Africa, as a continent, now boasts of 18 IXPs out of 53 countries. Internet Exchange Points are an invaluable tool for growing a local internet as it reduces latency, increases routing efficiency, increases fault-tolerance and saves money.
In real terms it means that your local ISP can sign peering agreements which means that their stuff can run on your network. In other words the data packets do not have to be routed out of a country to an international backbone and then back to the country if the communication is between two ISPs within the same country. Cheaper, faster, and and alternate routes mean that in-country ISPs and sites can grow, as it reduces the overall cost of routing traffic.
For a pictoral view of the distribution of IXPs in Africa visit http://nsrc.org/AFRICA/afr_ix.html
Angola: IXP-ang
Botswana: BINX
Cote D'Ivoire: CI-IXP
Dem. Rep. of Congo: KINIX
Egypt: CR-IX and GPX
Ghana: GIX
Kenya: KIXP
Nigeria: iBiX
Mozambique: Moz-ix
Rwanda: RINEX
South Africa: JINX and GINX
Swaziland: SZIXP
Tanzania: TIX and AIXP
Uganda: UiXP
Zimbabwe: ZINX
By comparison, according to the National Internet Exchange of India, there are four operational IXPs located in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Delhi. According to a white African who heard an explantion from Michuki Mwangi, CTO of the Kenyan IXP regarding the lack of additional IXPs throughout the African continent the problem is political and policy related.
With a monopoly on the ISP and telecom within a country there is no incentive for an IXP and diversification. In other countries there is an air of distrust between the ISPs and the collaborative attitude is a barrier they have yet to break.
Hat Tip: www.whiteafrican.com and http://www.nixi.in/index.php and for addtional information about data transmission on African nets http://www.urlfan.com/local/africas_internet_still_very_far_behind/80213580.html X
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