West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has further demonstrated its commitment of delivering a market-leading portfolio of wholesale services based on strategic investment in subsea and terrestrial digital infrastructure with the arrival of Google’s Equiano cable in South Africa
WIOCC is a key partner in Equiano where, in doing so, has strengthened its ability to support clients in extending their reach and capacity across southern Africa.
WIOCC Group CEO, Chris Wood, commented, “Having invested multiple billions of Rand to enhance our 16Tbps-ready, Optical Transport Network-enabled national hyperscale network infrastructure, we are extremely well positioned to provide businesses with access to fully upgradeable, quickly and easily scalable capacity throughout South Africa and into neighbouring countries, over one of the most future-proof networks in the country.”
WIOCC’s Equiano capacity will be extended into a new Open Access Data Centres (OADC – a WIOCC Group company) facility currently undergoing fit-out in Rondebosch, Cape Town, where clients can interconnect with terrestrial infrastructure providers, cloud networks, partners, suppliers and other ecosystem members.
OADC has been extremely active in South Africa, where it recently announced it will have three new core data centres (DCs) - one in Johannesburg and two in Cape Town - live by the end of Q3 2022. These three core DCs are integral to OADC’s unique, core-to-edge, open-access DC offering, which currently includes another core DC, OADC Durban, and 25 (growing over the next 9 months to over 100) up to 150kW OADC EDGE DCs offering colocation, rooftop access and high-speed network interconnectivity between facilities at up to 100Gbps and on multiple routes for diversity.
Wood added, “Our investment in Equiano continues our long-standing policy of making strategic investments in subsea cables. We own almost a third of the >10Tbps EASSy system, which extends from South Africa along Africa’s eastern coastline to Djibouti and Port Sudan; we deliver more capacity than any other carrier on the WACS system, which links South Africa to western Europe and lands in many countries along the West coast of Africa; and we are a member of the 2Africa cable, which will bring another high-capacity connectivity option to Africa during 2023/24.”
Services available from WIOCC in South Africa include high-quality Carrier IP Transit (IPT), point-to-point national connectivity and high-performance Metro Connect, and open access colocation services in specific locations – through WIOCC Group company Open Access Data Centres.