Sweden’s Ericsson has won another managed services contract, this time with Telefonica’s O2 UK, the country’s largest mobile operator. Under the new agreement, Ericsson will provide field maintenance services for radio and switch sites, spare parts management logistics support as well as optimisation and drive services and facilities engineering services for both O2 UK’s 2G and 3G networks. Ericsson has a global relationship with Telefonica in multiple countries, but it noted in a press release that the new agreement marks the first time that Ericsson will undertake day-to-day operations for Telefonica’s UK subsidiary. Ericsson and O2 UK already have a multi-year relationship in place for the supply of mobile core network technology.

“Although Ericsson and Telefonica O2 UK have enjoyed a long relationship this agreement has significantly strengthened it, bringing us much closer,” said Mats Granryd, managing director at Ericsson UK. The deal comes a week after Ericsson secured a landmark managed services deal with Sprint Nextel in the US. The seven-year deal is worth between US$4.5 billion to US$5 billion.