Gradual ongoing policy and regulatory changes have positively impacted a region that is heavily dependent on satellite connectivity for its main regional and global means of communications. Major investments have recently been made on submarine, terrestrial fiber infrastructures, mobile and wireless data technologies. These developments appear to be addressing some of the challenges that have contributed to the slow Internet growth in the region.
Despite the growing regional infrastructure, most of African cross-border Internet traffic exchange is exchanged, in Europe and North America. This is a clear indication that the satellite routing policies are still predominant in a submarine fiber setting.
A visible example is a trace of the path followed by an Internet packet from Nairobi, Kenya to Kigali, Rwanda. The packet from Nairobi will go to Europe then back to Kigali. The anomaly is that Rwanda is a landlocked country, and has its international fiber connectivity terrestrially connected via Uganda and the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.
The scenario is replicated across the entire region and serves a barrier to growth, innovation and operational efficiency.
The
Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum: Unlocking Africa s Regional Interconnection will address the key Interconnection opportunities and challenges in the Africa and provide participants with global and regional insights on maximising regional opportunities. As a multi-stakeholder forum, the event will seek to foster a robust discussion on cross-border interconnection approaches and challenges by encouraging participate by a range key players such as; infrastructure providers, Service Providers, IXPs and regulators. Registration is free.
Agenda Themes - The peering vs Transit economics An update of the infrastructure status covering IXPs, terrestrial to submarine cables in the region will be provided. Panellists will discuss the economic concepts of peering and transit from an operator s perspective in order to be to introduce the participants to main interconnection concepts and how it impacts on their operational efficiency.
- Peering and Interconnection strategies for Operators Strategic insights on how to identify the appropriate interconnection points in their region and globally will be presented. The emphasis will be on different types of network tools and information to reach this critical conclusion. The underlying objective will be for operators to learn how to predict current and potential trends that will enable them make conscious decisions on how to grow and develop the regions interconnection points.
- Interconnection the Cross-Border Policy and Regulatory Challenges This session will seek to capture the existing challenges and developments from a regulatory perspective with respect to cross border interconnection. This will present the stakeholders with a unique opportunity to engage and discuss the cross-border interconnection challenges. The objective is to end the session with some consensus on policy/regulatory reform that would catalyse regional interconnection.
- A guide to Peering and Interconnection contracts and negotiations Panellists will discuss and provide insights on negotiating interconnection contracts. The main objective of this session is to share experience on contract negotiations strategies. Further, it will also seek to address dispute considerations and requisite skills of peering coordinators needed in an organization that will be engaging in interconnection negotiations.
- Africa peering and interconnection opportunities: The transition from national ISPs to regional Carriers This session will uncover growth opportunity s that interconnection presents for the ISPs in the region, including the provision of peering and transit services across boarders. Case studies from successful cross-border operators will be presented. Further, the challenges of utilizing submarine fiber cable loops for regional connectivity will be examined.
- Interconnection and the Content Equation This session will seek the attention of content providers and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the peering and interconnection deliberations. The objective will be to unearth the impact of gaming servers and edge caching in the peering and transit ecosystem. The session will also highlight the content providers peering and transit policies in relation to their participation at IXPs.
