TelOne unveils Zim’s first data centre

Zimbabwe’s fixed telecommunications firm, TelOne, has unveiled the country’s first world class data centre as part of strategies to diversify its business and increase revenue streams.

The state-of-the-art data centre, which is a sub-project of the National Broadband (NBB) Project, is expected to transform TelOne to become a fixed mobile converged company with emphasis on broadband, cloud and digital services.

TelOne managing director Chipo Mtasa said the data centre was a strategic location for storing, processing, accessing and distributing large amounts of data.

“The facilities we have built are world class, Tier 3 (three) meaning we guarantee reliability at 99,98 percent uptime. I therefore implore on all of you to seriously consider us to host you instead of constructing your own centres,” she said.

Market experts said government institutions, parastatals and industry players like banks and other big data corporations can enjoy the services offered by the data centre such as co-location, disaster recovery, back-up and storage, bandwidth rental and a diversity of cloud services.

Individuals and small to medium enterprises can also enjoy the variability of services which include web hosting and rack space rental.

“As a specialised entity, not only are we guaranteeing the expertise but we will as also help you cut your connectivity costs by up to 35 percent,” Mtasa said.

Beyonad the national broadband network project, the TelOne data centre is also one of the great achievements made by the parastatal to connect with the digital world and become competitive again in the national telecom market.

The company’s chairperson, Charles Samu, said TelOne has already invested almost $33 million in the $98 million granted by China Exim Bank to upgrade its network through the deployment of fibre optic.

ICT minister Supa Mandiwanzira said the launch of the data centre was an important development worth celebrating “as it is in sync with the big data era that the country has entered into making such facilities indispensable”.

“The mandate to roll out the national optic fibre backbone has been given to TelOne whom we are expecting to drive connectivity in the underserved areas. Beyond the backbone network, I am aware that some work is also being done to deliver fibre to the home in some green-fields areas,” he said. Daily News