Airtel announces strategic partnership with Telecom Egypt

Bharti Airtel has announced its strategic partnership with Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator. Through this partnership, Airtel will get IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) on the Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA cable) and TE North Cable Systems. Additionally, it will also take large capacities on two new state-of-the-art cable systems (SMW5 and AAE1) on a long-term basis.

Airtel would be granted the right to use fiber pairs of MENA cable from Egypt to India with access to Saudi Arabia and Oman and other fiber pairs from Egypt towards Italy. This will give Airtel an opportunity to diversify its global network and cater to the massive demand for data services in markets of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Egypt’s distinctive geographic location on the Red and the Mediterranean Sea 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 7 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.

On Friday the stock of Bharti Airtel had closed at Rs. 374.70 per share on BSE. On Monday, it was up by 3.5 percent and made intra-day high of Rs. 387.65 in the morning trading session.