The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has moved closer to traders and to other world markets with the installation, by Dark Fibre Africa, of a direct fibre link between the bourse’s head office in Sandton and Teraco’s data centre in Isando, east of Johannesburg.
The 32km fibre route, which offers full redundancy, means traders and other “capital market participants” can get access to a sub-500 microsecond round trip, enabling more real-time trading. The lack of routers and other equipment that can affect latency is what allows the link to be as quick as it is.
The “super quick and very low latency route” is important for brokers, traders, market data providers and the carriers that service the capital markets, said Teraco chief financial officer Jan Hnizdo. It should lead to more liquidity on the exchange, too.
Hnizdo likened the installation of the direct fibre route to the impact that opening the Suez Canal in Egypt had on the shipping industry.
He said the link would also encourage international players to trade more frequently on the Johannesburg bourse. Teraco provides direct links to global data centres that host other world markets, he said.
Teraco is constructing a second data centre in Johannesburg, bringing its total ICT infrastructure investment to over R1bn, the company said. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media