The South African province of KwaZulu-Natal has attempted to make its mark on the country’s ICT sector by setting up the Durban Internet Exchange (DINX), which went live this week
The DINX, physically located at Teraco Data Environment’s new Durban facility (DB1), will complement the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) and the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX).
The Internet Service Providers’ Association of SA (ISPA) INX working group chair, Graham Beneke, said, “ISPA evaluated all submissions for hosting the new exchange point, and is very pleased with Teraco’s operational and business case.”
Managed by the ISPA, the three Internet Exchanges (INXs) will together enable South African Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to interconnect their networks and exchange local Internet traffic.
Beneke said, “While Durban has traditionally been a smaller Internet market than Johannesburg or Cape Town, it is also a key telecommunications distribution hub with three major undersea cables now landing a short distance up the North Coast at Mtunzini.
“This increased telecommunication capacity has catapulted Internet traffic in the region. ISPA builds INXs where there is demand and scope for future growth. We have high hopes for the Durban exchange point,” he added.
CINX and JINX both have already been processing significant volumes of Internet traffic, with more than 50 IP networks peering at JINX, and 25 peering at CINX.
ISPA said it anticipated that DINX would offer the same significant performance and cost saving for Durban-based businesses that the existing exchange points bring to their respective participants.
