Mobile network Vodafone Egypt has signed a three-year managed services agreement with Ericsson to boost its connectivity and network quality coverage in Cairo.

Vodafone Egypt has more than 36 million subscribers in the North African country.

The deal comes after Ericsson signed a service agreement with MTN Nigeria in February to take over the Nigerian telco’s day-to-day operations of 75% of its network.

“The agreement is the first of its kind for Vodafone Egypt, which has chosen to outsource its network field services, and enhance the quality of its network in an effort to bring the latest services to Vodafone subscribers,” says Ericsson in a statement.

The statement from Ericsson further says that the partnership forms part of a plan to support Egypt’s ‘National ICT Strategy’.

Egypt’s ministry of communications and information technology (ICT) launched the strategy last year to boost ICT capabilities of the country by 2017.

Part of this plan, for example, includes building technology infrastructure so that 75% of Egyptian households access to internet at a speed of 2Mbps by 2015.

Rafiah Ibrahim, head of Ericsson region Middle East, also said in a statement that his company “has signed more than 300 managed services contracts in more than 100 countries.”