Liquid Telecom Group has outlined the expansion of its fibre network in South Africa and has announced that CrashPlan, its backup and restore service, is now available to businesses across Africa.

The company said in a statement yesterday that it will be investing around R250 million (US$17.5 million) in laying new fibre in South Africa's Northern provinces, providing connectivity to the major cities and towns.

Liquid Telecom CEO Nic Rudnick said the wholesale capacity will be available to mobile and fixed-line operators, other service providers and businesses of all sizes.

The new fibre will be integrated with Liquid Telecom's existing fibre network in South Africa, which stretches from Pretoria to the border with Zimbabwe and then with its pan-African fibre network which now covers more than 20,000km across multiple country borders and connect onto the main subsea cable systems landing in Africa.

In addition to the network expansion, Rudnick also announced that CrashPlan for Africa, launched earlier in the year in Zimbabwe, is now available across the continent.

Rudnick described CrashPlan for Africa as "the most sophisticated and reliable back-up and stores data services available in Africa".

He added that the solution enables businesses to overcome the problems caused by devices being damaged, stolen, lost or compromised as it has been specifically developed to protect end-user data on endpoint devices including desktops and laptops.

"African businesses need to be more sophisticated in their use of technology. They need to protect their data especially given that so much it now resides on their employees devices. The cost of recovery services in Africa has traditionally been very high. However, CrashPlan for Africa provides a service which is cost-effective and extremely easy to install and use," Rudnick said.