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Botswana: Paratus Starts Construction Of SADC Highway Fibre Route Connecting Botswana With Zimbabwe And Zambia

On 4 December 2024, Paratus Botswana announced that it had started construction of a new regional fibre optic route, which it calls the “SADC Highway”, that will connect Gaborone in Botswana, through Zimbabwe, to Livingstone in Zambia. The first section in Botswana, running from Gaborone to Plumtree on the border with Zimbabwe, spans approximately 500-km and is scheduled for completion in February 2025 according to a company press release.

The new SADC Highway route follows the recent completion of a new 840-km Botswana Kalahari Fibre (BKF) fibre route from Gaborone to the border with Namibia, which is now operational. Once completed, the SADC Highway route will deliver up to 11 Tbps of potential new capacity to Zimbabwe and Zambia, providing critical redundancy for existing routes through South Africa. The route offers an alternative to connect to the Equiano subsea cable at Swakopmund in Namibia, as well as a direct route South to the Teraco Data Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In June 2018, Paratus completed the Trans-Kalahari Fibre (TKF) route, providing capacity from the WACS submarine cable landing station at Swakopmund to Windhoek (the capital) as well as to Botswana (via Buitepos) and Zambia (via Ngoma and Sesheke see Namibia: Paratus Namibia Completes Trans-Kalahari Fibre (TKF) Route From Walvis Bay – Swakopmund – Windhoek – Buitepos (Botswana)).

“The SADC Highway also represents Paratus Botswana’s fourth fibre route: two into South Africa, one into Namibia, and very soon this new route into Zimbabwe and Zambia,” said Shawn Bruwer, Managing Director of Paratus Botswana in a company press release. “This cements our position in Southern Africa and Botswana as a communications hub not only due to the geographic location but also to the foresight by Paratus in addressing regional needs. It demonstrates the Paratus Group’s commitment to investment in Botswana and contribution to economic diversification in the country. The various routes now provide unsurpassed redundancy and diversity for the country.”

Source: Paratus Botswana

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