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Paratus readies to go live on Equaino with Infinera tech solution

By , ITWeb
Africa , Namibia , 28 Mar 2023
The Google Equiano undersea cable system
The Google Equiano undersea cable system

The Paratus Group is preparing to go live on the Equiano submarine cable and has tapped into the expertise of US-based Infinera to provide ‘better services’ in the coming months.

In a statement, the Paratus Group says that using Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent optical solution will help increase capacity on the cable system.

With a wavelength of 800 Gbps capacity, Infinera's system enables the Paratus Group's fibre optic network to improve upload and download speeds.

Paratus Group, which provides network solutions, fibre, and satellite connectivity, announced the Infinera partnership yesterday, saying this collaboration allows it to provide connectivity that’s 20 times faster.

Infinera provides open optical networking solutions and advanced optical semiconductors that enable carriers, cloud operators, governments, and enterprises to scale network bandwidth.

Schalk Erasmus, Paratus Group CEO, says his company "has worked with Infinera for a number of years on other projects, and this partnership allows Paratus to provide connectivity that is 20 times faster in capacity, modern and flexible to ensure economies of scale, and offers efficiency in the services that the Paratus Group provides throughout its seven operating countries.”

According to the company, the connection to the Equiano cable is critical to meet the current and future connectivity requirements of Namibia and international connectivity, including its landlocked neighbours, such as Botswana and Zambia.

The Equiano submarine cable landed in Namibia in June last year, and is expected to enhance connectivity.

In a statement, Paratus says: “The volume of data and information being shared worldwide has grown significantly in recent years, and the Equiano cable will strengthen and improve communications primarily from Namibia.

“According to the economic impact assessment report commissioned by Google, the cable will not only provide 20 times more capacity than is currently available in Namibia, but will also create greater communications diversity and economic opportunities in the region.

“The agreement gives operators access to the cable's capacity, which ensures better connectivity stability in the country, but also lower latency and speed in global data transmission.”

Robert Maher, Infinera’s CTO, says his team is pleased with the deep partnership it enjoys with Paratus and hopes to enable the group to continue to offer ‘best-in-class services’ to their customers.

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