Supporting Internet Traffic in Africa

1
Supporting Internet Traffic in Africa

• IDRCs Support for IXPs in Africa
• Laurent Elder
• IDRC Connectivity Africa and Acacia

2
Who we are
www.idrc.ca
www.connectivityafrica.org
www.idrc.ca/acacia
3
Africa and IXPs

• Why we are involved

4
(No Transcript)
5
And IXPs

• Supporting a research project with Afrispa
• Seeks to understand the impact of national IXPs
  in African countries that have them
• Data should help to understand the benefits in
  terms of increased internet traffic and cost
  savings

6
And IXPs

• Connectivity Africa is supporting Balancing Act
  and Afrispa to facilitate the creation of a
  regional African IXP ARIP
• First phase focussed on getting people togther to
  discuss the problem, find a possible solution and
  design a request for proposal
• Second phase focusses on facilitating the
  development of an ARIP by focussing on
  implementation issues as well as policy and
  regulatory obstacles

7
Other Programs Supporting IXPs in Africa
8
What still needs to be done

• Only 7 countries have IXPs (no IXPs in
  Francophone Africa)
• Policy and regulatory environment still needs to
  facilitate these types of activities instead of
  impede it
• Expertise is there but can continue to be
  expanded through bodies like AFNOG
• New agencies wanting to work on these issues
  should be working together with the ones already
  there