PCCW Global and Telecom Malagasy (Telma), the No. 1 national telecommunications operator in Madagascar, have signed the first international wholesale MPLS interconnection agreement for the island. Telma is Madagascar’s telecommunications provider in fixed, mobile, Internet, capacity (through the EASSY submarine cable and the 6,000km+ national fiber optic backbone) and mobile money.
This will result in Telma’s Ethernet and IP VPN coverage being extended across PCCW Global’s MPLS network, which reaches 3,000 cities in more than 130 countries, plus connectivity to and from Madagascar via major submarine cable systems including EASSY.
In addition, the agreement will give PCCW Global greater local access to Madagascar cities, including Antananarivo, the capital city, and to the other major hubs.
Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island and is located in the Indian Ocean of the Southeast coast of Africa. Importantly, this new interconnect agreement will boost business development in Africa.
“This collaboration is an important milestone in the development of our international business, especially international data services,” said Patrick Pisal-Hamida, Telma’s CEO. “It will extend the coverage area of our services beyond Madagascar to the rest of the world and vice versa.”
Mr. James Welch, PCCW Global’s vice president and head of sales of EMEA, added, “This agreement is a critical element of our wider pan-African development. Interconnecting with Telma ensures that we can provide extensive connectivity to Madagascar and the rest of Africa at competitive cost and with faster provisioning times too. The positive collaborative working relationship between Telma and PCCW Global can be highly beneficial to customers, as it ensures that the service levels we provide to our customers connecting with Madagascar and other African markets are appropriately maintained and consistently enhanced.”
