Continental fiber-optic link from coast to coast to coast under a single autonomous system number

The African telecommunications group Paratus has announced the inauguration of its continuous fiber network from the west coast of southern Africa to the east coast. The digital crossing of this stretch of nearly 5,000 kilometers takes only 31 milliseconds.

The Trans-Kalahari Fiber Network (TKF) extends over 4,160 kilometers from the West Africa Cable System (WACS) cable landing station at Swakopmund to the station. EASSY cable landing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In addition, the road is under a single autonomous system number (ASN), a feat that eludes most African operators. The fiber optic network is interconnected with selected operators in various countries to ensure the reliability of the overall fiber optic network management across the continent.

Schalk Erasmus, Paratus Group COO, said the project was part of Paratus Africa's infrastructure expansion strategy with Nimbus Infrastructure. "Nimbus Infrastructure is a strategic partner of Paratus Africa and a major shareholder of Paratus Namibia."

Paratus began with the construction of the Windhoek cableway in Swakopmund in 2017 and completed the end of April 2018 windhoek second phase road to the border of Botswana. Part of the capital used for this project in Namibia was financed by Nimbus Infrastructure.

"This is an important milestone and an outstanding achievement. We can now provide the WACS capacity to the landlocked countries in which we have operational branches, including Botswana and Zambia, "he said.

Operators on the East and West coasts of Africa depend on access to the submarine cable and, in the event of a breakdown, depend mainly on spare cables located on the same side of the continent. According to Erasmus, this new route allows operators to think differently about their needs for various routes in and around the African continent. "Paratus Africa will continue to expand optical fiber routes with its own infrastructure to maintain customer availability, reliability and scalability in the event of service level degradation," he said.

"We believe that the fiber optic network offers high quality reliability and scalability with high access speeds to meet the bandwidth demand. We certainly want to take advantage of the countless opportunities in Africa, so we are engaging other landlocked countries to exploit our fiber optic backbone and our WACS capability, "he concluded.