Safaricom, the African mobile operator, has just opened its first data center in Kapsoya on the outskirts of Eldoret town in Kenya. The data center will provide compute to power Safaricom’s growing mobile enterprise regional HQ.

The new facility has been constructed to improve service reliability and data speeds in the Rift Valley area, an area which suffers outages on a regular basis. Safaricom has eleven equipment sites in Kenya with Kapsoya being the first fully equipped state-of-the-art facility in the region.

Rolling out a 4G network 

Safaricom is currently rolling out 2G and 3G sites across the country to keep up with demand. It has also launched a 4G network – making it the first mobile operator to do so in the Sub-Sahara region.

Safaricom’s director of technology, Thiboud Rerolle, said: “The construction of the facility has been driven by demand from customers for data services. This site is well equipped and has been designed in a way that will enable any future expansions that it may do.”