In a bid to offer more affordable and agile connectivity solutions to South African businesses, Dimension Data Advanced Infrastructure (DDAI) has announced that it has formed a partnership with Redline Telecommunications SA.

This will enable it to offer Redline Telecommunication’s campus wireless broadband solutions as part of its business focused services.

Nicholas Shaw, the general manager for Dimension Data Advanced Infrastructure Middle East and Africa, explained that, by sourcing niche products such as Redline’s campus to core broadband networks, it will be better equipped to meet increasingly diverse customer demands.

He asserted that Redline Telecommunication’s Free Space Optical (FSO) laser technologies will be of particular interest to the African market, as it offers an affordable and flexible means of deploying wireless solutions for point to point installations.

Shaw explained that there was an abundance of investment coming into Africa. However, this presented a greater need for fast, cost effective alternatives to fibre optic installations.

With the inclusion of Redline Telecommunication’s solutions in its product offerings, Dimension Data will be able to offer clients rapid deployments that can have them up and running almost immediately. Additionally, with a capacity of between one hundred Mbps (Megabits per second) and one Gbps (Gigabit per second) full-duplex, businesses would not have to compromise on functionality while they awaited the installation of a permanent fibre-based connection.

Additionally, as the need for businesses to eradicate downtime becomes more important, businesses who already have a fibre optic network could consider Redline Telecommunication’s technology as a secondary, or backup network.

Shaw explained that Dimension Data has witnessed an increase in the use of wireless as a supplementary, ‘safety net’ type solution, to provide an alternative means of connectivity. “Point to point solutions such as Redline’s offer an affordable and effective means of ensuring connectivity independently from fibre optic systems, and more than capable of matching the capacity, speed and quality of any physical cable,” he concluded. 

The move follows another partnership formed by Dimension Data earlier this month with Alvarion, a leading provider of 4G wireless communications solutions and broadband wireless access technologies.