28 September 2023
Botswana is set to receive a new Chinese company-built data centre next month. Dubbed the “Digital Delta Data Centre” (DDDC), the facility is expected to be available to Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet) from October.
The facility has been provided by the China Jiangxi International Economic and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) and includes a two-story data centre and ancillary facilities. The DDDC is located in the Botswana Innovation Hub in the capital city Gaborone.
The facility has been designed to a Tier III standard, spans 1,000 sqm (10,763 sq ft), and will house around 400 racks. At the time of writing, the Digital Delta website was not working.
Plans for the data centre were first shared in March 2021 along with a groundbreaking ceremony. DCD reported at the time that construction was expected to take around eight months, though reports by BWTechZone suggest that the facility was only completed this June.
According to Data Center Platform, Botswana is home to five data centres, the largest of which is the DDDC. The country also has MTN Gaborone, Centerserv Gaborone, BTC Botswana, and another Botswana Fibre Networks data centre.
Earlier this month, the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation outlined plans to go copper-free across the country next year in an attempt to combat copper theft.
BoFiNet seemingly experiences similar problems, having posted to its LinkedIn feed on September 4 to say that three major fibre cables had been stolen and again on September 25 to report yet another act of vandalism had been carried out against its network.
Source: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/botswana-to-get-chinese-built-data-center-in-october/
