Bharti Airtel EASSy Deal To Boost Broadband in East Africa

Bharti Airtel Ltd in consortium with 15 other global telecom companies,
has invested $ 263 million for laying an undersea communication cable
to boost data connectivity in East Africa.


The 10,000 kilometre cable with a capacity of1.4 tera bits a second, will be the largest submarine cable serving the continent of Africa.

The EASSy fibre optic cable connects Mtunzi in South Africa to Port
Sudan in Sudan with landing points in 9 countries. It will also link
East Africa to the rest of the world.

The submarine cable will help steady and guarantee a continuous all
time connectivity of the East African countries with the rest of the
world.


The arrival of EASSywill boost the roll-out of inter country and national fibre networks.The East African backbone system ring,Mombasa-Nairobi-Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura-Dar es salaam-Mombasa, is under development and it is expected to be complete by 2010.


The EASSy arrival will bring higher bandwidth, lower prices and it
will boost the much needed e-commerce in Africa. In Kenya e-commerce
will be a big boost to the tourism Industry which still uses traditional
methods of hotel reservation.