Six Telecoms, a leading provider of voice and data access services in Tanzania, has partnered with NewTelco South Africa, a joint venture between the Jasco Group and NewTelco GMBH, to deliver an international Point of Presence (PoP) through NewTelco's co-location hub in London.

The companies say the PoP is located in one of the major global interconnection hubs, connecting a number of undersea cables and providing Six Telecoms with direct access to Internet services in Europe.

Six Telecoms' strategic location in Dar es Salaam and the access it provides into eight countries bordering Tanzania has positioned the company as a regional hub and gateway for East Africa to connect with the rest of the world.

"Global access is essential for the success of any Internet service provider today, however purchasing this access through a third part can be a costly exercise. By utilising the NewTelco carrier neutral colocation hub, Six Telecoms are able to procure these services directly, resulting in reduced costs that can then be passed on to the end customer. By interconnecting their undersea transmission access into our co-location hub in London, Six Telecoms now has access to the widest choice of carriers as well as the London Internet exchange. This in turn ensures that they can improve the quality of the Internet service to their Tanzania based customers," says Eckart Zollner, Business Development Manager at NewTelco SA and the Jasco Group.

NewTelco is providing technical installation of network routers and switches in order to facilitate the delivery of the PoP, as well as support services through NewTelco's co-location hub in London, the companies state.

"In addition, hosting services will be delivered in partnership with NewTelco out of Telehouse, also in London, which is one of Europe's largest carrier neutral data centres. Hosting services will also be provided in future from NewTelco's data centre in South Africa, helping to expand Six Telecoms' reach and Internet services," reads a statement issued by the Jasco Group.

Said Mohamed Alli, Head of Data Business at Six Telecoms, is quoted as saying, "NewTelco has more than a decade of experience in the business, and their unique global telecom services portfolio suited Six Telecoms' requirements perfectly, making them the ideal choice of partner. With this new PoP in London, the Seacom, Eassy and Teams submarine cables that provide backhaul capacity between our regional PoPs are now connected onward to key European cities, providing us with virtual presence in all key European countries and trans-Atlantic access to our North American hub in New York."

"In addition to our London hub, we have established a total of nine PoPs in Africa, providing 25 countries in the region with connectivity to 70 global countries. As the key telecom hub between East Africa and the world, improving our Internet service as well as driving down costs were essential goals for us. Partnering with NewTelco to facilitate this PoP and provide direct access to European carriers has enabled us to achieve just this," he concludes.