SAT-3 cable repaired

The damaged West Africa's South Atlantic West Africa (SAT-3) cable system has been repaired, with Internet connectivity and mobile telecommunication now working normally, reports Computer World.

The cable, which runs under the Indian Ocean to SA, the west coast of Africa and to Europe, was disrupted, disturbing the West Africa data-transmission market while mobile phone subscribers found it hard to make international calls.

The damage was discovered 25kms off the coast of Benin on a branch of the SAT-3 cable. Services were also disrupted in Togo, Benin and Niger and knocked out over 70% of Nigeria's bandwidth.

MTN Zambia chief sales and distribution officer, Collin Muyanja, said the company will continue its expansion projects since Zambia's mobile telecommunication subsector has the potential for growth, states The Post.

Announcing the company's attainment of one million subscribers, Muyanja said MTN Zambia was on the road to becoming the country's most preferred network.

He said the Zambian mobile telecommunications market was dynamic with many opportunities for growth. Muyanja added that the company would continue holding consultative forums with distributors and dealers across the country to strengthen the company's position on the Zambian market.

Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel is close to becoming a part of one of the largest mobile operator groups worldwide if it manages to complete its planned merger with South African group MTN, says Zawya.

If the deal does go through, it will be Bharti Airtel's first major push out of the south Asian region, and will bring to a temporary end, at least, the latest cycle of acquisitions of African mobile telecoms assets by Middle East-based investors.

According to figures taken from Informa Telecoms and Media's World Cellular Investors report, a merged MTN-Bharti Airtel entity would have had over 167.5 million proportionate subscriptions in March this year. This would have meant that the company was the third largest mobile operating group in the world, only behind China Mobile and Vodafone.