[governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point

[Mawaki Chango]

Thanks, Jean-Louis! That was part of the reason why I was surprised an
IXP in Africa would make such headline still today, and why I was
wondering about any integrated strategy from the part of AU. Without a
vision that takes into account elements you have outlined, it's hard
to appreciate real, long term progress.

In your view, what are we missing right now in order to develop a
"consistent, survivable network" keeping in mind that Africa is a huge
place where policy is mainly made through government planning, etc.?
Where does it make more sense to start from --both technically and
strategically-- in order to realize that "minimum of consistency"
which can make any subsequent efforts more efficient? I think any long
term advocacy effort in Africa should itself be led by a vision of
this kind, where policy goals are well informed by technology
capabilities and best practices, and then try to win over
policy-makers to it.

A whole other challenge is, of course, to get policy-makers and any
incumbent stakeholders to embrace the notion (and reality) of creative
destruction, which has never been a given in any place at any era.
Here I can only think of CS using a range of strategies and tactics
and sharing information globally in order to help shape the events and
try to shift the power dynamics.

Best,

Mawaki
otherwise Africa Internet Policy coordinator at APC,
the one and only Association for Progressive Communications :)

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 3:36 AM, Jean-Louis FULLSACK
<jlfullsack at orange.fr> wrote:
>
>
> Dear members of the list
>
>
>
> The basic issue in Africa isn't the lack of IXPs, since there are around
> thirty ones. Of course this number is to be extended and spatial
> distribution is to be improved, and the Gambia IXP is a step in this
> direction.
>
>
>
> But there is a lack of appropriate networks at the national, regional and
> continental level. In most cases there are a more or less continuous series
> of optical fiber or microwave routes but not a consistent, survivable
> network. This strongly limits the very functions of the IXPs i.e. switching,
> routing and thereby maintaining IP traffic that is exchanged in specific
> spaces (country, sub-region, part of African continent) in their respective
> limits, saving high costs of transiting through out-of-Africa Internet nodes
> and consequently bandwidth waste on international routes.
>
>
>
> Finally, there are severe power issues in most countries that limit
> seriously the availability of both the IXPs and the interconnecting
> network(s).
>
>
>
> Of course, some progress has been done for improving this situation but the
> (expensive) efforts lack a minimum of consistency and therefore take too
> much time for being efficient. Reponsibility for this mismanagement is
> mainly the neoliberal ruling that promotes hard competition instead of
> genuine networking, but also the African Union and the ITU, despite the n°1
> and 2 of which are Africans.
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
>
>
>
>
>> Message du 18/10/12 21:10
>> De : "David Conrad"
>> A : governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>> Copie à :
>> Objet : Re: [governance] Africa to launch own Internet exchange point
>>
>> Hi Norbert,
>
>>
>> On Oct 18, 2012, at 12:18 PM, Norbert Klein wrote:
>> > I thought it was also interesting that this effort of ISOC is reported
>> > here by Xinhua via the China Daily. Maybe an indication that the
>> > internationally experienced and active hardware supplier Huawei will help
>> > the Banjul efforts, and whoever will by trained with the experience of ISOC
>> > when new IXP will be set up in more places in Africa.
>>
>> My understanding is that the training (done by folks from ISOC partnering
>> with AfriNIC and other Africa-based organizations is technology neutral. I'm
>> told by one of the folks involved in Gambia that they expect the IXP to be
>> set up in 6 months or so. As far as I know, there hasn't been any decision
>> on hardware in the IXP.
>>
>> Regards,
>> -drc
>>
>>
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