I think that GoK is well within its rights building domestic fibre infrastructure around the country. Call me sceptical but I think that some in the private industry are crying foul only because NOFB will interconnect major cities where they hoped to control traffic by controlling infrastructure. Of course I don't expect GoK to get into last mile solutions and this is where private industry should stand up and be counted. Managing the infrastructure should also not be the preserve of the government but imho should be let out to a management company enforcing an 'open access' policy. NOFB should not preclude private companies laying down their own infrastructure though. Victor -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+v-gathara=dfid.gov.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+v-gathara=dfid.gov.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of John Walubengo Sent: 01 May 2009 11:37 To: Victor Gathara Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] IG Discussion 2009,Day 5 of 10- Criticical Internet Resources, IXPs and NOFB Mornings, must apologize for the slow start but am sure we all deserve it as we the holiday gets underway. Feel free to use the break to post your contributions on previous themes as I can see happening. Todays theme is quite brief and we start by breaking down the jargon. IXP: stands for Internet eXchange Point, similar to a telephone exchange point, where calls within a particular town, district, province or country are aggregrated and routed. An IXP is similar in that it aggregates internet traffic within a town, district, province or country. Typically, if a country lacks an IXP, then calls/internet traffic destined for your neighbor accross the street ends up being routed accross expensive international links and then back into the country for delivery (not good). Issues: In kenya we are lucky to have an National IXP, but the issue is whether it is being used optimally. How many service providers are connecting their local traffic through the IXP? Secondly, of what use is the national IXP if most users are interested in and target foreign content (yahoo.com, gmail.com, facebook.com, etc rather than xyz.co.KE)? NOFB: Stands for National Optical Fiber Backbone. The .KE Government under the implementing arm of Kenya ICT Board has been building the domestic fiber cable accross all districts in Kenya. This should improve and extend access uniformally accross the country. Eventually, e-Government services would be accessed over these networks. Issues: Private Telco Operators have always felt that the Govt has no business pulling cables across the country/cities. They feel it is undue competition brought in to distort the telco markets - shouldn't it be more efficient for Govt to lease fiber links from existing telco operators?. What's more, who will run and manage this domestic network? How would this infrastructure co-exist or is it intended to eventually replace the IXP that is currently run by Private Sector? 1 day on this - hope some of you do manage to get online. regards. walu. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: v-gathara@dfid.gov.uk Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/v-gathara%40dfid.go v.uk ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________ DFID, the Department for International Development: leading the British Government's fight against world poverty. Find out more about the major global poverty challenges and get the facts on what DFID is doing to fight them: http://www.dfid.gov.uk ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Peapod. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.peapod.co.uk/cleanmail