Australian mobile operator VHA – the joint-venture between Vodafone and Hutchison – is to outsource its network operations to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in a seven-year deal expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the European equipment vendor. According to an iTWire report the contract was contested by NSN, Ericsson and Chinese vendor Huawei and is seen as a particular blow for Ericsson, which had been Hutchison’s incumbent supplier prior to last year’s network merger. “We have selected Nokia Siemens Networks as our partner to manage our network services and to deliver an integrated simplified core network,” said VHA chief executive Nigel Dews in a note to staff. He added that the deal was VHA’s “first major network contract” since the company’s formation. The move is aimed at simplifying its core networks, streamlining its overall network management and putting in place new customer-oriented key performance indicators, Dews said.

In a separate press release, NSN said the contract includes service management for a number of key parts of VHA’s mobile network – core, transmission and radio networks – and equipment supply for its core network. The vendor is to provide its Flexi Network Gateway (Flexi NG) packet core platform to boost network capacity to efficiently handle the growing demand for high speed mobile data services from smart devices. As part of the network consolidation, NSN will also expand the mobile softswitch (MSS) and home location register (HLR) – enabling VHA to evolve towards a single database for all its subscriber information. VHA currently markets its products and services under both the Vodafone and 3 brands in Australia. The operator had 6.9 million customers at the end of last year, making it the country’s third-largest mobile firm after Telstra and Optus.