African data, voice and IP provider Liquid Telecom says it is the first ever operator to build a satellite hub at a South African earth station belonging to vendor-neutral data centre firm Teraco.

According to a statement, the move is part of a ‘multi-million’ dollar investment in Liquid Telecom’s satellite business.

Liquid is best known for its fibre network, which spans more than 17,000 km from Uganda to Cape Town.

But speaking of its satellite hub, Liquid says in a statement that it “enables Liquid Telecom to route African traffic in Africa rather than backhauling it via Europe as many operators need to do.”

“By keeping African data in Africa, Liquid Telecom has reduced latency and increased connectivity speeds for its customers,” says Liquid.

“Satellite is usually deployed to provide connectivity to national parks, out of town offices, remote mining and exploration companies. However, most VSAT services are neither fast nor robust enough to manage MPLS or private VPN services which businesses frequently need.

“Liquid Telecom’s latest satellite investment means that African businesses will feel the benefits of high-speed broadband connectivity and associated business tools no matter where they are physically located,” explains the company.

South Africa’s Teraco is the largest provider of resilient, vendor neutral data centres in Africa.

Meanwhile, operating entities of Liquid Telecom exist in Botswana, DRC, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Liquid Telecom’s network also provides connectivity onto the five main subsea cable systems landing in Africa; WACS, EASSY, SEACOM, SAT3 and TEAMs.