The Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) has recorded an average of 1.2Gbps in bandwidth throughput, compared to 900Kbps ten years ago.
At 13 years old, the KIXP now has 30 peering members across Telco’s, corporate and independent ISPs, making it one of the largest internet exchanges in Sub Saharan Africa. According to KIXP, tt has saved telcos millions of money while simultaneously speeding local data exchange, and encouraging the development of locally hosted content and services.
A report by Analysys Mason revealed that KIXP has reduced latency of local traffic, speeding data to 200-600mbps (megabytes per second) from 2-10mbps on average.
The presence of an effective KIXP induced Google to place a cache in Kenya, which has significantly increased the amount of locally distributed content (notably YouTube videos) at faster speeds. Improved access to local content has led to increased usage, subsequently helping to increase the mobile data market by at least $6m per year in Kenya.
Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK) CEO Fiona Asonga said: “KIXP had a key role to play in satisfying the growth in demand in Kenya for internet bandwidth and latency-sensitive traffic in Kenya. KIXP is now delivering an average of 1.2Gbps in bandwidth exchange, compared with 900 Kbps a decade ago when it opened – a more than 1000-fold increase. In 2008, KIXP reported an annual growth rate of over 300 per cent making it the fastest growing Internet Exchange Point in the world.”
Darryl Linington
