Kenya IXP reduces connectivity costs, Internet speeds

The cost of Internet connectivity in Kenya has been significantly reduced and speeds have improved since 2000 when the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) was set up, according to a Wananchi Online executive.

KIXP acts as a junction between multiple points of Internet presence. Local peers are able to directly connect to each other to exchange local Internet traffic.

"About 20 to 30 percent of most ISP's traffic could be classified as 'local' within Kenya. Mostly, this might be e-mail traffic. International bandwidth costs about $5,000 per megabyte and the local megabyte costs about $500-1,000 -- it is a significant change," said Riyaz Bachani, chief technical officer of Wananchi.