" ITREALMS: Nigeria sets Internet exchange record with 17 ISPs

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Nigeria sets Internet exchange record with 17 ISPs

OVER 17 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) listed for the take-off of the Nigerian Internet Exchange Point (NIXP), Nigeria is setting a record as the largest Internet exchange on the continent.

Chairman, Presidential Committee on NIXP, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, disclosed this in an interview in Lagos and said that by end of November this year, the exchange must have concluded its primary acceptance testing which lasted for weeks.

He said that amidst some challenges that NIXP had, “we’re very confident that the exchange would be fully ready this November.”

According to him, the acceptance testing began over two weeks ago with about 17 ISPs in the Lagos area.

This, he said, was in addition to some of the big names in the Internet service provision in the country and Private Telephone Operators (PTOs) were also included.

“As a result, we expect that after the acceptance test that we would run for about one week, then we should be able to issue a public statement about the performance of the exchange that has been installed and upon which it would be fully up for our members and others to connect,” he asserted.

Pointing out that for the initial take off of the exchange, NIXP has concluded plans to start with the 17 ISPs.

“We are actually setting a record as the largest Internet exchange in Africa,” he declared.

Mr. Kalu who double as the chief executive of Amsco Telecom Nigeria Limited, lauded the government for an improved environment, saying “it is getting interesting, and very, very interesting at that and in the sense that it has been the reason for us at Amsco to have carved niches for ourselves in three areas.”

He also commended the government over the setting up of the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI).

According to him, SABI would boost the local content on the exchange, stressing that Internet is not an end and a network is not an end but a means to an end and the end really is the content.

“So the environment is looking very, very interesting and promising mainly because of policies that we see these opportunities and Nigeria is an enormous market,” he said.

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