Namibia’s Paratus launches fibre network between Joburg and Europe

Namibian telecom operator Paratus has launched a fibre network route from Johannesburg to Europe, making use of Google’s Equiano undersea cable infrastructure.

The company aims to position itself as an alternative for local network operators to route their internet traffic in and out of SA after a spate of undersea cable breaks that have negatively affected service to the country in recent months.

This comes as the telecommunications group has just completed a 1,890km fibre link between Johannesburg and Swakopmund, Namibia, via Botswana. This connects to the Equiano subsea cable that runs from Namibia to Lisbon and on to London and the rest of Europe.

Paratus has operational teams in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Namibia, SA, and Zambia. Its extended network provides a satellite connectivity service in more than 35 African countries. The group also has points of presence in Europe, the UK, and the US.   

The company says latency on the new route is just 123 milliseconds, using Infinera FlexILS and GX Series DWDM equipment, and can support wavelengths of up to 800Gb.   

Latency refers to the speed of sending and receiving messages or data across a telecom network. 

The company said the route offered network operators “an unequalled opportunity to elevate their capacity and redundancy where resilience and high-speed performance come as standard. This guarantees smooth data flow and less interruption of service”.

Paratus is the landing partner for Equiano in Namibia, which offers an alternative route out of SA and mitigates against possible fibre outages between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

In September 2022, Equiano — which Google touted as Africa’s highest-capacity subsea internet cable at the time — landed in SA. Google is the main funder of the cable, which runs from Portugal and along the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. Its arrival in SA was in partnership with Telkom’s infrastructure unit, Openserve.

Undersea cable operators specialise in providing open access to in land fibre providers such as Paratus or Openserve that give open access networks to internet service providers (ISPs). Service providers such as WebAfrica tend to not have their own fibre assets, relying on network operators such as Paratus to reach homes and businesses.

Mobile operators also make use of the same infrastructure to connect to the rest of the world.

Paratus group chief commercial officer Martin Cox said: “As a steadfast partner with pan-African expertise, we offer unrivalled wholesale capacity solutions for network operators. Because we understand the unique connectivity needs of the various regions, we have tailored our solutions to meet their specific requirements. Culminating in this unique express route, we can now offer carriers and operators a diverse and unequalled transmission route to Europe.” 

gavazam@businesslive.co.za