Bharti Airtel ties up with Liquid Telecom in Africa

Bharti Airtel announced on Wednesday it has tied up with Liquid Telecom in Africa to share the latter's terrestrial fibre network to connect its mobile base stations and enterprises in the continent for better 3G and 4G networks.

The framework agreement enables Airtel operations to leverage Liquid Telecom's existing 20,000km-long fibre network across east, central and southern Africa, as well as enjoy new purpose-built fibre infrastructure, to connect Airtel's mobile base stations and enterprise customers with fibre, a statement said.

"Mobile operators are relying on Internet access and data services to grow their revenues. Mobile network operators (MNO), and in particular Airtel, have managed to attract a large number of customers on their 3G and 4G networks and now need to strengthen their backhaul to deliver a super-fast Internet access service," said Liquid Telecom's group CEO Nic Rudnick.

"The agreement is a milestone to providing fast broadband services to customers in a cost effective way. Airtel has invested significantly in mobile broadband technology across its African footprint and this agreement will deliver end to end fibre connectivity to our 3G and 4G base stations," said Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria.