Opening up the market in South Africa: The need for speed part 2

Earlier this year we published an article, The Need for Speed, which highlighted the renewed focus on low latency connectivity among institutional traders. Primarily looking at equities, FX and rates trading the need for low latency (and ultra-low latency) seems to be a top priority for many. We had assumed this was mainly focussed on New York – London – Tokyo – Shanghai – Singapore, but that’s not necessarily the case.

We have just received word that Avelacom has extended its connectivity services to South Africa, enabling trading firms to access the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in a fast and reliable way. Its clients (Global banks, HFTs and hedge funds) can now use Avelacom to connect between London (Equinix LD4) and a point-of-presence (PoP) in Johannesburg.

The ultra-low latency pipes deliver round-trip times of 155.8 milliseconds – the lowest available, we think.

Aleksey Larichev, Avelacom’s Managing Director comments, "We have closed the quality gap in connectivity between London and Johannesburg, which was previously a barrier to trading volume growth. Our main focus was to create backup connections which allowed us to reach 99.9% uptime guarantee and meet the expectations of our global financial institution clients.”