Pan-African network provider Paratus says it has broken ground on what is described as a multimillion-rand satellite teleport facility in Doornkloof, around 50 miles north of Johannesburg.
The company says it expects to complete the construction of the facility in August.
Paratus says the new teleport will “deliver reliable and quality satellite connectivity to South African businesses and consumers, even when power outages occur”.
Managing director of Paratus South Africa, Kallie Carlsen underlines this point, adding that the new teleport will help the company to provide even more services to customers who require a reliable connectivity solution, including during load shedding.
Paratus says the site will be the group’s largest satellite infrastructure project to date and will be capable of hosting other providers’ and customers’ infrastructure.
The ITWeb Africa site says the teleport’s key features include dual redundant systems on all network infrastructure, from generators and backhaul to hosted environment; the Paratus backbone network, which allows connectivity to and from multiple countries via terrestrial and subsea fibre routes; dual redundant fibre routes to two independent data centres in South Africa; dual power feeds, including dual UPS and multiple generators; and end-to-end management by Paratus South Africa.
According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, Paratus entered South Africa in 2006, acquired local communications provider Maxwell Technology in 2016 and already owns one teleport in South Africa, with others in Angola and Namibia. It also owns and operates four data centres.