“The plan is to reduce latency and provide Opera users with a faster network,” it said. “We will provide official communication once the installation and testing are complete.”

Opera is a popular alternative to Google’s Chrome web browser and has placed a particular emphasis on driving digital uptake in Africa. “In the African region, it was the Opera browser that first brought the full Internet experience to mobile phones,” said Opera in August 2019.

“We are glad to say that we are leading the exciting digital revolution on the continent as one in five Africans uses Opera browsers every day.” Opera believes it offers a valuable alternative to other browsers through its Opera Mini browser, which it claimed saved African users 77 petabytes of data in 2019. “We don’t know when the costs of data will become more accessible,” said Opera.

“What we do know is that the data compression technology in Opera Mini has proven to be a great solution for people wanting to spend less money on data bundles.”