The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Africa's largest bourse, has started discussions with contractors to begin building a co-location service next to its own data center that will speed up trading.
The co-location facility, which will initially have space for 35 racks for clients' computers, could be boosted to 140 in future, Leanne Parsons, equity market director for the JSE Limited, the operator of the exchange, said in an interview.
The site will probably be completed in the first six months of next year. It will offer a connection speed as fast as 100 microseconds, or one-10,000th of a second, compared with 2,400 microseconds for exchange members currently in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.
"If you're in co-location, the network advantage is going to be 24 times faster than somebody in Sandton" who isn't using the service, Parsons said. "You are talking about significantly different speeds."
The JSE's co-location facility will be the first in Africa and the company plans to boost trading volumes through the service, Parsons said.
The operator said on July 29 earnings excluding one-time items for the six months through June will probably be 20 percent to 40 per cent higher per share than a year earlier.
