The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) has grown peak Internet traffic on its infrastructure from 300Gbps last year to 500 Gbps this year, with an ambitious move to increase the traffic to one terabyte by the end of 2024.
Disclosing this in a statement, made available to LEADERSHIP, the chief executive officer of IXPN Mr. Muhammed Rudman attributed the milestone to several global and local content providers exchanging traffic locally via the exchange point.
Recall that IXPN has over 120 connected members, which includes some of the global content networks such as Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, as well as all Mobile Network Operators in Nigeria, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other network operators in the country.
Rudman said,: “We are delighted to report that IXPN has passed the 500 Gbps peak local Internet traffic threshold. This is attributed to the deployment of robust infrastructure in all our locations across the country, with little or no downtime throughout our years of operation.”
A report by the Internet Society (ISOC) about IXPN and Kenyan IXP revealed that in early 2020, the port charge at IXPN was $0.428 per month per Mbps (for a 1 Gbps port), while the cost of international IP transit is $27.45 per Mbps per month (also for 1 Gbps capacity). The report added that to be able to access traffic or content at IXPN thus costs about $27 less per Mbps per month than it would be accessing it abroad, and given the amount of traffic exchanged in 2020, this is a savings of over $40 million per year.
Rudman declared that these savings have resulted in numerous ISPs expanding their businesses and creating opportunities for new ISPs to enter the market, resulting in an increase in local total internet traffic, adding that, the domestication of Internet traffic in Nigeria implies that accessing local content guarantees that traffic does not leave Nigeria through international upstream providers, thus, helping to save Forex, especially in the wake of the recent FX crisis, which has put a strain on most businesses.
“We believe that hosting content locally is the way to go as it is the only way to grow capacity and technical competence within Nigeria thereby creating more jobs for the populace,” he added.
