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

Fri May 1 21:57:57 EAT 2009

I think that GoK is well within its rights building domestic fibre
infrastructure around the country. Call me sceptical but I think that
some in the private industry are crying foul only because NOFB will
interconnect major cities where they hoped to control traffic by
controlling infrastructure. Of course I don't expect GoK to get into
last mile solutions and this is where private industry should stand up
and be counted. Managing the infrastructure should also not be the
preserve of the government but imho should be let out to a management
company enforcing an 'open access' policy. 

NOFB should not preclude private companies laying down their own
infrastructure though. 

Victor

-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+v-gathara=dfid.gov.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+v-gathara=dfid.gov.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of John Walubengo
Sent: 01 May 2009 11:37
To: Victor Gathara
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] IG Discussion 2009,Day 5 of 10- Criticical Internet
Resources, IXPs and NOFB

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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