Short answer
FirstNet sends international traffic over multi-peer transit at global hubs such as London, New York, Frankfurt and Singapore. It uses several undersea cable systems and reroutes traffic automatically if one is cut.
In detail
Performance to an overseas cloud region depends on where traffic leaves South Africa and how it is routed. Here is how FirstNet handles it:
- Multi-peer transit at hubs such as LINX London, New York, Frankfurt and Singapore. There are more peering points too, such as Amsterdam, Marseilles and Brazil.
- Capacity on seven or more undersea cables, such as WACS, EASSy, SEACOM and 2Africa.
- Automatic rerouting when a cable is cut or a region is congested.
- Direct peering with Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud and major content delivery networks.
On standard business fibre, international contention is capped at 1:4 at most, and only during undersea cable failures. If international cloud performance is critical, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) gives you a dedicated 1:1 contention on international traffic. DIA peers in hubs such as London, New York, Brazil, Germany, Marseilles and Singapore.
A move to overseas cloud platforms is a common reason to upgrade core sites from broadband to DIA. For those sites, stable international routing matters more than headline speed.
Source: FirstNet Direct Peering with Microsoft & AWS service page →
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