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.k e] On Behalf Of Harry Delano Sent: 03 June 2010 13:43 To: [email protected] 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:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 12:53 PM To: [email protected] 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 <[email protected]> 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:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 11:41 AM To: [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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. Hope this helps. Esther --- On Wed, 6/2/10, Harry Delano <[email protected]> wrote: From: Harry Delano <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [kictanet] The urgent case for a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP) To: [email protected] Cc: "'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 11:17 PM Thanks alot John, Am checking this out... Harry _____ From: John Kariuki [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 7:07 AM To: [email protected] 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. John Kariuki --- On Wed, 2/6/10, Harry Delano <[email protected]> wrote: From: Harry Delano <[email protected]> Subject: [kictanet] The urgent case for a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP) To: [email protected] Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 2 June, 2010, 20:39 Listers, 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 is this so...? 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 that rely on good QOS. 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..? Regards, Harry -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] <http://uk.mc275.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: [email protected] <http://uk.mc275.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngethe.kariuki2007%40ya hoo.co.uk -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/esther_wanjau%40yahoo.c om _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: [email protected] Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/blongwe%40gmail.com -- Brian Munyao Longwe e-mail: [email protected] cell: + 254 722 518 744 blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com