To better serve both operators and end users across the continent, Ericsson is building a new network operations center in Lagos, Nigeria, while expanding the capabilities of its existing facility in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Expected to be operational by the third quarter of the year, the capabilities provided by the network operations centers will include engineering, operations and customer experience management.

The facilities in Nigeria and Ivory Coast, according to Fredrik Jejdling, Head of Region Sub-Saharan Africa at Ericsson in a press conference recently would help Ericsson’s customers in Africa make the transition from managing network performance to managing the quality of end-user services such as voice, web browsing and video streaming. Capabilities provided by the network operations centers, he added will include engineering, operations and customer experience management

Lagos and Abidjan, he said were selected as the sites for the network operations centers due to the availability of talent, infrastructure and connectivity, and will act as hubs used to manage networks across the rest of Africa.

“As the country in Africa with both the largest population and the largest economy, Nigeria was the logical choice as the host country for our newest network operations center. Together with the expanded facility in Ivory Coast, this center will allow us to continue a proud tradition of more than 100 years working with our customers in Africa.”, he said. He disclosed that the network operations centers will help operators keep pace with rapid socio-economic and technological changes in Sub-Saharan Africa , a region that had 635 million subscriptions in 2014 and is expected to have 930 million subscriptions by the end of 2019.

Ericsson is the global leader in telecommunications managed services, managing networks for multiple operators worldwide via a combination of global and local network operations centers.

Meanwhile, Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile telephony markets, contributing 23 million of the 105 million new mobile subscriptions measured globally by Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) in Q4 2014 and reported in the February 2015 Ericsson Mobility Report.