wingu.africa group limited (“Wingu”), East Africa’s specialist carrier-neutral data center group, has four data centers operating in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somaliland and Tanzania, and additional capacity is being added in each of these markets, including a major new facility in Djibouti. The integrated data center and cable landing station will be Tier 3 certified, carrier-neutral and connected with all existing telecoms infrastructure in Djibouti, as well as the expanding Wingu network of carrier-neutral data centers. The integrated facility will be the first in Djibouti which currently hosts 11 cables and is an important global hub for telecommunications traffic and connectivity.
On the back of its rapid expansion, Wingu has signed several new strategic customers, facilitated by the addition of colocation whitespace across all its facilities. These signings reinforce that Wingu is ideally positioned to cater for local and international demand. Wingu allows capacity and content providers to bring their products and services ever closer to the consumer such as in the fast-growing economies served by Wingu, including Tanzania and Ethiopia, with a combined population of over 200 million.
Always a pioneer from its first data center in Djibouti, which has successfully operated for over 10 years, Wingu introduced the first Internet Exchange in Djibouti (“DjIX”) and has seen this grow to be one of the most active on the African continent. Now, in a similarly innovative move, Ethiopia will shortly see its first Internet Exchange (“ADDIX”), which will be hosted in Wingu’s carrier-neutral data center located in Addis Ababa. Further supporting its mission to bring cheaper, faster and more reliable internet to users in its markets, Wingu has also signed with the Tanzania Internet Exchange (“TIX”), and a third TIX Point of Presence will soon go live at Wingu’s carrier-neutral data center in Dar Es Salaam.
In Djibouti, where Wingu has a long and proud history, its second carrier-neutral data center and integrated Cable Landing Station is on-track to be ready for service in the next quarter, in time for the arrival of a multimillion-dollar global cable system which will land with Wingu. The new facility being built by Wingu in conjunction with its local partner, TO7 Networks SAS, was selected by the consortium behind the cable system, partly due to Wingu’s track-record in the country and the fact that the facility is carrier-neutral and offers both landing and data center colocation under one roof.
The interest in Wingu’s new Djibouti facility has also recently culminated in a signing with another multinational technology company for a significant deployment, as part of the company’s move to provide customers with an improved experience by having content closer to the end user.
Wingu is also pleased to announce that its carrier-neutral data center in Berbera, Somaliland, is seeing strong interest from local and international customers. As one example, the PEACE cable, which is hosted in the facility on behalf of the local landing party, is already a customer and is providing its Ethiopian customers with additional capacity options. Wingu is very positive about the prospects for the Ethiopian market, which is growing rapidly following liberalisation of the country’s telecoms sector and the entry of Safaricom as a second mobile network operator. Wingu’s carrier-neutral data center in Addis Ababa, the first of its kind in Ethiopia, was selected by Safaricom to host equipment and Wingu is pleased to be supporting the exciting developments in the Ethiopian telecoms market.
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