Newly-Installed Local Servers To Quadruple Internet Speed & Save Over KES 2 Bn Worth Of Mobile Data In Kenya

Opera, one of the world’s leading browser developers with more than 350 million monthly active users, has today announced the successful installation of its new local servers in Mombasa, Kenya.

The company claims that the newly-installed servers will significantly increase browsing speed up to four times faster than before, meaning that millions of Kenyans who use Opera products, such as the popular Opera Mini browser, will enjoy a faster experience when accessing their favorite online content.

“Kenya is a hyper-connected country with 86 percent of its population already online. The challenge is supplying users with uninterrupted and quick internet connectivity,” said Krystian Zubel, IT Director at Opera. “With the installation of our local data servers in Mombasa, we are improving connectivity speeds and meeting the needs of millions of connected Kenyans.”

The new data servers are located in the iColo.io MBA1 data center facility, chosen for its strategic location, ability to cool high-performance computing, and its local and international connectivity.

“We feel privileged to be supporting Opera in their African growth and efforts to improve connectivity across Kenya. Using our strong community of connectivity partners, content delivery networks and global networks in Mombasa, Opera can reach their end-users in the most reliable manner,” said Ranjith Cherickel, CEO at iColo.io.

With the installation of the new local servers, Opera is reducing connection latency and providing Kenyans with swifter browsing.

According to the test results, the response time to servers has significantly improved, with a 4-fold increase in response time for users with the fastest network conditions. In addition, overall browsing has become even faster with the implementation of intelligent caching mechanisms.

Despite an apparent decline in its browser market share and the increased prominence of its fintech products, Opera still boasts 350 million monthly active users worldwide, with 120 million of those users based in Africa.

The company also says Kenyans, in particular, browse more than one hundred thousand web pages with Opera Mini every day, taking advantage of the data compression capabilities of the browser.

By enabling the data compression technology of Opera Mini, and connecting to the local data server in Kenya, Opera will make every load page request faster, saving a reported 4400 hours of time waiting for webpages to load.

According to up-to-date data on AppAnnie, Opera Mini is currently the most downloaded browser in Kenya on Android devices.

The mobile browser boasts a rich collection of features that appear to sit well with Kenyans, including its well-known data compression technology.

During the second half of last year, Opera Mini reported that users in Kenya saved more than one million gigabytes in mobile data, which translates into over KES 2 Bn saved in mobile data.

The installation of the new Opera data servers in Kenya is also part of Opera’s strategy to play an active role in the digital transformation of Africa.

It is also understood that the company has ambitious plans to expand the presence of its data servers to more African countries and continue enhancing the digital lives of millions of internet users across the continent.