XDSL, a local Internet service provider (ISP) that recently announced a South African first in the provision of high speed, high capacity 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps fibre broadband connectivity, has secured a direct link to the West African Cable System (WACS) via Telehouse in London.

By peering directly with this international ISP, XDSL boosts its international Internet capacity, giving its customers greater assurance of stability, reliability and ongoing affordability.

Says XDSL director Danie Fourie: “Our 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps fibre broadband connectivity offering has made a significant impact in the market and we are seeing rapid uptake. Expanding our existing international fibre broadband capacity adds redundancy, ensuring the reliability of international connectivity and removing reliance on local network providers.”

Telehouse is a neutral point of interconnection and a major hub for all top tier ISPs around the world. It operates through 11 co-location facilities that cover the UK, France, Germany, Turkey and South Africa, and has a global network of 45 data centres in EMEA, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region that cover all major commercial and financial hubs.

“Telehouse is a neutral Internet exchange. As a co-location facility it facilitates direct any-to-any network connectivity,” says Fourie. “With a peer-to-peer fibre link into Telehouse, XDSL secures direct access to the international fibre broadband capacity of WACS.”

The 5,12Tbps, 14 000km long fibre optic sub-marine cable system raises South Africa’s international broadband capacity by over 500Gbps, more than doubling the country’s 2011 capacity. Spanning the west coast of Africa and terminating in the United Kingdom, WACS enables seamless connectivity into the rest of Europe and the US.

“By peering directly with Telehouse, XDSL is in essence not reliant on any other network provider in South Africa for access to the international connectivity WACS provides. It means we have greater redundancy in terms of international connectivity – and massive redundancy is at the heart of the network neutrality strategy XDSL follows.
“The multiple back to back agreements we have with local and international network infrastructure owners and service providers enables us to ensure that clients’ get the reliability and throughput they need to conduct any-to-any business communication when they need to.

“In a nutshell, if any major local or international network link goes down or becomes congested, our national operations centre and data centre staff are aware of the problem before it affects our clients, and will route their communications via alternative networks. This ensures we can confidently deliver on our connectivity and throughput promises,” Fourie says.