Seacom said on Tuesday that it is adding eight new points of presence (POPs) across Africa, including at the continent’s first Microsoft Azure data centres, in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

In Kenya, the company has extended its presence in the new Icolo data centre in Mombasa, offering both IP/MPLS and transmission services. The Mombasa POP connects the open-access data centre onto the Seacom open-access data network.

“Rare in the region, in comparison to operator-owned data centres, these carrier-neutral facilities encourage competition in the local ICT sphere, helping to increase cloud-based service offerings for customers while driving down costs,” Seacom said in a statement.

The company has similar plans for new open-access POPs in Nairobi and Kampala. In preparation for higher demand and expanded services to business customers in the region, it has upgraded its backhaul connecting Mombasa to these new POPs to include four separate and resilient routes.

In South Africa, Seacom is deploying a new POP in the carrier-neutral Teraco Bredell data centre.

“This new facility is a key location, catering specifically to content providers and enterprise customers. It will also serve as an important data recovery site for many operators,” said Seacom global head of product Robert Marston.

The company’s recent acquisition of FibreCo has added about 60 network nodes to its network in South Africa, including six core POPs in major metros, it said.

“Seacom’s POPs are key to the provider’s direct-access offerings, which bypass the public Internet in connecting company networks to digital business solutions,” it added. “The standard-setting service sees line rates reach from 100Mbit/s up to 100Gbit/s.” — © 2019 NewsCentral Media