Telecommunications company EOH Network Solutions has established one of the first 10Gbps services to go live over the recently-deployed FibreCo network between Gauteng and Cape Town.
While the FibreCo project will support new initiatives for EOH, it will not replace the company’s current national services on Telkom.
Stuart Hardy, business unit manager of EOH’s Networks Division, confirms that EOH Networks’ primary national network, which supports the networks of some of the largest companies in the country, will remain on Telkom, and FibreCo will act as a secondary route.
“Telkom’s national fibre network, for me, still represents the highest level of quality and engineering available on national routes in South Africa. And, while it comes at a premium, allows us to feel confident around national service delivery. Because FibreCo is so new, we are cautiously optimistic on how we incorporate this product into our network,” Hardy says.
He adds that there are several initiatives where the new 10Gbps capacity will be used, which will support other important strategies within the group.
“We are planning to use this additional capacity to drive some of our products in the market, including national replication between data centres, cloud service delivery to Cape Town, and national backhaul of SAT 3 capacity. And some of our larger enterprise clients will be extending their LANs using VPLS between Johannesburg and Cape Town at STM1 level (155Mbps).”
Hardy notes that proving L2 or VPLS services over this link for enterprise can considerably reduce the cost of national transit in comparison to MPLS.