(Telecompaper) Airtel announced the launch of its Africa Connect network, aimed at enhancing Africa's connectivity with the rest of the world and adding to the data carriage capacity on the continent. Africa Connect is an integrated fibre and satellite network with 42 Points of Presence (PoP) across 17 African countries. The network will offer a variety of transmission and IP services, including submarine capacity, global leased circuits, Ethernet and backhaul, global and regional IP transit, managed internet, bandwidth on demand and a suite of satellite and managed services for enterprises and carriers in the region. The network connects to international cables including Seacom, Eassy, Teams, WACS, Globalcom1, SEAMEWE4, IMEWE and EIG in East, West and North Africa. This allows enterprise and carriers customers' seamless connectivity to the key global business hubs via multiple routes. Apart from the fully integrated managed services, the 42 PoPs will offer customized MPLS infrastructure to enterprise customers across the 17 countries in which Airtel already operates. The new network's reach is enhanced using multiple Network to Network Interconnects (NNIs) with more than 25 local network partners. The entire network interconnects with Bharti Airtel's landing station in Mumbai, allowing access to the company's terrestrial express connectivity into the SAARC countries and infrastructure across the Pacific to the US.