Paratus Group announced on Monday that it has launched what it claims is the fastest fibre express route from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Europe after completing a terrestrial fibre link linking Johannesburg to Google’s Equiano subsea cable.
The new 1 890-km fibre link runs from Johannesburg through Botswana to Swakopmund, Namibia, which hosts one of the landing stations of the Equiano cable that runs off the West African coast from Cape Town to Lisbon.
Paratus said the Johannesburg-Swakopmund route uses Infinera FlexILS and GX Series DWDM equipment that can support wavelengths up to 800 Gbps. The company also said the new route also enables a latency rate of 123 milliseconds from Johannesburg to Lisbon, which Paratus says is much lower compared to similar routes.
The route includes Paratus’ recently completed Botswana Kalahari Fiber (BKF), which connects Botswana to the Equiano landing station in Swakopmund. The Johannesburg link connects to the BKF in Lobatse, Botswana.
Paratus said the route will add resiliency to South Africa’s international cable capacity in the wake of recent network disruptions caused by subsea cable breaks, including three cables in the Red Sea in February, and four cables off the coast of Cote d’Ivoire in March. The new express route provides an alternative route out of South Africa via Equiano and mitigates against possible fibre outages between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
“Culminating in this unique express route, we can now offer carriers and operators a diverse and unequalled transmission route to Europe,” said Paratus Group Chief Commercial Officer, Martin Cox in a statement.
