The Jasco Group has expanded the presence of NewTelco South Africa, a joint venture between the Jasco Group and NewTelco, into the East African region with a dedicated presence in Kenya.
“The East African ICT market is one of the fastest growing ICT markets on the African continent. It is a well-developed, open and deregulated market that is still is attracting much foreign direct investment. Kenya is considered to be the gateway into East Africa, and is therefore the ideal location for a presence in the region,” says Eckart Zollner, business development manager at NewTelco SA and the Jasco Group. “We have been operating in the area for around a year now, and we believe that market conditions are ideal for taking our outsourced network services more aggressively to the market.”
Initially, NewTelco SA will be contracting local Jasco resources from the group’s East Africa office in Nairobi to service customers in the region. However, as the business grows, the organisation will look at the possibility of employing additional staff to cater for demand. NewTelco will be offering services out of established data centres in Kenya, including the East Africa Data Centre (EADC). This supports the organisation’s strategy of building carrier communities, which requires access to established, carrier neutral data centres.
The EADC represents the oldest and largest of these data centres in Kenya. The initial focus will be to engage with the local, regional and International carrier community and enable them to to provide direct services into or out of this region.
“Our presence in Kenya and the East African market as a whole will open the door for companies within the region who wish to operate with a network presence in South Africa or Europe. In addition, we will create opportunities for network operators from Europe, the US or other parts of Africa to establish their own presence in this fast paced market. This is an important step in further bridging the digital divide in Africa, and connecting the continent to the world,” Zollner adds.
