CenturyLink, Ericsson Join Forces to Provide Advanced OSS and BSS Solutions

CenturyLink and Ericsson (News - Alert) have announced an agreement to deliver an advanced OSS/BSS solution for CenturyLink’s enterprise customers. Following the development, CenturyLink will use Ericsson’s Service Innovation Framework enabling its enterprise customers to gain increased control over their service offering while significantly reducing the time taken for end to end service delivery.

This collaborative solution is expected to go-live by end of 2014 and will continue to be rolled-out throughout 2015 enabling CenturyLink to eliminate complexities associated with its enterprise business processes to deliver Internet, Global Ethernet, Optical Wavelength and Virtual Private Network services over a single platform.

James Feger, vice president of Network Strategy and Development at CenturyLink said, “Ericsson's Service Agility will help support our goals to simplify our business and better serve our customers by enabling faster product delivery, enhancing service capabilities and providing back office support for the software-defined network and virtualized environment we are creating. We recognize the value of Ericsson's thought leadership and innovation and are excited that our collaboration on this new OSS/BSS solution will provide our customers with an enhanced service experience.”

The joint effort will enable CenturyLink to quickly implement an open Application Program Interface (API) structure for delivering new business models with shortest time to market such service models. Ericsson will also implement its OSS/BSS and Service Enablement portfolio empowering CenturyLink with a unified comprehensive framework to support new products such as M2M and digital services. The solution will also empower CenturyLink and other customers of Ericsson to make a smooth transition to consolidated systems by moving away from independent conventional systems.

Speaking of the partnership with CenturyLink, Per Borgklint, senior vice president and head of Business Unit Support Solutions at Ericsson said, “CenturyLink is leveraging these next-generation advancements with the full integration of the former Telcordia (News - Alert) and ConceptWave products into the Ericsson portfolio. With Service Agility, CenturyLink will be in the next wave of solution owners delivering the best customer experience in the enterprise space.”

CenturyLink Inc., is recognized as one of the top three telecommunications companies in the U.S. offering voice, data and managed IT services through its robust fiber optic network and strategic data centers.  Additional business interests of the company include next generation entertainment services offered under the brand names of CenturyLink PrismTV and DIRECTV. CenturyLink figures prominently in the S&P 500 and in the Fortune 500 list of large American enterprises.