INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
POWERED BY
Airtel and Telecom Egypt
announce partnership for
submarine cable systems
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“With the explosion of data usage in
emerging markets, including India and Africa,
this asset will provide us a scalable and
diverse high capacity highway to serve our
customers. It will provide impetus to India’s
emergence as a major regional Internet hub
serving customers across SAARC region, with
seamless global connectivity.”
Ahmed El Beheiry, Chief Executive Officer
of Telecom Egypt, added: “Telecom Egypt’s
global network was built over the years
through investments in consortiums as
well as private international submarine
cable systems. Our reach and position as
an international hub with tens of Tbps lit
capacity, makes us the partner of choice for
Euro-Asian and Euro-African transit traffic.
Bharti Airtel and
Telecom Egypt
have announced a
strategic partnership
B
harti Airtel, a leading global telecom
services provider, and Telecom Egypt,
the country’s first integrated telecom
operator, have announced a strategic
partnership where Airtel will get IRUs
(Indefeasible Right of Use) on Middle East
North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable)
and TE North Cable Systems.
In addition, Airtel will also take large
capacities on a long-term basis on two
new state-of-the-art cable systems (SMW5
and AAE1). The transactions aim to
be concluded after the fulfilment of all
conditions precedents.
The partnership grants Airtel the right to
use fibre pairs of MENA Cable from Egypt
to India with access to Saudi Arabia and
Oman and other fibre pairs from Egypt
towards Italy. It also extends beyond MENA
Cable, where Airtel will get the right to use a
fibre pair from Egypt to France on TE North
www.intelligentcio.com
along with capacities on SMW5 and AAE1
cable systems.
With this, Airtel will be able to further
diversify its global network to serve the
massive growth in demand for data services,
particularly in emerging markets across
South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,
while also benefiting from the favourable
economics of Telecom Egypt’s existing wide
cable systems network.
Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel
Business said: “The partnership with
Telecom Egypt underlines our commitment
to provide world-class service experience to
our customers.
“The partnership including MENA Cable and
TE’s network will be a good addition to our
global network portfolio and provide us with
a high quality and diversified new route to
Western Europe and the rest of the world.
“Telecom Egypt signed the agreement with
OTMT to acquire MENA Cable with the aim
of capitalising on the growing traffic from
India and Saudi Arabia to Europe and to
obtain a new gateway to Europe through
Italy. We are pleased to be able to sign
the MoU with Airtel as well as to be able to
bundle MENA’s assets with existing assets of
the TE network. We aim to come back to the
market with more details on the MoU and its
financial impact once the deal is closed.”
Egypt’s distinctive geographic location
on the Red and Mediterranean seas has
enabled Telecom Egypt to connect more
than 11 cable systems from the East and
13 from the West linked with the Red-Med
Corridor consisting of seven diversified routes
across Egypt.
Telecom Egypt’s global network was built
over the years through investments in
international submarine cable systems,
namely: TE North, ALETAR, SEA-ME-WE-3,
SEA-ME-WE-4, SEA-ME-WE-5, IMEWE, EIG,
and AAE-1.” n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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