INTELLIGENT CABLING
Airtel and Telecom Egypt
announce partnership for
submarine cable systems
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 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 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
B
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 18
Bharti Airtel and Telecom Egypt have announced
a strategic partnership
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. 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.
“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.”
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