Folks,

The IXP for Nigeria is finally taking off after many years of procrastination. I am aware that Nigeria Internef this initiativt Group (NIG) was in charge of this initiative about 4 years ago. The article below suggests otherwise. This will be a very good thing for Nigeria if implemented well and will force the Nigerian web community to develop faster. Does anyone have any information wrt to the news on the IXP at the link below?

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=77201

and will force the Nigerian web community to develop faster

The Nigerian web community is not interested in any form of government coercion. The IXP can go to hell.
In case you haven't noticed, Internet users in Nigeria have not been asking for a local internet exchange.
Information Technology is not about Politics, it's about solving real problems that people want to pay for.

I will read the article later in the day.

Seun,

While I understand your position, be wary of generalization. I am a part of Nigeria web community and I know a lot of folks who are interested in getting a functional IXP in Nigeria. While in Nigeria, I used to pester NIG about this initiative and understand all the politics and power issues around it. I want to say that those issues should not detract from the benefits that can accrue to our nation if IXP is implemented very well. I know 1 or 2 things on how Internet works and I know that for a developing country, IXP implementation speeds up the local web community. Infact, the Internet as we know it today rest on US IXP.

Most websites being accessed from Nigeria today are routed through 1 of the 13 root servers (most of which are in the US). For example, if I want to access my bank account in GTB from my office in Nigeria, the traffic will take me to the US first, come to Nigeria, back to the US and finally to my desk. This takes time, resources which all translates into higher cost and it is better for organizations to host their website in the US (near the root servers). A very good example is this community, you should have tried hosting this community in Nigeria and see how fast and how many users would have come here.

I found the article below and I hope it sheds some light on the benefits of IXP. Don't let us throw out the baby with the bath water. something good may come out of this and it will be better if we are all ready to take advantage of such opportunity when it comes up.

http://www.internetpolicy.net/practices/ixp.pdf

If the need is so great, then why have large ISPs like Multilinks and Starcomms not started connecting to each other directly using simple routers and cost-effective WAN technology, without the IXP?

I don't believe in political solutions because soon, they will be trying to force us to patronize them, which is wrong.

I will suspect politics and power play. There is nothing stopping the major ISPs from coming together and starting it but they won't because of greed and "I want to be the only one" culture in Nigeria businesses today. A central coordinating and directing entity will do a better job. They will not be forcing anyone to buy anything because it is same internet just local traffic. What you will get is faster access to sites hosted in Nigeria. So every website that is targeted to Nigeria community can then be hosted in Nigeria. It will make better sense to do that.

Seun:

I don't believe in political solutions because soon, they will be trying to force us to patronize them, which is wrong.

This is simply the truth about the whole issue of setting up a local IXP in Nigeria.
Please let us know who and who are involve in this project? their past and level of IT knowledge.
I am not hoping to start finding on the list names of Bank MDs, Govt. appointees, politicians. People that are just computer users but in priveldge positions.
We want people (like Randy Bush-- the guy managing the dot NG domain ) that are involve because of its importance to the country IT development. Anything otherwise will surely fail in the long run.

Everything Internet in this country has been private sector driven.

The only thing we tried to do politically - the .NG domain name - as continued to languish - like NEPA!

The SAT-3 fiber optic link is the same story. So many promises, no delivery.

Let's beg these civil servants and politicians to stop trying to help us, because they are jinxed!