The Swiss telco is working with Huawei on a five-year virtualization, transformation initiative
HONG KONG–Swiss telecommunications operator Sunrise Telecom has been making progress towards the virtualization of its core network within the last six months, the telco’s Head of Commercial Management and Infrastructure Marc Frankenhauser told reporters during the Huawei Operations Transformation Forum 2017 this week.
The Swiss telco, which is working with Huawei on its ICT transformation, said the virtualization process is being implemented through a gradual scheme. “We want to ensure that our network is getting, quite soon, really future-proof,” the executive said.
“The main challenge we are facing in our ICT transformation process is mindset change. Changing technologies is relatively easy, but changing mindset is not an easy task.”
Sunrise Telecom and Huawei signed a strategic partnership in September 2016, which called for the vendor to supply solutions covering information technology infrastructure, communications technology networks, field operations and spare parts management. Once the contract is executed, Huawei will provide an ICT Converged Operation solution to manage IT and CT networks along with process evolution, and resources and tools designed to help the Swiss operator improve operations and progress on its digital transformation goals. “We are about to complete the first year of the IT contract with Huawei and we aim to execute the full contract within the next four years,” Frankenhauser said.
Huawei said its ICT Managed Services solution includes mobile network operations, fixed network operations, network functions virtualization operations, IT operations and enterprise cloud.
Huawei and Sunrise had initially partnered in 2012, to focus on mobile networks, with the extension expected to provide improvements to efficiency and service quality. In 2012, Huawei was selected by Sunrise as its sole managed services partner for its fixed and mobile network.
During the length of this five-year-contract, Huawei was responsible for managing Sunrise’s mobile and fixed network including internet and IPTV. Under the terms of the agreement, Huawei provided a comprehensive range of services, including design and planning, network build and integration network performance management, field operations, network operations, and spare parts management.
