Telecom’s own PoPs for WACS connection
Managing Director of Telecom, Mr Frans Ndoroma (front left) with his technical staff at a recent inspection of the PoP service roll-out.
According to Telecom Managing Director, Mr Frans Ndoroma, the PoPs in Frankfurt and London are expected to be up and running soon. Ndoroma was in Germany on his way from this year’s World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona to gain first-hand knowledge of progress made in installing the PoPs for the efficient and effective use of the much-vaunted WACS undersea cable. Namibia is a partner in the WACS project and was connected to the cable last year.
The PoP service being rolled out follows the signing of an agreement between Telecom Namibia and a Jasco Group company, NewTelco SA, which is a joint venture with co-location specialists NewTelco GmbH. This puts at Telecom’s disposal an improved global reach through reliable, high-quality communication infrastructure and backbone.
“We visited the sites in Frankfurt and London where we were shown the installation in progress. I was happy with the progress made. The actual completion is scheduled for the end March 2013,” he said.
“Due to our ability to deploy a number of teams in parallel across our global locations we are able to achieve short implementation times and are pleased with the progress made across the locations,” explains Eckart Zollner, business development manager for Jasco Co-location Solutions.
Telecom Namibia and NewTelco are also installing PoPs in Cape Town and Johannesburg to enable Telecom Namibia to offer its customers in South Africa and abroad direct connections to a number of existing and future undersea cable systems, including Wacs, Seacom, Eastern African Submarine Cable System, SAT3, the Africa Coast to Europe submarine cable and the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa submarine cable systems.
“These PoPs are an extension of our network in Germany and the UK; which means our customers will hop onto our network right in London and Frankfurt and need not be carried by third parties. These cities are the main hubs of international telecommunication traffic,” Ndoroma said.
While the infrastructure is being built, Telecom Namibia is making use of NewTelco’s existing infrastructure. Zollner pointed out that the partnership with Telecom has been very positive for both sides. He said the PoP service allows Telecom to deploy its own network services at a very short lead time of four weeks across Europe at no capital expense.
