Bharti Airtel arm ties up with global operator Sparkle

NEW DELHI New Delhi: Airtel Business, the B2B arm of telecom major Bharti Airtel, has tied up with Italy-based global operator Sparkle to enhance connectivity between Asia and Europe. Under the partnership, Airtel will take capacity from Sparkle on the Blue-Raman submarine cable system, which will connect India with Italy. Under Sparkle’s Blue-Raman cable system, Blue is deployed in Italy, France, Greece and Israel, while Raman connects Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India. “With this additional capacity, Airtel will further diversify its global network across multiple international submarine cable systems to meet the growing demand for data services in India and neighbouring countries,” a company statement said.

The partnership will also work on developing new business opportunities and projects in the Indian subcontinent, leveraging Airtel and Sparkle’s respective cable infrastructure, the statement said. Vani Venkatesh, CEO, Airtel Business Global Business, said that this partnership will diversify Airtel’s network with great integrated capabilities, meeting the connectivity needs and data demands of customers. Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle, said, “We are very pleased with this agreement based on the new solution provided by Blue and Raman, which supports the digital evolution of the region and strengthens our historic partnership with Bharti Airtel.”