Hosted in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the 14th African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) has kicked off and will run until August 24th. The longest-running Internet development conference in Africa has brought together infrastructure, service, and content providers to identify ways to improve network interconnection, lower the cost of connectivity, and increase the number of Internet users in the region.
“We are honored to host this year’s conference,” said Nico TSHINTU BAKAJIKA, President of the ISPA DRC.
AfPIF will provide participants with global and regional insights to maximize opportunities to help grow resilient Internet infrastructure and affordable services in Africa.
Organized by the Internet Society (ISOC) and the African IXP Association (AFIX) in collaboration with the Internet Service Providers Association of DRC, the conference features more than 500 participants representing companies across Africa and globally, including Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, the Internet Initiative Japan Lab, among others.
AfPIF was created to address the fact that most of Africa’s local Internet traffic is exchanged outside the continent. This results in slower speeds and increased costs. In the 14 years since its launch, Internet traffic exchanged within Africa has gone from 160 Mbps to over 4.6 Tbps. Key to this growth is the use of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). IXPs interconnect private, public, and academic networks, allowing them to exchange traffic locally. This improves the quality of service, makes local hosting viable, lowers the cost of service delivery, and increases fault tolerance.
“The importance of IXPs in contributing to the development of the Internet in Africa cannot be overstated,” states Nico TSHINTU BAKAJIKA. “We now have three IXPs in DRC that help provide fast, affordable Internet access to over 30.017.072 people.”
Kyle Spencer, Board Chair and Executive Director of the African IXP Association (AfIX) said, the Democratic Republic of Congo a market of 100 million people that borders nine countries and the Atlantic Ocean, is on the verge of a digital transformation. He remarks “New cross-border backbone, metro fiber, and data center infrastructure are poised to bring DRC online and enhance regional integration which will improve livelihoods, facilitate commerce, and promote cultural exchange.”
AfPIF is an annual conference that aims to promote the development of national and cross-border interconnection and offers the African technical community a unique opportunity to showcase interconnection challenges and opportunities.
This year’s conference is relevant to Uganda as it will focus on recent developments in DRC including new cross-border backbones which offer inland connectivity to West and Southern Africa as well as DRC’s market of approximately 100 million people.
