[kictanet] IG Discussion 2009, Day 5 of 10- Criticical Internet Resources, IXPs and NOFB

[Crystal Watley]

Just a note to add to the discussion:

There is a tug of war over the roll out and provision of service, meanwhile
the wananchi still suffer for lack of access. I would ask that both the
government and the private sector begin to consider the pressing needs of
the people for information and come to definitive agreements so that
implementation can take place.

On the subject of local content and international websites:

If more Kenyans outside of Nairobi had the ability to access the Internet
and the skills to design websites under the National IXP, we would see more
traffic within the country. In this case, it seems as though we are
selecting a very small portion of the population and calling it the entire
country. We will only be able to ascertain the success of the IXP after more
Kenyans have access.

NOFB:

We all know that while the market is good at producing a number of benefits,
the provision of public goods is its downfall. It is critical at this time
of developing the ICT industry of Kenya that we are reaching out to the
people to build their skills and introduce the Internet as the educational
and business tool it has the power to be. At the moment more than 90% of all
Internet use is in Nairobi and Mombasa. What about the rest of the country?

Critical Internet Resources- The Internet: A Critical Resource...

Crystal

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 11:37 AM, John Walubengo <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Mornings,  must apologize for the slow start but am sure we all deserve it
> as we the holiday gets underway.  Feel free to use the break to post your
> contributions on previous themes as I can see happening.
>
> Todays theme is quite brief and we start by breaking down the jargon.
>
> IXP: stands for Internet eXchange Point, similar to a telephone exchange
> point, where calls within a particular town, district, province or country
> are aggregrated and routed.  An IXP is similar in that it aggregates
> internet traffic within a town, district, province or country. Typically, if
> a country lacks an IXP, then calls/internet traffic destined for your
> neighbor accross the street ends up being routed accross expensive
> international links and then back into the country for delivery (not good).
>
> Issues: In kenya we are lucky to have an National IXP, but the issue is
> whether it is being used optimally.  How many service providers are
> connecting their local traffic through the IXP?  Secondly, of what use is
> the national IXP if most users are interested in and target foreign content
> (yahoo.com, gmail.com, facebook.com, etc rather than xyz.co.KE)?
>
> NOFB: Stands for National Optical Fiber Backbone. The .KE Government under
> the implementing arm of Kenya ICT Board has been building the domestic fiber
> cable accross all districts in Kenya.  This should improve and extend access
> uniformally accross the country. Eventually, e-Government services would be
> accessed over these networks.
>
> Issues:  Private Telco Operators have always felt that the Govt has no
> business pulling cables across the country/cities. They feel it is undue
> competition brought in to distort the telco markets - shouldn't it be more
> efficient for Govt to lease fiber links from existing telco operators?.
> What's more, who will run and manage this domestic network? How would this
> infrastructure co-exist or is it intended to eventually replace the IXP that
> is currently run by Private Sector?
>
> 1 day on this - hope some of you do manage to get online.
>
> regards.
> walu.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Crystal "Naliaka" Watley Kigoni
Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development
crystal at voicesofafrica.org
http://www.voicesofafrica.org/

"You must be the change you wish to see" - Gandhi
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