Pan-African telecommunications group Paratus Group has launched the fastest fibre express route from Johannesburg to Europe.

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

This followed the completion of its 1 890 km fibre link between Johannesburg, through Botswana, to Swakopmund, which connects with the Paratus-landed Equiano subsea cable that runs from Namibia to Lisbon and on to London and the rest of Europe.

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

“Massive investment by the Paratus Group in its contiguous and diverse fibre network has resulted in the fastest route between Johannesburg and Lisbon, delivering a much lower latency compared to other similar routes.

“The route is live now that the Johannesburg to Lobatse link is complete along with the Paratus-built Botswana Kalahari Fiber. which stretches across Botswana into Namibia to connect to the Cable Landing Station in Swakopmund,” the company said in a statement issued on Monday.

The new Paratus express route offers 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.

The launch emerges at a time when network disruptions abound in Africa, particularly after recent subsea cable breaks, and gives network operators an alternative high speed and resilient connection.

“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,” said Paratus Group chief commercial officer Martin Cox, adding that the new fibre express route uniquely combines local expertise with global reach.

“Culminating in this unique express route, we can now offer carriers and operators a diverse and unequalled transmission route to Europe.”

“Our continual investment in creating Africa’s quality network is now extended with the launch of this express route. This is an exciting time for network operators in South Africa because they can now procure the fastest and most robust connectivity from Johannesburg to Europe,” concluded Paratus Group CEO Schalk Erasmus.