Bharti and 15 others launch submarine cable system in Africa
August 5th, 2010 - 6:36 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) India’s Bharti Airtel and 15 other global telecom companies together launched a 10,000 km submarine cable system Thursday to connect east Africa with the rest of the world.
The EASSy cable system possess a capacity of 1.4 terabites per second, which makes it the largest submarine cable system serving the African continent.
It is also the first east coast system to connect a direct route to Europe thereby delivering data traffic faster to key Internet peering points in Europe and North America, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
Bharti Airtel acquired the African telecom assets of Kuwait’s Zain recently.
The cable system will help spread broadband connectivity to all parts of Africa, a prerequisite for the successful production of e-commerce, Internet and other broadband applications for the continent.
“The commencement of EASSy cable system is a step to create a robust undersea cable infrastructure for our customers,” said Ajay Chitkara, chief executive officer, global data business, Bharti Airtel.
The companies have invested over $263 million in this project.
The consortium along with Bharti Airtel includes players such as British Telecom, Etisalat, Saudi Telecom, MTN International Group and Telkom South Africa.
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- Tata Communications, Oman's Nawras launch undersea cable network - Nov 15, 2011
- Sify Technologies to provide submarine cable landing station - May 23, 2010
- Bharti Airtel signs network expansion deal with Huawei - Jun 01, 2011
- Europe-India Gateway telecom system on verge of operation - Feb 23, 2011
- Bharti promises more than just telecom services to Tanzania - Jul 22, 2010
- Bharti ties up $8.3 bn deal with Kuwait's Zain Telecom - Mar 21, 2010
- IBM to manage Bharti Airtel's IT operations in Africa - Sep 17, 2010
- Zain confirms nod to Bharti's offer for African telecom assets - Mar 25, 2010
- Kuwait's Zain accepts Bharti's offer for African assets - Mar 24, 2010
- Bharti starts 40-day talks to acquire Kuwait's Zain - Feb 15, 2010
- Kuwait's Zain approves Bharti's bid to connect with Africa (Lead) - Mar 25, 2010
- Airtel launches data services in Thailand and Malaysia - Aug 31, 2010
Tags: african continent, african telecom, bharti airtel, british telecom, broadband applications, cable infrastructure, chief executive officer, commerce internet, data traffic, east africa, etisalat, global data, global telecom, international group, mtn, saudi telecom, submarine cable system, telecom companies, telkom south africa, undersea cable