Current

1
Current Future Status of National Regional
Internet Exchange Points in Africa

• Reducing costs and speeding up content delivery

NAPLA2003, Buenos Aires, Argentina 21st August
2003
2
Introduction

• Brian Longwe
• General Manager, AfrISPA
• Chief Technology Officer, ISPKenya
• Senior Technical Analyst, PCH
• brian_at_pure-id.com

3
Status of IXPs/NAPs in Africa

• South Africa JINX - est. 1997
• Zimbabwe ZIX - est. 1999
• Kenya KIXP - est. Feb. 2002
• Mozambique MOZ-IX - est. May 2002
• Egypt EG-IX - est. May 2002
• Kinshasa, DRC KINIX - est. December 2002
  Uganda UIXP est. June 2003
• Tanzania TIXP- est. June2003
• Nigeria IBIX - est. April 2003

4
Status of IXPs/NAPs in Africa
Out of 53 countries in Africa only 9 have
national IXPs
AfrISPAs African Internet Exchange Task Force -
AFIX-TF aims to facilitate the establishment of
up to 30 IXPs over the next 3 years
?
5
Case Study KIXP

• KIXP online 14th February 2002
• Initially four ISPs were exchanging traffic
• Currently ten are exchanging traffic
• SwiftGlobal
• Kenyaweb
• ISPKenya
• UUNET Kenya
• Interconnect
• Wananchi Online
• AccessKenya
• Nairobinet
• Mitsuminet
• Insight Kenya

6
Case Study KIXP
Quality of service and exchange of domestic
Kenyan IP traffic
7
Case Study KIXP
Difference between international and domestic
leased line prices in Kenya. December 2000
8
IXPs Things to Do

• Any Peering/IX initiative involves 10 technical
  work
• The remaining 90 is relationships
  (socio-political engineering)
• Official regulatory support
• Definition of internal peering policy framework

9
Regional Internet Exchange Justifications

• Most African countries exchange Internet traffic
  via countries in the West (and Asia)
• African ISPs must purchase transit to African
  destinations via US/European/Asian ISPs
• This equates to an exportation of capital to
  developed nations at the expense of developing
  countries

10
Regional Internet Exchange Justifications
Share of backbone connections to countries with
less than 5 ISPs Source OECD via Netcraft
11
Regional Internet Exchange Justifications

• Independent Research shows that Africa loses over
  US400 Million/yr for telecommunications traffic
  exchange via other continents
• The least developed continent in the world
• paying the most developed for internal
  communications?
• This does not make sense!

12
Regional Internet Exchange Justifications

• A strong, domestic Internet industry creates
  high-paying knowledge worker positions
• Domestic traffic exchange reduces the importation
  of foreign content and cultural values, in favor
  of domestic content authoring and publishing

13
Regional Internet Exchange Strategy

• Establishment of National Internet Exchange
  Points
• Create opportunities for the emergence of
  Regional Carriers facilitating regional
  peering/continental transit
• Promote the development of cross-border links and
  inter-country infrastructure

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Critical Factors for Regional IXPs/Regional
Carriers

• National Exchanges
• Political Support
• Policy Reform
• Regulatory Provisioning
• Regional Cooperation
• Strategic Partnerships
• Existence of Critical Infrastructure
• DIGITAL ARTERIES

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SAT-2, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, SEA-ME-WE, ATLANTIS 2,
FLAG
Source CTiA Report 2002/03
Current African Submarine Fibre Connectivity
Mostly Perimeter
16
Planned Intra-Country Fibre COMTEL
Source CTiA Report 2002/03
17
Planned Intra-Country Fibre SRII
Source CTiA Report 2002/03
18
Planned Intra-Country Fibre EADTP
Source CTiA Report 2002/03
19
Current Initiatives

• AfrISPAs AFIX-TF
• 30 IXPs over next 3 years
• Connectivity Africas RXP Project
• Proof of Concept Regional Exchange Point
• Pan African Virtual Internet Exchange - PAVIX
• East African Marine Fiber
• Optical linkage between Durban and Djibouti

20
Thank You!

• http//www.afrispa.org
• http//www.catia.ws
• http//www.connectivityafrica.org