E-marine maintains Eassy

E-marine has signed a maintenance and storage agreement with the East African Submarine System (Eassy), a fibre optic cable that will greatly improve access to high-performance Internet in Africa, reports AME Info.

E-marine will now take responsibility for maintaining an up to 8 600km stretch of the Eassy submarine cable network.

Trevor Martins, chairman of the Eassy management committee, says: "This is a critical cable route upon which millions of people will come to depend, hence we require a partner with the expertise, resources and successful track record to ensure the reliability of the system and to mitigate against any downtime risks.”

France Telecom is eyeing an expansion into Morocco as it considers spending as much as EUR7 billion on African and Middle Eastern acquisitions, states Bloomberg.

France Telecom is building up its African operations as part of a plan to double emerging market revenue in five years and reduce dependence on a slow-growing domestic market.

Entering the Moroccan market would bring France Telecom into direct competition with domestic rival Vivendi, the majority owner of former monopoly Maroc Telecom.

Cellphone giant Bharti Airtel has appointed Andre Beyers as chief marketing officer for its African operations, says The Economic Times.

Bharti recently acquired the mobile services operations of Zain in 15 African countries and is working towards introducing its brand Airtel in these markets.

In his role as the chief marketing officer for Airtel Africa, Beyers will be responsible for developing the marketing and distribution strategy across Africa.