Teraco trailblazes high-speed African connectivity with Smartoptics and HardwareCo
Oslo, Norway - February 9, 2026 - Smartoptics, a leading provider of optical networking solutions, in partnership with HardwareCo, a fast-growing optical technology solution provider, today announced that Teraco, Africa's largest vendor-neutral data centre platform, has deployed redundant 100G DWDM links to strengthen a key digital growth corridor between its two Cape Town facilities, CT1 and CT2. The connection underpins Africa's cloud, content, connectivity and financial ecosystems, delivering easy, cost-effective and low-latency access across one of South Africa's fastest-growing routes for bandwidth demand.
Based in South Africa, Teraco, a Digital Realty company, operates seven data centres across South Africa, supporting over 650 clients and 27,000 interconnects that facilitate connectivity for Sub-Saharan Africa. The company serves as the region's primary neutral hub for cloud providers, global content networks, financial institutions and telecom operators, enabling fast, direct and secure exchange of data between partners.
Rising customer demand for 100G links between CT1 and CT2 prompted Teraco to expand its backbone capacity. The compact 1U Smartoptics design minimizes space and power use while giving Teraco greater fibre efficiency and flexibility through breakout support.
"As Africa moves from 10G to 100G, DWDM equipment licensing fees have become a real blocker for many," says Michele McCann, Head of Platforms, Teraco Data Environments. "That's why Smartoptics' open approach immediately stood out to us. There are no hidden licenses or vendor restrictions, and it's so intuitive that our IP engineers could operate it after just a single day of training - without needing to become optical transmission experts. This flexibility and ease of use let us scale fast without worrying about pluggable compatibility or hiring more staff to manage it."
The deployment was delivered in collaboration with HardwareCo, Smartoptics' regional partner supporting projects across Africa. Completed swiftly and without disruption, the rollout shows how an open DWDM paradigm cuts complexity and speeds up time to service as Teraco can manage the system entirely in-house.
"We are very proud to support Teraco in achieving their high-capacity connectivity between CT1 and CT2, and very excited to have partnered with Smartoptics for this", says Mark Tinka, Managing Director at HardwareCo. "We selected Smartoptics as our key DWDM technology partner because of their unique approach to optical networking that is based on open standards and open architectures. This has democratized access to DWDM technology in a way that uniquely aligns with the challenges and goals of developing regions like Africa".
"Africa's coastal regions are seeing huge new waves of subsea capacity, but getting that bandwidth inland efficiently is the next big challenge. Teraco's investment shows how open optical networking with no license fees can bridge that gap, enabling scalable, cost-effective transport that matches the continent's growth and future demand. We're proud to support Teraco in this effort together with HardwareCo, helping make Africa's data routes as open and dynamic as its digital ambitions and signalling that the region is ready for global-scale platforms," says Magnus Grenfeldt, CEO, Smartoptics.
For more information please contact: Magnus Grenfeldt CEO Smartoptics +46 73-366 88 77 E-mail: magnus.grenfeldt@smartoptics.com
About Smartoptics Smartoptics provides innovative optical networking solutions and devices for the new era of open networking. Our customer base includes thousands of enterprises, governments, cloud providers, Internet exchanges as well as cable and telecom operators. We have an open networking approach in everything we do which allows our customers to break unwanted vendor lock-in, remain flexible and minimize costs. Our solutions are used in metro and regional network applications that increasingly rely on data center services and specifications. Smartoptics is a Scandinavian company founded in 2006. We partner with leading technology and network solution providers such as Brocade, Cisco and Dell and have a global reach through more than 100 business partners. For additional information about Smartoptics, please visit https://smartoptics.com/ (https://www.smartoptics.com/)
About Teraco Teraco, a leading carrier-neutral colocation provider in Africa, is the first provider of highly resilient, vendor-neutral data environments in sub-Saharan Africa. With its world-class data centre infrastructure and network-dense ecosystems, Teraco forms a vital part of the African internet's backbone and is essential to the modern enterprise's digital transformation strategy. Teraco is majority-owned by Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR (https://investor.digitalrealty.com/overview/investor-relations -overview/default.aspx)) - offering clients a global data centre platform designed to enable digital businesses to scale within a highly connected data community across 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents - and a consortium of private equity investors, including Berkshire Partners LLC and Permira. For more information, please visit teraco.co.za (https://www.teraco.co.za/) or follow us on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/teracodc/) and X (https://twitter.c om/teracodc).
About HardwareCo HardwareCo is a specialized telecommunications hardware provider delivering high -performance DWDM optical solutions, IP/MPLS/Ethernet devices, and pluggables. We serve network operators, data centre operators and enterprise IT teams, with a sharp focus on distribution, resale, installation, and integration of advanced network systems. Small, fast, and highly focused, HardwareCo is your agile partner for scalable, future-ready infrastructure. For additional information about HardwareCo, please visit https://hardwareco.net/