Telecom group Zain to appraise its African operations.

 The Zain group is in the process of reviewing its operations in 16 countries on the African continent. Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that the strategic review follows an expression of interest from several parties to acquire Zain’s African assets. For the first half of 2009 the group saw a 24.1% increase in revenue and Zain’s customer base grew by 37% to 69.5mn customers but the performance of its Africa operations on its own was not enough to convince French Vivendi to continue acquisition talks at a price of USD 10bn. In other telecom news, the first undersea fibre optic cable to reach Africa and run by the Kenyan Seacom group was recently launched. The project, though ran about one month behind its initial deadline, is hoped to cause a lowering of prices for internet access and data transfer because of competition. Seacom has already connected Johannesburg in South Africa, and Kampala in Uganda as well asNairobi in Kenya with the coastal landing stations and is working on connections to Kigaliin Rwanda and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.Meanwhile, Kenya’s Safaricom announced that the company has started offering broadband internet to its customers following the advent of the first fibre-optic cable. News agency Reuters reported that the CEO said some 14 million subscribers have the potential to access fast internet in a region where telecommunications are hampered by lack of infrastructure.Known as SEACOM, the undersea cable links east Africa to South Africa, India, Middle East and Europe, and was launched last week by its owners, a Mauritius-based private equity group. A second cable, The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS), which is fronted by the Kenyan government, is in testing stages and will act as a backup for Safaricom’s customers.