The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced a strategic collaboration with African Internet Exchange Point, NAPAfrica.
Both internet exchanges are operated similarly, not for profit, and put their membership community first. Located in Teraco data centers in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, NAPAfrica’s founding goal is to help make internet access more universal and accessible across the African continent.
The partnership means that networks currently connected and peering at NAPAfrica or LINX can access both exchanges via trusted and mutually available carriers.
Michele McCann, Head of Interconnection and Peering at Teraco, says: “Our founding goal at NAPAfrica is to help expand internet access across the African continent. We’re excited to be working with LINX to provide customers with a more direct and enhanced web experience at any LINX location. The immediate benefit for network operators, cloud providers and content delivery networks connected or peered to either NAPAfrica or LINX in London is an optimized end-user experience.
“Our relationship with LINX is the first of many similar collaborative partnerships with internet exchanges that will deliver a premium internet experience to all users across the African continent,” she says.
LINX has been providing network connection services for over 25 years, with more than 850 networks connected to their London platforms alone.
Partnering with NAPAfrica will make reaching London and peering at LINX a reality for African networks.
Nurani Nimpuno, Head of Global Engagement at LINX, says: “We have always worked closely with our friends at NAPAfrica, sharing technical knowledge and insights. Announcing a more strategic partnership will open doors and optimal routes to Europe for the African networks that may not have been able to reach us before.”
Peering has been the primary data transmission method of the telecommunications community for years. With peering, networks benefit from low latency, a more direct and controlled route for their data.
A single connection to an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) can provide multiple peering opportunities with global networks. Many networks access multiple IXPs to keep their traffic local to end users in the geographic area.
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