Embarq Takes a Bold Step with Outsourcing Deal

Embarq, the largest rural service provider in the United States, has given up the management of its network operations center (NOC), along with approximately 265 of its people, to Nokia Siemens Networks as part of a seven-year managed services agreement. The move is a bold one, but perhaps only because it was first.

“If you think we’re the only ones, we’re not. There are a lot of companies in my peer group talking about it,” said Jim Hansen, senior vice president of network services at Embarq, from the show floor at NXTcomm.

This is the first significant managed network operations agreement of its kind for Nokia Siemens Networks in North America. Embarq has approximately 18,000 employees and operates in 18 states. The employees who worked in Embarq NOCs for voice services in New Century, Kan.; Johnson City, Tenn.; Leesburg, Fla.; and Greenville, N.C., will become NSN employees and help support network operations for Embarq’s voice networks.

Hansen stressed that Embarq will continue to manage its data services and that this deal did not include the outsourcing of field techs and other operations personnel. “We have established relationships with customers in our territories and that is thanks to our technicians,” Hansen said. “Many of our DSL sales come from technician referrals and the customer satisfaction on those lines is the highest. It would be hard for an outsourcer to have that kind of local support.”

However, independent of this outsourcing deal, Embarq will be making some changes to its

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