Kyivstar, Ukraine's leading mobile operator and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY), world's largest supplier of telecommunications, signed a three-year frame contract including equipment and services to expand the operator's GSM/GPRS/EDGE network and Ericsson Mobile Softswitch solution.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will supply core and radio network equipment for Kyivstar high-functionality GSM/GPRS/EDGE network.

Igor Litovchenko, President of Kyivstar GSM, says: "The agreement is an important step in our partnership with Ericsson, which is based on Kyivstar's consistent policy to offer top class communications services to our suscribers."

One of the cornerstones of the new agreement is the delivery of Ericsson Mobile Softswitch solution, which will increase Kyivstar's network capacity, performance and coverage to meet subscriber growth and demand for new services. Ericsson Mobile Softswitch is also the first step in the evolution to an all-IP network.

Björn Hemstad, President of Ericsson Eastern Europe and Central Asia,

says: "We are proud that Kyivstar selected Ericsson for this contract. This is the result of many years of successful cooperation and Ericsson's future-proof solutions for operator's network."

Ericsson softswitch solutions are widely deployed in both fixed and mobile networks. They enable cost optimized network design and efficient IP transport for all services. The distributed softswitch architecture improves investment efficiency through node consolidation and the superior price/performance of modern IP based equipment. Operating Expenses (Opex) are cut due to reduced transmission costs and simplified operations and maintenance and network planning. Business cases around the world have shown core network Opex savings are of up to 50%.