Internet Society Partners with Facebook To Expand Internet Connectivity in Africa

The Internet Society, a global non-profit organization dedicated to the open development, evolution and use of the Internet, today announced that it is partnering with Facebook to develop Internet Exchange Points (IXP) throughout Africa. From a press release: An Internet Exchange Point is where multiple local and international networks, ISPs and content providers interconnect their networks together to efficiently exchange Internet traffic through an arrangement commonly referred to as Peering. Currently, 42% of countries in Africa lack IXPs, which means that most of their domestic Internet traffic is exchanged through points outside their respective country, usually through satellite or submarine fiber across multiple international hubs to reach their destination. This can result in poor end-user experiences and discourages hosting content locally, which are some of the key factors towards the development of the local Internet ecosystem. Peering at IXPs helps keep domestic Internet traffic local by offloading traffic from relatively expensive international links onto more affordable local links. As a result, ISPs are able to offer improved Internet experiences for end-users and spur interest in hosting content locally. The Internet Society and Facebook will collaborate in promoting IXP infrastructure development, training and community engagement with the objective of increasing the number of IXPs and supporting the expansion of existing IXPs to meet the growing demand in Africa. Studies have shown that Internet users throughout Africa benefit from Peering as it enables faster, more affordable and reliable access to content.

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[fizzer06]

Those generous Nigerian princes can now give me a share of their $$$. I'm gonna be rich!

HBO

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess they didn't see John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on FB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

internet connectivity or facebook connectivity?

[sittingnut]

as always when facebook is involved, question should be asked whether it is all of internet that is connected, or internet filtered by facebook?
don't forget that india decided it was the later and declined, when facebook offered "free internet" to all indians.

Re: internet connectivity or facebook connectivity

[bobmagicii]

bless the internets down in afffffffricaaaaaa

connection

[Mr C]

So cool to see companies and organizations like Skycoin's Skywire is also in this space: https://medium.com/@lawrenceqh... [medium.com] Bit concerned about Facebook's role in this with the way they monetize their customers without their permission. Skywire has financial incentive but more of individually owned in concept than Facebook.