• Dark fibre via Infinity platform links Midrand–Samrand data centre corridor.
  • Interconnection upgrades position SA data centres as regional AI traffic hubs.

What happened

Africa Data Centres has partnered with Oni-Tel to enhance fibre connectivity in South Africa. The agreement focuses on Gauteng, the country’s primary data centre market. It targets key interconnection routes between Midrand and Samrand.

The company will use Oni-Tel’s Infinity platform to deploy high-capacity dark fibre. This enables scalable bandwidth and dedicated connections between facilities. The model supports carrier-neutral access, allowing multiple network providers to interconnect.

The deployment aims to improve latency, resilience and routing flexibility. It also strengthens links between major enterprise and cloud environments hosted in the region. The initiative responds to rising demand for reliable, high-performance connectivity.

Africa Data Centres operates multiple facilities across South Africa, forming a dense digital infrastructure cluster. The new fibre layer enhances inter-facility traffic exchange, shifting focus from isolated capacity to integrated network performance.

Why it’s important

This partnership reflects a shift in what matters most. Data centres no longer compete on space alone. They compete on interconnection quality. Faster fibre links improve latency, throughput and service reliability.

The change responds to clear demand signals. Cloud adoption continues to grow across Africa. AI workloads and data-heavy applications require consistent, high-speed access. Enterprises also need redundancy and route diversity.

Carrier-neutral fibre enables flexible network design. Businesses can optimise traffic flows and avoid single points of failure. This strengthens overall system resilience.

The broader impact is structural. South Africa’s data centres move from isolated assets to connected nodes. High-performance interconnection turns them into regional traffic hubs. This supports the scaling needs of cloud and AI ecosystems.

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