French telecommunications multinational Orange is spearheading the construction of a datacentre in Botswana as part of a 70-million Pula (approximately US$6.6-million) project.

Orange said the datacentre is schedule to be completed by the end of 2019 and will connect national and international networks. The project also covers migration of existing Orange equipment to the newly established datacentre.

Orange Botswana said it will invest US$4.8-milliion annually on new equipment for the datacentre.

This will enable the facility to record expansion of its core network and information system, according to the telco.

The new datacentre is expected to cover 81% of the population with 2G network capability, 62% with 3G and 45% with 4G.

Construction on the centre officially began on 3 December 2018 and the project has a 12-month timeline. No external contractor has been named.

Another important component of the project is the establishment of a disaster recovery site.

Patrick Benon, president and CEO of Orange Botswana, said the disaster recovery site would enable the operator to manage traffic and transactions seamlessly. "At the end of the project, we will be able to guarantee a perfect business continuity solution for our network and services. The migration process is very restrictive because we will have to make sure that there will be no interruption of service and that the migration will be transparent for our customers."

President of Botswana, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, added, "Government investment will complement those from the private sector, such as Orange's infrastructure development, which runs into millions of Pula every day. I must applaud Orange Botswana for such a commitment to our national development agenda."