Yesterday TelOne launched their new data centre, amidst much pomp and funfair. Techzim covered the event and besides witnessing Plaxedes Wenyika serenading the crowd, a clearer insight to what POTRAZ are implementing in regards to the National Internet eXchange Point (IXP) was established.
Techzim are yet to establish new data surrounding the establishment of the IXP, however TelOne have been forging ahead in-line with ‘ZimAsset’ resulting in the National Broadband Project. The ‘mega deal’ that was signed that availed a $98m loan from China Exim bank is where the funds were drawn down.
Gosh, feel like a Herald reporter! (insert hashtag – #TweetLikeHerald)
Enough of the background to the launch and the data centre, herewith are some facts that were learnt and hopefully should you have any questions regarding the data centre they’d be answered below or in the comments if you will:
- TelOne have to date used a total of $33 million from the China Exim $98million facility since commencement of the National Broadband Project (NBB) in October 2016.
- From that $33 million TelOne have managed to undertake the following: Data Centre project, digitalization of several exchanges, convergence and introduction of their pre-paid billing platform, upgrade of information superhighway of Mutare-Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree fibre link from 10 Gigabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second, upgrade of Bulawayo-Victoria Falls link from 622 Megabits per second to 1.2 Gigabits per second, and the on-going Bulawayo-Beitbridge fibre backbone link roll-out.
- Harare hosts the Main Data Centre, but TelOne also launched the Mazoe Data Centre at the same event.
- The Data Centre services being offered will include co-location (where other players can bring their rack and server equipment to be housed) as well as offering “rack space renting, disaster recovery and several cloud services.”
- TelOne has not been spared from the OTT services cyclone, resultantly “witnessing a sharp voice revenue decline of 43% for the period 2013 to 2016.”
- TelOne currently receives 66% and 20% of its revenue from voice and broadband revenue respectively. They are hoping to change that to: voice (43%), broadband (48%) and the recently launched Data Centre and cloud services (8%).
- After this launch, TelOne are now capable of managing 640,000 unique accounts.
- The Minister of ICT noted that “a lot of players here including banks, some big corporates, some government departments have deployed their own data centres. As Minister however I would like to extend my call for infrastructure sharing even to yourselves so that we avoid duplication of infrastructure and consequently save the country the much needed foreign currency.”
- The Data Centre and other project components are expected to start giving TelOne profits within the next 24 months.
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6 comments
Hehe i have to giggle at the honourable minister calling for infrastructure sharing among the banks – generally speaking it will never happen because of the security requirements banks have to fulfil – thats the primary reason they build their own facilities
more photos pliz of the Datacenter
it didnt occur to me before i saw a comment about most companies banning cameras in their dc’s, but isnt releasing even more pics asking for trouble? couldnt someone deduce how to attack the dc more effectively if they know exactly what hardware is deployed? am no expert but it seems logical to me
Are all these facts? Some of these are just things that were said that no-one can prove, especially when it comes to expenditure and forecasts of revenue.
Anyway, Telone gets 66% and 20% of its revenue from voice and broadband revenue, where is the other 14%? Likewise, they want to change it to voice (43%), broadband (48%) and the recently launched Data Centre and cloud services (8%), where is the remaining 1%? Aside from that, these figures mean nothing as they do not show any indication of overall nett growth in revenue.
The statement, “After this launch, TelOne are now capable of managing 640,000 unique accounts”, has no meaning without context. Are they voice accounts, broadband accounts, or maybe even web-hosting accounts?
It’s not clear to me if the data centre is operational. Launch implies that it’s operational, but the services offered (and revenue) are being talked about in a future tense.
If the ministry is so keen on infrasturcture sharing, why did they build a new data centre yet the are acknowledging that there are existing data centres?
will buy you a drink
Very good questions. Thank your for your critical thought.