The majority of local Internet service providers (ISPs) have caved into MWeb's unilateral demands for open peering arrangements. Telkom, however, stands firm on its decision to refute MWeb's decision to cut transit links and its subsequent demands.
MWeb said last month it would no longer pay a cent for local transit links and that any local ISP wanting to connect to it would have to peer with it directly. The company then severed its paid peering through Telkom's wholesale Internet access provider, SAIX, to providers like MTN Business and Vodacom.
Subsequently, MWeb cut its peering link to Telkom/SAIX, opting rather to re-route local traffic through international networks.
Peering is the arrangement of traffic exchange between ISPs. Larger ISPs with their own backbone networks agree to allow traffic from other large ISPs in exchange for traffic on their backbones.
ISPs may opt to enter a peering arrangement if they can justify similar content volumes and, by extension, similar traffic patterns between their networks. However, larger ISPs usually opt to charge the smaller players for transit links, because the traffic patterns between the two networks are inevitably unequal.
Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWeb ISP, says the majority of ISPs have since agreed to an open peering arrangement, including the likes of Vodacom and MTN Business.
“We have been able to demonstrate that the traffic flowing between our respective networks is balanced, and so peering makes sense at both a commercial and technical level. Ultimately, the customers that sit on either side of these networks benefit from a better service experience and that has also been taken into consideration,” explains Hershaw.
He notes, however, that Telkom is the only major network with which MWeb still does not have a peering arrangement in place.
Telkom stands firm
But the fixed-line operator says its standpoint on the issue has not changed. Telkom has previously justified its position, saying it does not consider its peering costs to be unreasonable.
“Telkom has an internationally benchmarked peering policy. The policy follows best practice principles that are applied by network providers in fully competitive, commercially functional and efficient Internet markets globally. The policy requirements are applied uniformly,” stated the operator.
Telkom noted that MWeb's invitation to peer was considered against these principles, as would any request for peering with Telkom.
“Peering, however, is not meant to amount to free provisioning of network infrastructure by one party to another, since someone has to cover the capital expenditure of the network,” the company stated.
Telkom said it wishes to engage in alternate content distribution mechanisms with mutual benefits to the MWeb and Telkom subscriber bases. MWeb has previously been informed accordingly, Telkom noted at the time.
But MWeb is also sticking to its guns, saying it will maintain its position against ISPs who will not enter into a peering agreement.
“It remains the most technically efficient way to route traffic between networks so the customer ultimately benefits. At the same time, the exorbitant costs of transit bandwidth remain one of the reasons why the cost of Internet access is still too high in SA, relative to the rest of the world,” concludes Hershaw.
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Telkom slams MWeb's peering plans
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