NAPAfrica reaches a new peak - 15Gbps

Johannesburg, South Africa

NAPAfrica's Internet exchange traffic has reached a record-breaking peak of 15Gbps, making it the largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Africa. NAPAfrica is housed within Teraco’s carrier and vendor neutral data centre facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

The growth of this African IXP has been nothing short of phenomenal: it was launched in March 2012 and by December 2013 traffic was peaking at 5Gbps. In a little over two years, NAPAfrica has outperformed other leading IXPs by achieving double-digit growth. This rapid adoption by the market proves that peering exchanges are a much needed facility in the African Internet ecosystem.

Peering in Africa not only makes the Internet more affordable, but IXPs play a key role in advancing the development of the Internet ecosystem. IXPs such as NAPAfrica help to deliver a lower cost and superior usage experience for the consumer, which in turn drives demand for the industry as a whole.

Peering is not new - the practice of ISPs, network and content providers exchanging traffic directly, has been in existence for many years. This type of interconnection and exchange encourages the local routing of domestic or regional traffic and in doing so, reduces costs and improves performance. 

In reaching the 15Gbps mark, NAPAfrica has just proven yet again that the IXP (or peering) model works and makes a positive contribution to the Internet economy of Africa.

The role of the IXP in Africa will continue to grow in importance as the Internet increasingly globalises and interconnection between networks, content providers and users becomes even more critical. Consumer demand for services with increased bandwidth requirements will continue to surge (e.g. VOD etc.) with lower tolerance levels for latency.

The the growth of IXPs such as NAPAfrica mirrors that of more developed markets.

The growth of NAPAfrica is due to its impressive community, NAPAfrica has 140 members across its three Internet Exchange Points including many of the large global content providers.

Internationally IXPs are known for the value they bring in terms of the development of the Internet ecosystem. The understanding and acceptance of this concept has been slow to develop in Africa. Until recently Africa has been lagging, mostly due of a lack of understanding of the role of the IXP and what benefits it can provide. As a case in point: NAPAfrica is significant proof that Africa is not playing catch-up, it has already arrived.

Building the case for Africa: Using open peering to reduce risk and expose the myriad opportunities available in the African market to new entrants

Presentation Synopsis – RIPE 66, 13-17 May 2013

Dublin, Ireland

Africa is the 2^nd largest continent, after Asia, in both size and population. With over 1-billion inhabitants and over 167-million Internet users, it is a significant emerging market.

Various policy and regulatory changes across Africa have seen a leap in the slow progression from Africa’s reliance on satellite connectivity to fibre-optic and even terrestrial wireless networks. As connectivity providers move further into the continent, the challenges that have defined Africa’s sluggish Internet growth are gradually being met. In many instances, cross border and cross continental internet traffic is still routed via the large exchanges in Europe, resulting in delayed delivery and increased costs for African users.

In 2013, African Internet Service Providers are now presented with the ability to join multi-lateral peering exchanges where connection to major international carriers is possible.  This not only allows them to offer African consumers access to high speed connections, but the connection is now at a dramatically reduced cost ultimately opening up connectivity to a much larger market and thus exposing business opportunities to a larger consumer market. 

South Africa as a springboard to Africa…

Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing sectors of the South African economy, driven by rapid growth in mobile telephony and broadband connectivity. With a network that is 99.9% digital and includes the latest in fixed-line, terrestrial fibre, wireless and satellite communication, the country has the most developed telecoms network in Africa.

In 2009, South Africa ranked 34th in the world in terms of fixed-line telephony, with over 4.3-million fixed-line connections. South Africa is one of the fastest growing mobile communications markets in the world. As of 2012, there were over 59-million active sim cards in South Africa, ranking the country 26th in terms of subscriber numbers.

Using the connectivity in Africa

An increase in the number of undersea data cables linking Africa to the rest of the world, as well as market liberalisation, has seen a shake-up in local internet access, with the number of internet users finally breaking through the 15% mark in internet penetration for the continent.

The Seacom submarine fibre-optic cable system linking south and east Africa to global networks via India and Europe was commissioned in July 2009, while the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), that links countries along the continent's eastern coast to the rest of the world, started service in August 2010.

WACS and ACE, the west African cable system linking southern and western African countries respectively with Europe were operational in 2012.

Several other cable systems linking Africa to Asia and the southern Americas are already under constructions: BRICS, WASACE, SAexpress and SACS. These cable systems are due to be operational in late 2014. See cable map below:

The challenge…

The challenge for the industry is to continue to remove distance and cost barriers to Internet growth and innovation and identify locally relevant methods for content distribution to be faster and more efficient on the continent. 

The case for local exchanges, specifically those offering free, multi-lateral peering exchanges have never been stronger. As a driver of reducing transit costs and bringing content closer to the end user, a major opportunity exists to improve distribution of connectivity in Africa, drive growth in broadband access and ultimately ‘light-up’ a previously dark continent.

Akamai finds a home in Africa

Teraco, Africa’s provider of carrier and vendor neutral data centres, recently teamed up with local ISP Vox Telecom to bring Akamai’s global content to Africa’s doorstep. 

The Akamai node and infrastructure is being deployed in Teraco and will be connected to the NAPAfrica IXP (internet exchange point) in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

By leveraging the Vox Telecom carrier network, hosting within the most connected data centre on the continent, Akamai will now be able to deliver international content to local consumers at improved speeds.  This marks a trend in global content service providors investing in African shores seeking to provide more cost-efficient internet content and access throughout Africa.   

Providing African internet users with quality international content from a local node, cost effectively and at world-class download speeds, remains a challenge. Video-driven data is flooding the internet adding to consumer demand. With Akamai and other global content providers building local nodes and gearing-up through the NAPAfrica IXP (internet exchange point), however, the internet consumer market can now look forward to reaping the benefits of an improved user experience and faster download speeds.

The Akamai infrastructure will provide access to key content from global providers, as well as access to an SSL certificate node.  

The days of Africa's internet users envying the incredible download speeds of their international peers are numbered. The addition of international content providers to the NAPAfrica IXP (internet exchange point) means that end users will be able to view video content without endless buffering, access international gaming platforms with a substantially quicker response and download software in a fraction of the time we have become accustomed to. 

African Internet Pioneers Targeted For .Africa

As the likely administrator of the new .africa generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has embarked on an awareness programme targeting Africa’s best known brands.

The .africa Pioneer Programme aims to encourage a premier set of early adopters to lend their support to Africa’s new space on the web. “We’re encouraging African movers and shakers in the arts, commerce, government and other sectors to sign up for the .africa Pioneer Programme which will entitle them to certain rights and rewards relating to the proposed .africa gTLD,” said Octavia Kumalo, PR & Marketing head For the dotAfrica project.

By lending their support to the call for African brands to register their .africa domains when they become available later this year, Pioneer Programme participants will potentially have their desired .africa domain name placed on a Reserve Name List. Once the name is delegated they will have first rights to it.

“As with everything, certain rights bring certain responsibilities. The .africa Pioneer will be required to actively use the .africa domain name and they will also be required to make use of the “I support .africa logo” across their different marketing platforms,” explained Ms Kumalo.

She further explained that .africa is the new Top Level Domain (TLD) for the African continent and it is fully endorsed by the African Union (AU) and has widespread support across the continent. African governments, the business sector, civil society and the technical community are all supporting the drive for Africa’s own space on the web, and in particular, for this space to be managed by the ZACR. It is important to note that a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee from across the African continent leads the ZACR .africa initiative.

“The ZACR bid for .africa is easily one of the leading examples of pan-African cooperation ever witnessed,” said Ms Kumalo.

The .africa TLD application is still with ICANN undergoing assessments with a further evaluation milestone will hopefully set to be chalked up on 15 May 2013. The delegation of the new gTLDs is planned for the third quarter of this year – subsequently the .africa TLD will be available for launch and registration.

The .africa TLD will be launched in two phases, namely: Sunrise and Landrush. During the Sunrise phase, trademark and brand names will be given priority for sales. Thereafter, the open delegation or landrush phase will commence. Trademark holders, such as the envisaged participants in the ZACR Pioneer Programme, will need to register their trademarks with the Trademark Clearing House or through the Mark Validation System (MVS).

The latter is a ZACR initiative modeled on the Trademark Clearing House which will be used to validate African trademark holders and have the advantage of much lower fees.

The above will ensure that .africa Registry Operators sell .africa domains to the rightful intellectual property holders.

source: itnewsafrica.com

New Study from Internet Society and Analysys Mason Examines Factors Hindering Development of Internet Access in Africa

Research explores impact of telecom infrastructure investments and corresponding improvements to Internet access and service

WASHINGTON & GENEVA -- 

The Internet Society published a new study, ‘Lifting barriers to Internet development in Africa: suggestions for improving connectivity,’ which examines the factors hindering Internet development in Africa and explores possible remedies.

The research, conducted by Analysys Mason and commissioned by the Internet Society, found that despite investments resulting in significant improvements to Africa’s telecom infrastructure in the past five years, these investments have in some cases not translated into lowered prices or increased quality of services for Internet users. These investments have focused on undersea cable to improve international connectivity and terrestrial fibre networks between countries.

The study shows that in many countries the development of Internet access is hampered by constraints on terrestrial connectivity between the submarine cables, the Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), last mile access infrastructures, and Internet Service Providers that deliver access to end-users in Africa. The report sets forth an Internet development approach focused on removing regulatory roadblocks and promoting Internet-specific investments, supported by a high-level policy environment to result in greater Internet availability and empowerment in Africa.

“This study is significant as it identifies some of the last barriers for the development of Internet infrastructure in Africa,” noted Dawit Bekele, Regional Bureau Director for Africa, Internet Society. “It pinpoints the issues that all stakeholders and more particularly African governments and telecommunication regulators need to address to ensure that the massive infrastructural development that we have seen in Africa in the last few years results in bringing Internet to all Africans at an affordable price.”

Jane Coffin, Director for Development Strategy at the Internet Society, added, “We hope that this study will spark a national and regional debate in Africa that impacts future Internet development. There is so much that stakeholders can do to close infrastructure gaps by working together through creative public-private partnerships and by taking bold steps to allow change to happen by breaking down traditional barriers and allowing market entrants greater ease in network deployment.”

“For us, the variation between regions in retail price of Internet traffic was revealing, with some ISPs offering access at USD 10 per gigabyte of traffic, and others charging up to ten times more than that. East Africa appears to offer best value, particularly for low-volume users who tend to have lower incomes,” commented one of the report’s authors, Robert Schumann.

Michael Kende, Partner at Analysys Mason, noted that in many countries, the regulatory reform of the telecoms sector is not yet complete. “African Internet ecosystems grow strongest when a wide range of operators can offer service and exchange traffic, but in many countries regulatory and practical barriers remain to private investment.”

This new report follows an Analysys Mason study commissioned by the Internet Society on the impact of IXPs in Kenya and Nigeria, which found that IXPs improve the quality of Internet services and save African operators millions of dollars annually in connectivity fees. The IXP study shows that a key factor in the success of IXPs is the availability of low-cost, widely-accessible connectivity, both domestically and across borders and oceans, and the study was commissioned to help address those gaps.

The study is available for download: www.internetsociety.org/liftingbarriers

Announcing the 4th annual African Peering and Interconnection Forum

Fourth Annual African Peering and Interconnection Forum to Focus on Policy Aspects of IXPs, Content, and Cross-Border Interconnections in Africa 

Internet Society to host AfPIF 2013 in Casablanca, Morocco, 3 – 5 September

AfPIF 2013 accorded High Patronage by the Minister of Industry, Trade, and New Technologies

The fourth annual African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF), organized by the Internet Society, will be held 3-5 September 2013 in Casablanca, Morocco.  A unique regional forum, AfPIF facilitates discussions on African Internet infrastructure challenges, including terrestrial capacity issues, national and regional Internet Exchange Point (IXP) development, local content development, measures to lower connectivity costs, and international peering. The Ministry of Industry, Trade, and New Technologies of Morocco has accorded his High Patronage on this event.

The three-day program brings together key stakeholders, including Internet service and content providers, IXP operators, research and education networks, government network managers, regulators and policymakers to share experiences and advance peering and interconnection arrangements.  The theme of AfPIF 2013 is “Policy Implementation and the Regional Content Factor,” and the forum will address region-to-region policy, tapping into terrestrial cable potential and traffic management needs, as well as content issues that are critical components of transit deficits.

“Nearly all peering and interconnection agreements are forged at regional and global peering forums such as AfPIF. We are pleased to offer this important event for the fourth consecutive year and provide an opportunity for the business and operational community to work together to augment Internet infrastructure and services in Africa,” said Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau Director for Africa. “AfPIF offers the ideal venue for discussions and ideas on how to implement more efficient and cost effective local, regional, and international interconnection and peering strategies.”

For more information on sponsorships and program details, visit http://www.internetsociety.org/events/afpif-2013-3-5-september-2013

Sentech shows support for Open Peering

SENTECH, the signal distributor for the majority of South Africa’s broadcasters, is now live on peering platform, NAPAfrica.  Lex van Wyk, chief executive officer of Teraco says, “SENTECH will now be able to distribute content to an ever-growing list of peering members already housed within the facility.”  

The move is a significant first for the South African government.  “With SENTECH joining the open peering movement we’re hoping that this will lead to further improvements in the distribution of key content to the end user – specifically within communities requiring health related and educational content.”

Dr Setumo Mohapi, Chief Executive Officer of SENTECH says that the company’s use of NAPAfrica for peering and online content distribution is an integral part of its approach to enabling universal access to multimedia content through open access platforms. “We have ambitious plans for the years ahead, and we’re pleased with our decision to opt for neutral facility offering access to a growing community of businesses as well as cost effective peering.” 

Peering, and the importance thereof is a critical element in today’s internet infrastructure. “The growth and success of peering points can be directly linked to additional broadcast content being widely and easily available. With this progression, and the cost-reduction involved, we hope to ultimately see a direct impact on the overall economic growth across the continent. Peering is directly related to the price of internet transit, which has decreased substantially in regions where successful exchanges have been established.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are vital elements of Internet infrastructure that enable networks to exchange traffic with each other.  Multiple internet service and content providers connect to a single exchange creating the potential for a range of technical and economic benefits for the Internet community.  Local and international content providers rely on the availability of high-speed, low-cost connections in order to guarantee the quality of service to the end subscriber at a low cost entry point.