International network and infrastructure provider Alcatel-Lucent seems to be consolidating its African presence.
The company yesterday announced it will provide Allied Technologies' Kenya operations, Kenya Data Networks (KDN), with an Internet provision solution that will target SMEs.
Kenya has embraced the landing of the undersea cable, Seacom, which has spurred the country's growth in Internet access.
Since the cable landed in the country last year, it has seen bandwidth supply grow by 700%. Hundreds of companies took to cheaper Internet prices, and the country has seen a boom in infrastructure investment.
Alcatel is the latest in the barrage of investors in the country, with its partnership with KDN. The company will provide its extended communication server to KDN, which will target the country's small businesses.
The technology provides a unified communication service, through Web access. It also offers mobile push, which sends mail, calendar updates, contacts and tasks to mobile devices.
While Alcatel-Lucent already has a relationship with the East African company, the new deal only consolidates the company's drive to invest more extensively in the African market.
“This new contract further strengthens our long-standing cooperation with KDN and highlights their confidence in our comprehensive solutions and local support capabilities,” says Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Africa and the Middle East.
This is Alcatel-Lucent's third large African deal since the beginning of the year. The company signed a deal earlier this year with Mauritius Telecom, to deploy an interactive mobile multimedia service in the country.
The deal saw the African island provide 20 live channels, eight near-live channels and eight playlists to its citizens. The Mauritian business is a new customer for Alcatel in Africa.
In January, Alcatel-Lucent also signed a deal with Togo Cellulaire, amounting to 22 million euro. The deal has the company provide Cellulaire increased GSM network capacity and Togo's first 3G wireless broadband network.
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