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AU to localise African Internet

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 24 Aug 2012

In a bid to keep African Internet traffic local to the continent, the African Union (AU) has appointed the Internet Society to propagate Internet exchange points (IXPs) throughout Africa.

In what the team has dubbed the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS), the Internet Society will conduct community mobilisation and technical aspect workshops to support the establishment of IXPs in AU member states. The AXIS project was announced yesterday, at the Internet Society's annual African Peering Interconnection Forum, in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Funded by the Euro-Africa infrastructure fund and the Government of Luxembourg, the aim of the AXIS project is to keep Africa's Internet traffic within the borders of the continent, by providing capacity-building and technical assistance to establish national and regional IXPs in Africa.

Exorbitant outlay

According to Moctar Yedaly, head of the information society division of the African Union Commission, Africa is paying overseas carriers to exchange local traffic - a “costly and inefficient way of handling inter-country exchange of Internet traffic”.

Yedaly notes that independent analysis has shown Africa pays over $600 million annually to developed countries for inter-African traffic exchange that is carried outside the continent.

The Internet Society says, as countries establish their own IXPs, Internet traffic will be routed locally - lowering costs and stimulating growth in and distribution of local Internet content. “Through the AXIS project, the interests of the AU and the Internet Society, working with other African Internet organisations such as the African Network Information Centre, African Network Operators' Group and Africa Top Level Domains Organisation, will be realised to assist in the development of a more locally operated and, hence, more robust and economically accessible pan-African Internet.”

Through the AXIS project, the Internet Society is committed to organising 60 community mobilisation and technical aspects workshops in 30 African countries. “To this effect, the Internet Society will also contribute its own resources for the implementation of this component of the AXIS project.”

Dawit Bekele, regional bureau director for Africa at the Internet Society, says the organisation sees the AXIS project as “extremely important” to the continued health of the Internet ecosystem in Africa. “Building the technical infrastructure and training the people to sustain it are fundamental to extending the Internet in Africa.”

The Internet Society has provided technical training in Africa since the early 1990s and supports the development of human and technical capacity to Internet infrastructure in Africa and around the world. The organisation's African Bureau was started in 2006. With 24 chapters, the Internet Society African Bureau works to promote capacity-building and the “responsible development of the Internet throughout Africa”.

Its principle focus is improving interconnection and traffic exchange within the continent through the implementation of IXPs, network training, and capacity-building.

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