2. Intra-African Connectivity Bridges to a continental backbone iWeek, Johannesburg, SA 17 th September 2003

3. Introduction Brian Longwe  General Manager, AfrISPA

4. Background IS the USA really the backbone of the Internet?

5. Background US Centric Traffic Flows Cumbersome!

6. Problems Poor Performance on transfers between African countries  900 – 2000ms latency for Inter- country traffic  Heavy dependence on Inter- Continental Satellite connectivity  Insufficient internal optical fibre connectivity  Insufficient cross-border connectivity

7. Barriers Legislation Economics Socio-Political Agendas Inter-Provider Cooperation and Collaboration

8. Solutions National Exchange Points: Interconnecting Local ISPs Local ISPs Gateways Internet Exchange Point Keep Local Traffic Local!

9. Solutions Regional Exchange Points: Interconnecting National IXs

10. 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 Nigeria: Lagos IX - est. Aug 2003?

11. Status of IXPs/NAPs in Africa ∂ Out of 53 countries in Africa… … only 9 have national IXPs AfrISPA’s African Internet Exchange Task Force - AFIX-TF aims to facilitate the establishment of up to 30 IXPs over the next 3 years

12. 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

13. Regional Internet Traffic 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

14. Regional Internet Traffic Exchange: Justifications Share of backbone connections to countries with less than 5 ISPs Source: OECD via Netcraft

15. Regional Internet Exchange: Justifications Independent Research shows that Africa loses over US$400 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!

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. SAT-2, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, SEA-ME-WE, ATLANTIS 2, FLAG Current African Submarine Fibre Connectivity: Mostly “Perimeter” Source: CTiA Report 2002/03

20. Planned Intra-Country Fibre: COMTEL Source: CTiA Report 2002/03

21. Planned Intra-Country Fibre: SRII Source: CTiA Report 2002/03

22. Planned Intra-Country Fibre: EADTP Source: CTiA Report 2002/03

23. Current Initiatives AfrISPAs AFIX-TF  30 IXPs over next 3 years Connectivity Africa’s RXP Project  “Proof of Concept” Regional Exchange Point  Pan African Virtual Internet Exchange - PAVIX East African Marine Fiber  Optical linkage between Durban and Djibouti

24. Thank You! http://www.afrispa.org http://www.catia.ws http://www.connectivityafrica.org