The Internet Society and the African IXP Association (AFIX) have announced that they will hold the 10th annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) in Port Louis, Mauritius from 20-22 August 2019 in collaboration with the local host, Rogers Capital
AfPIF is an annual event that serves as a platform to develop the African Internet.
It brings together important infrastructure, service and content providers to improve network interconnection, reduce connectivity costs and increase the number of users in the region.
First held in 2010, the event was created to address the realisation that most of Africa’s Internet traffic is sourced or exchanged outside the continent.
Michuki Mwangi, senior development manager for Africa at the Internet Society, said, “Removing barriers to content availability and distribution will have significant impacts on the Internet in Africa. It will help to make existing international content more accessible.”
“AfPIF is the only event in Africa focused on building the Internet by building relationships. It plays a key role in bringing together different parties to increase local traffic exchange across the continent,” he added.
Kyle Spencer, co-coordinator of the African IXP Association, commented, “Our target is to localise 80 per cent of Africa’s Internet traffic by 2020, and I believe we’re well on our way.”
“Packet Clearing House reports that Africa currently sees the highest growth of domestic bandwidth production in the world, registering a 92 per cent increase from 410 Gbps to 786 Gbps within the last 12 months - and our internal industry benchmarking data corroborates this. It’s an exciting time for Africa, and we look forward to building on this momentum in Mauritius,” he concluded.
