South African colocation provider Teraco announced earlier this week that it had brought in additional connectivity to its Johannesburg data center. New deal with physical network provider Dark Fibre Africa brought the number of carriers available at Teraco facilities to six. Teraco says it is the only carrier-neutral data center provider in the nation.

DFA began laying its ducting infrastructure in October 2007 and had since laid about 115,000 km of fiber in more than 860 km of trenches, according to a Teraco statement. The company's fiber connects Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. Teraco customers now have access to DFA's national infrastructure, linked directly to the "meet me" room in the data center.

"The match of Teraco's vendor-neutral data center business model with DFA's competition-neutral, open-access infrastructure presented a fantastic business opportunity for both of our companies," DFA's CEO Gustav Smit said in a statement. "It is the first fruits of the slow deregulation of telecoms in our country that will finally make South Africa a globally competitive place to do business."

Deregulation of the telecom market in the country Smit was referring to began only recently. Until 2006, all physical network infrastructure was exclusively controlled by government-owned organizations. In August of 2006, the government allowed another player to enter the market and a 2008 lawsuit against the telecom regulatory agency brought further deregulation.

Teraco - founded in 2007 - operates data centers in Johannesburg and Cape Town. DFA is building out an open-access ducting infrastructure in the country, available for lease to all licensed service providers and operators.