[Afpif] Transit vs. peering Focust for Africa by 2021

[Matogoro Jabera]

Hello Mark,

Yes, IXP needed their home (Data Center)

This would have been a good step to make local content available


Regards,
Matogoro J

On 8/9/15, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:
>
>
> On 9/Aug/15 11:08, Nishal Goburdhan wrote:
>>
>>
>> well, sure.  but certainly, in the european context, the production of
>> their own local bandwidth (via IXPs) and then content to follow,
>> helped tremendously.
>
>
> Yes, but those exchange points needed a home, which are the data
> centres. Then the content owners needed to co-locate as close to the
> exchange points as possible to keep their costs down and the end-user's
> performance up; which were the data centres again.
>
>
>>
>>
>> simply not true.  one of my favourite pieces of content that’s not
>> (yet) localised, is World of Warcraft   ;-)
>> ttbomk, that’s not in a carrier neutral data-centre…
>
>
> This may very well be, but the problem with facilities that are not
> carrier-neutral enforce limits on who can enter that facility. Or if
> they allow 3rd party networks in, enforce strange tactics such as
> over-priced x-connects, "guidelines" on whom you can interconnect to,
> what you can bring in, how much of it you can bring in, access to your
> rack(s), e.t.c.
>
> Almost every major service provider has their own facilities within
> their countries. It is not uncommon for their customers (like World Of
> Warcraft, for example) to co-locate with them if they primarily buy
> their IP services. Now, if another network wants to connect to World Of
> Warcraft in that data centre, there aren't guarantees that this will
> happen easily, quickly or at all. And that is the issue with private
> facilities. They are an essential part to growing the eco system, but we
> need to go one step further to truly reach the promised land.
>
> And to top it off, some operators in Africa still mistrust one another,
> and will not co-locate their infrastructure in their competitor's
> facilities.
>
>
>>
>> to be clear, i’m not disagreeing with you about the data-centres.  i’m
>> saying that instead of looking at the “100% completed product” do what
>> you can now, with what you have, and work towards that.  even a
>> “non-carrier-neutral” data-centre that allows you to host content
>> locally, is a win.  and the misinformed, that religiously insist on
>> this as a pre-requisite to doing business locally, are only shooting
>> themselves in the foot.
>> i think back to when i was an operator;  we ran many successful, and
>> *full* data-centres that while not neutral in nature, certainly added
>> value to our local ecosystem.
>
>
> I do not disagree with you there, and this is already happening all
> across Africa.
>
> The question was whether we can switch the 10:90 (Africa:Non-Africa)
> traffic ratio now to 80:20 by 2021. To do this, we will need a major
> shift in how we handle co-location on the continent. Regardless of that,
> our long term goal remains.
>
> Agree that there are several non-African networks that have ignored (and
> continue to ignore) Africa because of the lack of carrier-neutral space
> for their requirements. I applaud those that have had the courage to
> come down and use whatever little resources we have. It will certainly
> give them the leg-up when the rest realize that they should have been
> here sooner.
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>> i’d disagree.  it MUST (2119-style) be a long term requirement.  how
>> else are we going to hope to fix the current “internet transit
>> deficit”, to borrow a phrase from afpif-3 ?
>
>
> I'm not saying we should not localize content.
>
> I am saying that to hit the 80:20 ratio by 2021, it is not the panacea.
>
> Of course, I fully support localization of content. That is, perhaps,
> the only way we shall increase penetration as not all of Africa's
> populace are English-speaking.
>
>
>>
>>
>> YES!  so, let me ask you this?  are you saying that the real failure
>> here is an inability to develop interesting local content, regardless
>> of where its hosted?  :-)
>
>
> No.
>
> I'm saying that to reverse the traffic ratios to 80:20 in favour of
> Africa, we will need the localize at least 90% of that traffic within
> Africa.
>
> Yes, a lot of content, software and applications have been developed for
> Africa by Africans, and I continue to support and push for this in order
> to increase penetration for non-English-speaking folk. However, a
> greater portion of the 90% of traffic Africa is pushing to Europe is
> from some big global names. The Internet being what it is, African
> content developers are going to have to compete with the rest of the
> world for a piece of the African eyeball pie. Can't hide from that...
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>> that’s certainly the important question for the operators who run the
>> Fat Pipes that carry this content now.
>> but i think michuki is hinting at what people see as a digital future
>> for africa.   or shall we continue to remain an exporter of just
>> bananas, and not digital content .. ?
>
> Well, I was focused on the question at hand, which is how we shift 80%
> of traffic from Europe to Africa by 2021. The short to medium term
> solution is to localize that popular global content. The long term is to
> develop localized content in order to increase penetration. In parallel,
> develop localized content that can compete with the popular global
> content. Users don't really care about what you, I and the rest of the
> Internet operator community in Africa are trying to do for Africa. As
> Randy says, "They just want their MTV". It is up to African developers
> to have a version of "MTV" that will rival the incumbent one. No way
> around that, unfortunately.
>
> However, that does not change the fact if we want 80% of Africa's
> traffic remaining on-continent by 2021, we need to move the popular
> traffic our users crave from Europe to Africa. What is needed to do that
> is what I've already argued.
>
> Mark.
>
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-- 
MATOGORO Jabhera
Assistant Lecturer & Coordinator - Microsoft Innovation Center, Tanzania
College of Informatics and Virtual Education
The University of Dodoma (www.udom.ac.tz)