AfrISPA appoints regional carriers

Johannesburg, 03 May 2005

As part of its aim to establish true inter-country connectivity within the African continent, the African Internet Service Providers Association (AfrISPA) has appointed two organisations as regional carriers.

Transtel and the Africa Online/SkyVision JV are the two bidders that successfully met AfrISPA`s criteria to provide an African regional Internet traffic solution, in order to remove the current dependence upon overseas carriers and to promote the establishment and growth of African regional data carriers.

The establishment of a network of Internet exchange points (IXPs) within Africa would also result in reduced costs, improved speeds and the improvement of the Internet backbone within Africa as a whole.

Africa Online is a Pan-African ISP with operations in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia, Swaziland and the Ivory Coast, as well as a partner in a joint venture company with UUNet that allows it to directly cover Zambia.

SkyVision is a provider of Internet services over satellite, specialising in Internet backbone connectivity service.

Transtel is one of the largest private telecommunication network operators in the southern hemisphere, and is also a 15% stakeholder in SA`s second national operator (SNO). It has been operating a satellite network division since 1994, and has customers in 18 countries.

According to AfrISPA, Africa Online will offer a fully meshed network, which uses proven and reliable VSAT technology to provide point-to-point connectivity between IXPs.

It will also utilise existing terrestrial links between certain countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania, making it possible to create regional hubs whose component countries can share one VSAT link and so reduce installation costs even further.

Transtel, on the other hand, can connect to Internet carriers from Europe or at the South African node should any of the ISPs require international bandwidth via this system.