The Internet Exchange Point (IXP) that was launched in Swaziland last week by the African Union Commission (AUC) , will contribute to bringing efficiency in the routing of intra-country internet traffic and hence faster and more secure exchange of intra-country internet traffic.
Through the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project, the African Union Commission has so far extended capacity building support to facilitate the establishment of IXPs in 24 Member States including Swaziland. The capacity building support facilitated the setting up of the necessary structures and prepared network engineers with the technical skills to interconnect their networks to the IXP.
In addition to the capacity building support, the AU donated equipment and services to set up and launch the IXPs in Namibia, Burundi and Swaziland. The total cost of the support extended to realise each IXP is $63,000.
“It has been a long road travelled together with the African Union Commission towards what we are here about today – our national IXP. The African Union Commission has indeed proved to be a real mother to the nations on the African Continent by pioneering the African Internet Exchange System Project which has helped countries to establish their own IXPs” says Dumisani C. Ndlangamandla, Minister of Information, Communication and Technology.
“While the launch of the IXP is a welcome and laudable development towards our efforts to reduce cost and inefficiency associated with routing of the continent’s internet traffic through overseas carriers, we are still at the very early stage of harnessing the potential of IXPs in Africa. It is in this regard that the African Union Commission plans issue a request for proposals to select internet exchange points to be supported to grow into regional IXPs” says Moctar Yedaly, Head of Information Society Division, African Union Commission.