Quite insightful, Muriuki..
We will need all the political goodwill from the member
countries; to start with, culminating into the relevant policy
frameworks that allow for an
integration such as one modelled around our Local KIXP, which has been a huge
success. I suppose this means we
need to open up our borders, work closely and collaboratively to set up the
relevant groundwork.
Any time we have had a Model Public Private Partnership (PPP)
at work, results have been forthocoming for all
to see, such as KIXP. I believe a workable cross border PPP
model can also be developed to work towards an
intergration objective. Without re-starting the efforts all
over again that might be already underway, I suppose
the challenge is how to augument these efforts, synergise
and put in a sense of urgency to get results. How
do we approach this..?
Regards,
Harry
As
we look for technical solutions , it is important to think about the
policy and regulatory framework that will make the technical solution easier to
implement . all the regional economic communities in Africa established a
formal organ to deal with ICT matters and have formulated elaborate measures to
harmonise and integrate network and services because of the
importance of ICT in socio economic integration. That is not the case for EAC,
instead EACO is club of the regulators/ operators for sharing
experiences , it is not part of EAC. The EAC secretariat has limited capacity to
drive ICT matters. That’s why cross border ICT initiatives are private
sector driven which is okay but they are limited . for example Zain’s ONE
network is not operating in Rwanda and Burundi and Kama Kawaida is not
operational in Burundi . other companies have to struggle to establish seamless
cross border networks /operations. Perhaps this will be addressed by the
commitments that EAC countries have made in the EAC Common Market treaty
to open up the market from July 1st, 2010. All countries have
committed to open their telecom market without reservations and offer
equal treatment to entities from the other partners to invest . Only Rwanda has
limited the number of cellular licences to max 3 citing its market size.
Cheers
MM
From:
kictanet-bounces+mureithi=summitstrategies.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+mureithi=summitstrategies.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke]
On Behalf Of Harry Delano
Sent: 03 June 2010
13:43
To: mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT
Policy Discussions'
Subject: Re: [kictanet] The urgent case for a
Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP)
Thanks
alot, let's see how much the discussion can be helpful ( which I believe it
is quite),in driving
forward
the efforts at intergration, sooner, rather than later..
Many
thanks..
Harry
From: Brian
Munyao Longwe [mailto:blongwe@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 03,
2010 12:53 PM
To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT
Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] The urgent case for a
Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP)
Harry,
You are very
welcome. I think a key point to keep in mind for this issue of regional
interconnection is that based on experiences and lessons learnt from other parts
of the world - namely, Europe and Southern Asia - it has been proven that
regional carriers with cross-IXP connectivity are the most sustainable. This is
as opposed to attempts to establish a "neutral" facility in the same way that
national IXPs function.
In essence - the regulatory, policy and practical
aspects are much easier to deal with and by creating a viable business
opportunity, competition is encouraged which, in theory leads to better prices
and hopefully better quality.
Regards,
Brian
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke>
wrote:
Esther,
Brian & Muriuki,
Thanks
so much for this invaluable feedback. I'm scouring all the resources mentioned.
It's so encouraging
that
there are already efforts underway to address this to get the member
countries interconnected. Hopefully,
some
sense of urgency can be injected into this to get the project off the ground so
that we can harness
maximum
benefits from the improved interconnectivity within the countries, especially on
Fibre.
Esther,
I will email Shoukry, and will report back..
Regards,
Harry
From: Esther
Wanjau [mailto:esther_wanjau@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 03,
2010 11:41 AM
To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy
Discussions'
Subject: Re: [kictanet] The urgent case for a Regional
Internet Exchange Point (RIXP)
Dear Harry,
COMESA already has a concept paper
on the RIXP. Please contact the Director of Information and
Networking in COMESA Secretariat Sherin Shoukry on shoukry@comesa.int for
more information. Also visit www.comesa.int and see the progress made in regard to
IT. There you will find the reports of the IT technical committees
already held.
From: Harry Delano
<harry@comtelsys.co.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet]
The urgent case for a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP)
To: esther_wanjau@yahoo.com
Cc: "'KICTAnet ICT Policy
Discussions'" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Wednesday,
June 2, 2010, 11:17 PM
Thanks
alot John, Am checking this out...
Harry
From:
John Kariuki [mailto:ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent:
Thursday, June 03, 2010 7:07 AM
To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT
Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] The urgent case for
a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP)
There is a project called "EAC-BIN" under
"Connect Africa Initiative". I would suggest you search the two in
the web for more details.
From: Harry
Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke>
Subject:
[kictanet] The urgent case for a Regional Internet Exchange
Point (RIXP)
To: ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk
Cc:
"KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date:
Wednesday, 2 June, 2010, 20:39
I
have noticed, that while all laudable efforts in speeding
up our broadband connectivity to
the
rest
of the world hits top gear, saddeningly regional local
interconnectivity lags behind. Why
For
instance reaching a branch office located in Tanzania
from their Kenya HQ office,or vice
versa
means traffic transits out from our cyberspace to some
international exchange point
somwhere
in London, hits the return trip back via some other
Link to Dar. This especially
affects
VOIP connectivity and quality, between interconnected offices,
and other services
This,
especially while we are working on the economic, Social, and
perhaps Political
intergration
of the Comesa block seems to fly in the face of the major
milestones that have
been
achieved in the Telecommunication sectors of the member
countries, and I strongly
suggest
the industry addresses this urgently. We need a Regional
Internet Exchange point
set
up. Perhaps name it COMESA-IXP or something. But one thing is
clear; the more we
each
send traffic destined locally on a roundtrip to Europe or
elsewhere and back, means
we
incur huge transiting costs in the process, which dollars that
we export out should be
be
used to expand and develop our local & Regional
interconnection capacity..
I
think, this is an issue worth being addressed and I'd be
interested to discuss this more
with
anyone interested to drive this forward.
Anyone..?
-----Inline
Attachment Follows-----
|
-----Inline
Attachment Follows-----
|
_______________________________________________
kictanet
mailing list
kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
This
message was sent to: blongwe@gmail.com
Unsubscribe or change
your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/blongwe%40gmail.com
--
Brian Munyao Longwe
e-mail:
blongwe@gmail.com
cell: + 254
722 518 744
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog:
http://mashilingi.blogspot.com