[governance] Fwd: [ISOC] NEWS RELEASE: African Union (AU) Selects the Internet Society to Support Establishment of Internet Exchange Points across Africa

Thu Aug 23 15:46:31 EDT 2012

Dear All,

For the benefit of those who do not subscribe to ISOC, these are some
developments in Africa.

Sala

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <cover at isoc.org>
Date: Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:16 AM
Subject: [ISOC] NEWS RELEASE: African Union (AU) Selects the Internet
Society to Support Establishment of Internet Exchange Points across Africa
To: isoc-members-announce at elists.isoc.org

African Union (AU) Selects the Internet Society to Support Establishment of
Internet Exchange Points across Africa

Project includes 60 capacity building workshops in 30 countries

[Johannesburg, South Africa --23 August 2012] – The Internet Society today
announced that it has been selected by the African Union (AU) to conduct
community mobilization and technical aspects workshops to support the
establishment of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in AU Member States as
part of the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project. The AXIS
project aims at keeping Africa’s Internet traffic local to the continent by
providing capacity building and technical assistance to facilitate the
establishment of National Internet Exchange Points and Regional Internet
Exchange Points in Africa. The project is funded by the Euro-Africa
Infrastructure Fund and the Government of Luxembourg.

The Internet Society is committed to organizing 60 community mobilization
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.

Currently, much of Africa’s Internet traffic is routed through Internet
exchange points external to the African continent. As countries establish
their own IXPs, Internet traffic will be routed locally, creating a
downward pressure on 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 organizations
such as AfriNIC, AfNOG, and AftLD, will be realized in this collaborative
effort to assist in the development of a more locally operated and, hence,
more robust and economically accessible pan-African Internet.

Moctar Yedaly, Head of Information Society Division, African Union
Commission, commented,“Africa is paying overseas carriers to exchange
‘local’ (continental) traffic. This is both a costly as well as an
inefficient way of handling inter-country exchange of Internet traffic.
Independent analysis has shown that Africa pays over US$600 Million to
developed countries every year for inter-African traffic exchange that is
carried outside the continent. We are therefore pleased that the African
Internet Exchange System project will address this challenge by
facilitating optimization of Internet traffic to support intra-continental
traffic flows in Africa.”

Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau Director for Africa, stated,
“We are very excited to be selected by the African Union to support the
growth of IXPs throughout Africa.  We believe the AXIS project is extremely
important to the continued health of the Internet ecosystem in Africa, and
building the technical infrastructure and training the people to sustain it
are fundamental to extending the Internet in Africa. Partnering with the
African Union on the AXIS project is central to the Internet Society’s
mission to ensure the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet
for the benefit of people everywhere.”

The Internet Society has provided technical training in Africa since the
early 1990s, and supports the development of human and technical capacity
to build reliable and sustainable Internet infrastructure in Africa and
around the world. The organization’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.

Link:
http://www.internetsociety.org/news/african-unionau-selects-internet-society-support-establishment-internet-exchange-points-across

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-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
P.O. Box 17862
Suva
Fiji

Twitter: @SalanietaT
Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
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