Telecom Lead Africa: The African Union (AU) has selected
the Internet Society to conduct community mobilization and technical aspects
workshops.

 

The workshops and t community mobilization will support
the establishment of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in AU Member States as
part of the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project.

 

Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau Director
for Africa, said that the AXIS project is extremely important to the continued
health of the Internet ecosystem in Africa, and building the technical
infrastructure and training the people to sustain it are fundamental to
extending the Internet in Africa.

 

The AXIS project aims at keeping Africa’s Internet
traffic local to the continent by providing capacity building and technical
assistance to facilitate the establishment of National Internet Exchange Points
and Regional Internet Exchange Points in Africa.

 

Bekele added that partnering with the African Union on
the AXIS project is central to the Internet Society’s mission to ensure the
open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people
everywhere.

 

The AXIS project is being funded by the Euro-Africa
Infrastructure Fund and the Government of Luxembourg.

 

The Internet Society will be organizing 60 community
mobilization and technical aspects workshops in 30 African countries.

 

Furthermore, the Internet Society will also contribute
its own resources for the implementation of this component of the AXIS project.

 

At present, most of Africa’s Internet traffic is routed
through Internet exchange points external to the African continent.

 

Moctar Yedaly, head of Information Society Division at
African Union Commission, said the African Internet Exchange System project
will reduce overseas carrier’s charges by facilitating optimization of Internet
traffic to support intra-continental traffic flows in Africa.

 

Internet Society to organize African Peering and
Interconnection Forum (AfPIF-3)

 

The Internet Society is also organizing the third edition
of African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF-3), to be held 22-24 August
2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

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