MTN, a leading telecommunications company with a presence in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has announced the extension of its managed services agreement with Ericsson.

This announcement marks the extension of the first managed services contract between Ericsson and MTN, originally signed in 2009 in connection to the rollout of MTN's 3G network in Ghana. Under the extension, Ericsson is responsible for network operations, field maintenance and optimization.

Jon Hoffmann, Chief Technical officer, MTN Ghana said, "Our first two years together achieved the results we were hoping for: we could focus on subscriber growth, and Ericsson delivered network reliability and efficiencies."