Telecom Egypt To Provide Internet Services For Cairo Festival City Project

State-owned Telecom Egypt has reached an agreement to supply UAE-based Al-Futtaim’s Real Estate Group with telecommunication services for its Cairo Festival City project.

“Telecom Egypt seeks to meet its clients’ needs in high-tech services at competitive prices,” said Mohamed El Nawawy, Telecom Egypt’s MD/CEO.

The project involves 300 retail shops, elegant administrative offices and a residential community comprising a large number of apartments and villas, worldwide hotels and international schools, all within a natural environment, Daily News Egypt reported.

The Egyptian company will provide services such as virtual private network (VPN), Dedicated Internet, data transfer and triple play, using advanced fibre optic technology that guarantees high quality voice output and provides users with access to fast internet, with speed reaching 10G per sec.

According to the MD, the agreement will propel the company towards achieving its vision of becoming the industry’s frontrunner by sponsoring key projects across the country’s telecom business sphere.

Its quest for market dominance was given a further boost today, after regulators disclosed plans to grant fixed-line and mobile operating licence in the coming weeks, which will allow Telecom Egypt provide mobile services to customers.

A detailed scan of the regional market was carried out to determine the most suited company to deliver quality services, The MD of Al-Futtaim’s Real Estate Development, Dr Mohamed Al-Mekawy noted.

“[The agreement was based] on a careful market study to determine the largest and most efficient service providers, not only in Egypt, but on a regional level,

source:www.ventures-africa.com

safaricom buys yu stake in fibre firm to launch 4g grid

Safaricom has acquired the full shareholding of rivalEssar in the undersea fibre optic The East Africa Marine system (TEAMs) for an undisclosed fee.

The Nairobi bourse-listed telecom confirmed it acquired the 10 per cent from Yu mobile to offer faster and more efficient Internet data services as well support the upgrade of its network to 4G.

The deal has pushed Safaricom's ownership of undersea fibre optic network to 32.5 per cent, a share that guarantees the operator additional capacity in Teams, which is offered based on shareholding.

Other shareholders are the Kenya government (20 per cent), Telkom Kenya (20 per cent), Kenya Data Networks (10 per cent) and Jamii Telecom (6.25 per cent).

Essar, which has been looking for a strategic investor to inject cash and stave off a liquidity crisis, says it used proceeds from the deal to sustain operations.

"The stake was sold to Safaricom in September at undisclosed figure. The finances from this sale went towards yuMobile's operations," said Madhur Taneja, the Essar Kenya CEO.

"It was an investment made by Essar, which was not being used for operations. This bandwidth had always been idle since we acquired it five years ago."

Teams, which began operations in 2008, offered bandwidth to telecom firms that feed their fibre optic cables that have been laid on land.

Yu, unlike Safaricom, is yet to lay down its own terrestrial fibre-optic cable, prompting the equity sale in Teams.

Safaricom said Friday it was the only shareholder in Teams that showed interest in snapping the Essar share.

"The additional shareholding in Teams entitles Safaricom to have increased capacity on the 1.28 TB/s international cable," said Safaricom.

"It is an integral part of our data strategy to have sufficient international capacity to feed the demands of our growing customer base and to support our terrestrial fibre strategy and LTE (4G network) plans. 

The firm said earlier it was going to spend about Sh8 billion over the next four years to lay down 2,300km of inland fibre-optic cable and support a rising customer base.

source: www. hispanicbussiness.com

bharti, reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,”
source: www. bussiness-standard.com

bharti, Reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,” the joint statement said.

source: www.bussiness-standard.com

liquid Telecom scoops Best African Wholescale carrier award

Liquid Telecom has been named the Best African Wholesale Carrier for the second time at the Global Carrier Awards.

It is the second year in succession Liquid Telecom has won the gong, beating off strong competition from WIOCC, Orange and PCCW Global.

According to the panel of judges: “Liquid Telecom has again shown great promise and ambitious plans for development in Africa. It has aggressively targeted expansion of its fibre footprint in the continent and is attempting to access a range of countries where infrastructure maintenance remains the most challenging in the world.”

The judges said Liquid Telecom’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy was a significant highlight to the company being recognised, with the firm having acquired four companies in 2013.

They also said the company commitment to serving the region’s communications sector was a key highlight, where Liquid Telecom has been diverting traffic as a result of multiple cuts to undersea cables to enable redundancy on a number of routes from Africa to Europe.

Nic Rudnick, Liquid Telecom’s chief executive officer (CEO), said: “At Liquid Telecom we celebrate the people who make it happen. This award is a real team effort and recognises our company’s drive and ambition to provide internet connectivity across the whole of Africa”.

It is the second week in a row Liquid Telecom has been recognised after it bagged Best Connectivity Solution in Africa at last week’s AfricaCom 2013, in Cape Town, for building the longest fibre links in Africa.

Organised by Capacity Magazine and now in its eighth year, the Global Carrier Awards have become the biggest and most prestigious awards event of the wholesale telecoms calendar.

HumanIPO reported  last week Liquid Telecom had built the first fibre optic cable into Somalia, connecting the country to undersea cables by fibre for the first time.

source: www.humanipo.com

liquid telecom builds somalia's first cross- border fiber link

Wholesale African fibre optic supplier Liquid Telecom has built the first fibre optic link into Somalia, the company announced at AfricaCom in Cape Town.

The network connects the country to neighbouring countries, the rest of the world and even undersea cables by fibre for the first time in the country.

Specifically, the fibre link connects across the Kenya-Somalia border and then directly to the fibre network of Hormuud Telecom Somalia (Hortel) for local termination.

Hortel is a private telecommunications firm in Somailia that has over two million subscribers. The company offers a variety of telecommunication services such as GSM voice and text services, 3G, fixed line and data services.

Meanwhile, Hortel’s fibre network is planned to provide Liquid Telecom’s customers with robust connectivity in southern and central Somalia.

These customers, in turn, include the likes of fixed and mobile operators, wholesale carriers and enterprises.

“We will be providing the people of Somalia with access to the global internet at higher speeds and with more capacity available than ever before,” said Nic Rudnick, chief executive officer of the Liquid Telecom Group.

Hormuud Telecom chairman and chief executive officer, Ahmed Yuusuf, said, "The connection of the HORTEL network to Liquid Telecom's international fibre network is a landmark for Somalia and will provide our customers with the fastest and most cost effective communications speeds available. This is a significant accomplishment for both companies.”

Liquid Telecom’s pan-African fibre network spans more than 17,000 km across Botswana, DRC, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It also provides connectivity into the five main subsea cable systems landing in Africa: the West African Cable System (WACS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (Eassy), SEACOM, SAT3 and the East African Marine System (TEAMs).

source : www.allafrica.com