WebSprix, Ethiopia’s premier private Internet Service Provider (ISP) has made a significant minority investment in the local business of Wingu.africa (“wingu”), the pan East African data center operator.
Mr Anthony Voscarides, wingu Co-Founder and CEO, explained “our two companies have a strong complementary focus on “Shrinking the Digital Divide”, this is the term used to describe the gulf between those who have ready access to computers and the internet, and those who do not.”
The WebSprix investment comes hot on the heels of wingu breaking ground last week on the first multi-million-dollar hyperscale data centre in Ethiopia and WebSprix’ announcement in December that it’s become the first company globally to the first to Cisco 8000, a Routed Optical Networking Solution to power its high-speed broadband service expansion.
Fast, reliable and secure internet requires good connectivity, ideally through fiber and secure storage of data close to the user. With the planned investment in several modern hyperscale data centers by wingu, users, both individuals and companies, will be able to store their data locally avoiding long delays for transmission and providing comfort that the data is securely stored in the country. This fits perfectly with the planned rollout by WebSprix of a national network of high-speed fiber.
As all fibers of business and personal lives increasingly depend on connectivity and data, including wider adoption of the “Cloud” to hold information, more data centers will be required and wingu intends to make further investment over the coming years.
The two companies are working closely together on their expansion plans, to support the development of the critical ICT infrastructure needed in Ethiopia to meet the needs of the population and enable strong economic growth and job creation.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr Dawit Birhanu, WebSprix Co-Founder and CEO, said “I am extremely pleased to partner with wingu, their international expertise, and experience in data centers is a welcome benefit to our country and we will not only use the data centers for our own business, to give even better service to our customers but also expect a lot of interest in accessing this vital infrastructure from businesses, large and small.“
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