charging and anomaly detection.
Ericsson says these AI-powered apps will help prevent revenue losses, improve service availability and enhance the customer experience. They also enable Grameenphone to innovate with business models, create personalized offers for customers and develop 5G packages once the telco is ready to launch 5G services.
“With a leading OSS/BSS technology stack powered by AI at its core and backed by Ericsson Managed Services, we are well positioned to deliver significant value to Grameenphone and its customers over the next six years,” said David Hägerbro, head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a statement.
Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman said the solutions “will significantly enhance Grameenphone’s ability to streamline operations, accelerate digital transformation, and deliver world-class services to millions of customers.”
This latest backend agreement comes three months after Grameenphone finished deploying Ericsson’s mediation solution that leverages big data analytics to provide insights into how Grameenphone’s network is being used.
It also follows an MoU signed by Ericsson and Grameenphone in November 2024 to establish a collaboration framework focused on developing and deploying AI and automation solutions via technology trials, workshops and pilot projects.
