(Updates with company comment in second paragraph.)

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- AccessKenya Group Ltd., the East African nation’s only publicly traded Internet company, will provide Airtel Kenya, the local unit of Delhi-based Bharti Airtel Ltd., with a fiber-optic connection for fixed-line calls, AccessKenya said.

“This deal marks our first wholesale contract with a mobile operator and that further enhances our services and leverages our investment in infrastructure,” the Nairobi-based company’s managing director, Jonathan Somen, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Airtel Kenya will buy fixed-line voice circuits from AccesKenya’s fiber optic network in more than 300 buildings in the capital, Nairobi and Mombasa, the second biggest city. AccessKenya is linking an average of 10 buildings a month to its fiber optic network, it said.

--Editors: Gordon Bell, Alastair Reed

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net