M-Pesa: expanding the MPLS network for mobile payments
Delivery Manager for M-Pesa in Kenya and Mozambique, expanding the MPLS network to support the mobile payments platform.
- MPLS
- Network delivery
- Mobile payments
Context
What was happening?
M-Pesa is Vodafone's mobile payments platform. In Kenya and Mozambique its growth depended on the underlying data network: every transaction is a network transaction, and the MPLS network had to expand to carry it.
Challenge
What problem needed solving?
Expand the MPLS network in two markets to support the mobile payments platform, coordinating network delivery around a platform that was already live.
Architecture
What was the architectural approach?
The work was network delivery in service of a platform: MPLS expansion sized and sequenced around the payments platform's needs, in two countries with different infrastructure realities.
- 01M-Pesa platform
Mobile payments — the service the network had to carry
- 02MPLS expansion
Network capacity and reach across Kenya and Mozambique
- 03Delivery management
Sequencing and market-specific constraints
My role
What I actually did
Delivery Manager for M-Pesa in Kenya and Mozambique — managing the MPLS network expansion that supported the platform.
Transformation
What changed?
Network capacity and reach were expanded ahead of the platform's growth in both markets, with delivery managed across two very different infrastructure environments.
Outcome
What was achieved?
MPLS network expansion delivered in Kenya and Mozambique in support of M-Pesa. Transaction and capacity figures are not published here.
What I learned
The broader architectural insight
Related thinking
Why B2B connectivity is different from B2C
B2C architecture optimises for volume and uniformity. B2B connectivity is multi-site, multi-party, contract-specific and long-lived — and architectures built for one rarely serve the other.