INX-ZA, which operates important Internet exchange points in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, said on Thursday that is expanding its exchange facilities in the former two cities.

The Johannesburg Internet Exchange, also known as Jinx, has added a fourth data centre node, while the Cape Town Internet Exchange, or Cinx, has been extended to become its third multi-site exchange point in Africa.

Internet exchanges are peering points, where Internet service providers exchange traffic. They are an important mechanism for speeding up network traffic and keeping more traffic within the borders of the country. Teraco’s NAPAfrica operates the other major such exchange in South Africa.

Jinx began as a project of the Internet Service Providers’ Association and is now independently managed by INX-ZA.

“The further expansion of Africa’s oldest Internet exchange follows an agreement between INX-ZA and Liquid Telecom South Africa (formerly Neotel),” INX-ZA said in a statement.

The partnership has seen INX-ZA extend the reach of Jinx to Liquid Telecom’s data centre in Midrand in Johannesburg and expand Cinx to Liquid’s data centre at Diep River near Cape Town.

“Alongside Johannesburg and Durban, the recent expansion of Cinx puts Cape Town on the map as the third city in South Africa with a multi-site Internet exchange,” the organisation said.

It had earlier further expanded Jinx to four data centres, including Teraco in Isando, Liquid Telecom Midrand, Hetzner in Samrand and the original site at Internet Solutions’ data centre in Parklands.

Liquid Telecom’s data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town are undergoing major upgrades and are home to fibre routes of many major carriers, mobile operators, cloud service providers and financial institutions. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media