[kictanet] Fwd: [ISOC] NEWS RELEASE: Internet Society’s African Peering and Interconnection Forum Provides Opportunities for Regional Internet Growth

[Michuki Mwangi]

<apologies for cross posting>

Internet Society’s African Peering and Interconnection Forum Provides
Opportunities for Regional Internet Growth

AfPIF-3 Highlights Regional Interconnection – Addressing Africa’s
Internet Transit Deficit

[Washington, D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland --13 August 2012] – The third
African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF-3), organized by the
Internet Society, will be held 22-24 August 2012 in Johannesburg, South
Africa.  A multistakeholder forum, AfPIF aims to foster national and
cross-border interconnection opportunities where key stakeholders,
including infrastructure and service providers, Internet Exchange Points
(IXPs), regulators, and policy makers can share experiences, hear from
experts, and advance peering and interconnection arrangements.

According to recent research, nearly all peering and interconnection
agreements are forged at regional and global peering forums around the
world. A unique regional forum, AfPIF facilitates discussions on
infrastructure challenges, including terrestrial capacity issues,
national and regional IXP development, local content development, and
international peering.  AfPIF provides a venue for productive technical
discussions and business relationships that can be forged to augment
Internet infrastructure and services in Africa.

Keynotes and panel sessions will cover topics that address Africa’s
Internet transit deficit, including Peering Negotiations and Strategies
for Operators, Peering and Transit Economics, Landlocked Countries and
Cross-border Regulatory Reality, Exploring the Content Business in
Africa, and Attracting Global Content via Regional IXPs.

“AfPIF has established itself as a strategic event for conducting
business in Africa,” said Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau
Director for Africa. “This year, we’ve added even more opportunities for
business connections to be made and agreements to be negotiated.  This
conference offers an impressive array of speakers and educational
programs, along with networking events to provide attendees with a venue
where they have access to a wide range of regional interconnection
opportunities.”

The Internet Society would like to recognize and thank all of the
AfPIF-3 sponsors, including Platinum sponsors Liquid Telecom and SEACOM,
and Connectivity sponsor Dark Fibre Africa.

Ben Roberts, CTO of Liquid Telecom
“Liquid Telecom is proud to sponsor AfPIF in Johannesburg. The event has
come to Southern Africa at the right time.  With high speed cross border
fibre connections (like Liquid Telecom's fibre project) linking South
Africa to its neighbouring countries, the visions discussed at these
AfPIF events are becoming a reality."

Mark Simpson, CEO of SEACOM
“With SEACOM's commitment to building the African Internet, we feel very
strongly about the values that the AfPIF events represent.  Bringing the
operational community together to collectively work toward improving the
Internet experience in Africa through peering, AfPIF embodies the very
principles that SEACOM hold dear to its heart, and we are proud to be
associated with, as well as contribute to, the success of this meeting.”

Gustav Smit, CEO of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA)

"As South African’s leading open access dark fibre infrastructure
provider, DFA is privileged to be sponsoring the fibre infrastructure
for the event. We are excited to showcase the capabilities and speed of
fibre. DFA has already laid in excess of 6 200 kilometres of
infrastructure across South Africa and is open to all licensed players
on equal terms. Our expenditure plan is in excess of R3.5-billion. Any
service provider, licensed to do so by ICASA, may rent fibres from DFA
for their own transmission and backbone infrastructure purposes."

The full list of AfPIF-3 sponsors, along with the programme and
information about the speakers and panelists can be found at
http://www.internetsociety.org/afpif-2012/overview.

Link --
http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society%E2%80%99s-african-peering-and-interconnection-forum-provides-opportunities-regional

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