 "Airtel signs pact with Italian telco to expand capacity in submarine cable")
Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced an international partnership to expand its global network by acquiring additional capacity on a major proposed international submarine cable system connecting India to Italy.
The telecom operator has signed an agreement with Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and a top global operator, for additional capacity on the upcoming Blue-Raman Submarine Cable System.
Sparkle has collaborated with Google and others to build Blue and Raman Submarine Cable Systems: Blue will connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel, while Raman will connect Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India. The additional capacity will provide Airtel’s network a diversified low latency route between Asia and Europe.
“This partnership will further diversify our network with large integrated capacities to meet the ever‐growing connectivity needs and data demand of our customers,” Vani Venkatesh, CEO ‐Global Business, Airtel Business said.
The two companies will also work together on the development of new business opportunities and projects in the Indian sub‐continent, leveraging their respective cable infrastructures.
On Thursday, the company also announced expansion of its home Wi‐Fi service across all the 22 districts of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. This expansion will enable it to cover 1.1 million new households in both the Union Territories.