[Chapter-delegates] NEWS RELEASE: African Union (AU) Selects the Internet Society to Support Establishment of Internet Exchange Points across Africa

[Joly MacFie]

I made a shortcut for this http://bit.ly/AXISproject

The press conference is at http://livestre.am/463vT

j

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 7:35 AM, <cover at isoc.org> wrote:

> 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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