- Nine national and international carriers already brought into the Meet Me Room at OADC Kinshasa
- OADC and TEXAF have partnered in the creation of this essential building block of the digital ecosystem in the DRC
- Multiple sectors of DRC economy to benefit from accelerated digitalisation
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), XXth March 2024 – Africa’s fastest-growing data centre company, Open Access Data Centres, has successfully secured nine[1] prominent national and international carriers into the Meet Me Room (MMR) of the brand new 2MW-capable OADC Kinshasa facility, the DRC’s first open-access, Tier-III, carrier-neutral data centre (DC).
This is an important step in building a rich, vibrant and valuable digital ecosystem, where carriers can connect with other DC residents and so offer additional services to their own customers, can secure important connectivity diversity and resilience by connecting to several submarine cables, and can also cross-connect with most connectivity providers.
Scheduled to go live in April 2024 and configured with an initial 400 square metres of IT white space, the 2MW-capable data centre facility will accelerate the country’s digitalisation by enabling clients – including carriers, content providers, cloud operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to grow their operations within the DRC whenever and however they want.
OADC Kinshasa, which will grow to 1000m2 of white space and ultimately accommodate more than 550 racks. The facility is adjacent to major fibre routes, available through a range of onsite providers, enabling clients to easily connect to whichever connectivity provider they prefer.
[1] Africell RDC, Fast Congo, Global Broadband Solution (GBS, Liquid, MicroCom, Orange RDC, OrionCom, RAGA NET and United
OADC Kinshasa will underpin and expedite further development of the country’s ICT capabilities, delivering colocation and other value-added data centre services that support the cloud infrastructure needs of a wide range of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to improve efficiency, expedite digitisation initiatives and more effectively service business and customer needs.
The open-access, carrier-neutral facility will transform the digital infrastructure ecosystem by creating the DRC’s first vibrant and comprehensive interconnection and peering ecosystem involving multiple carriers, ISPs, content providers and Internet Exchanges.
The facility embodies carrier-neutral principles, maximising interconnection opportunities for all clients. Increased competition and improved operator cost-efficiencies will contribute to the expected decrease in cost of internet connectivity for the Congolese people and companies and be a major enabler for the emergence and enhancement of the DRC’s digital ecosystem.
With a population of more than 16 million people, Kinshasa is at the epicentre of demand for digital connectivity services within the DRC. The data centre is located within TEXAF’s SILIKIN VILLAGE digital hub and operated by award-winning WIOCC Group company OADC, the fastest-growing data centre company in Africa and TEXAF, the only listed company with all its activities in the DRC.
OADC and TEXAF have partnered in the creation of this essential building block of the digital ecosystem in the DRC. This fully validates TEXAF’s strategy of attracting international industry leaders such as OADC to the country and specifically into the new SILIKIN VILLAGE digital hub.
Mohammed Bouhelal, Managing Director of the OADC operation in the DRC commented: “OADC Kinshasa will boost multiple sectors of DRC’s economy, create rich and vibrant digital ecosystems, and provide content distribution networks and cloud content providers with access to a quality peering location in the country.”
He added: “There has already been strong uptake from telcos looking to colocate in our facility, the banking sector is leading the way in adopting OADC solutions and OADC is attracting large international content providers to the DRC.”
Unique converged open-access digital infrastructure proposition
Converged open digital infrastructure (CODI) – the provision of carrier-neutral, open access data centre facilities connected to resilient, hyperscale, open-access, subsea and terrestrial networks – supplemented by a rich, vibrant digital ecosystem, will help boost the DRC’s economy and expedite digital transformation in the country.
It will not only offer businesses a viable alternative to self-build and self-manage data centre facilities, with all the dedicated resource, expertise, management time and cost benefits that come with that, but also support the cloud infrastructure needs of a wide range of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to improve efficiency, expedite digitisation initiatives and more effectively service business and customer needs. Carriers too will benefit, because OADC Kinshasa offers them connectivity revenue opportunities and the opportunity to extend their service portfolios, by including a managed colocation service capability.
