Paratus Group, a pan-African telecom provider, has launched the Paratus Express Route, a high-capacity fiber route connecting Johannesburg directly to Europe. Using Infinera’s advanced technology, this route is designed to meet Africa’s increasing data demands, providing a faster and more resilient connection to European hubs. The route integrates the Infinera GX Series, FlexILS, and ICE6 800G solutions, giving Paratus the flexibility to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity for both telecom providers and enterprises.
This fiber route comes as demand escalates for low-latency connections across continents. Previously reliant on routes like the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa needed an upgrade to keep up with post-pandemic data surges and the rise of real-time applications. Paratus addressed this by building a new Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Swakopmund, Namibia, with an 1,890 km fiber line through Botswana to Johannesburg’s Teraco data center, connecting to the Equiano subsea cable for direct access to Lisbon and beyond.
Equipped with Infinera’s optical transport technology, the Express Route can support up to 800 Gbps per wavelength. Latency is 123ms between Johannesburg and Europe, opening up new possibilities for industries like finance, gaming, and cloud services. “The Paratus Express Route represents a quantum leap in connectivity between Africa and Europe,” said Martin Cox, Chief Commercial Officer of Paratus Group, “Telecom providers can now offer their customers unprecedented bandwidth and reliability.”
- Unparalleled Speed: Offers the fastest connection from Johannesburg to Europe, with 123ms latency.
- Massive Capacity: Supports up to 800 Gbps per wavelength, addressing growing data needs.
- Resilience and Redundancy: Provides an alternative route to traditional paths, enhancing reliability.
- Infinera GX Series: This platform supports wavelengths of up to 800 Gbps
- Infinera FlexILS: This flexible intelligent line system enables efficient spectrum utilization. It allows Paratus to maximize the capacity of its fiber infrastructure, and meet growing bandwidth demands without requiring additional fiber deployment.
- Infinera ICE6 800G Solution: Deployed specifically for the Equiano Cable System, this solution offers 20 times more capacity than previously available in Namibia. The ICE6 technology provides unique features like long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping (LC-PCS) and dynamic bandwidth allocation.