The Internet Society (ISOC) and African IXP Association (AFIX) are set to hold the ninth annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) during iWeek in August.
South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has disclosed that the 2018 line-up for the conference and exhibition is looking interesting.
“Our newly-minted ISOC and AFIX partnership is helping to take iWeek to a whole new level and a whole new audience,” says Malcolm Siegel, spokesperson for iWeek’s organising committee. “From Angola Cables to Google, ISPA members will this year have the opportunity to interact with the most diverse group of ICT influencers, opinion makers, technies and others we’ve ever seen at iWeek.”
The complete list of companies currently set to have a presence at iWeek 2018 in Cape Town is as follows: Akamai, Angola Cables, China Telecom, Dark Fibre Africa, De-CIX, DNS Africa Ltd, Fibreco, Epsidon Technology Distribution, Flexoptics, Google, Host1Plus, LINX, Liquid Telecom, MaineOne, NEC-XON, Netnod, Netflix, Oath, PAIX, SEACOM and Teraco. Most of the iWeek conference sessions that are slated to take place from 20 to 24 August 2018 at The Westin Hotel on the city’s Foreshore are open to the public and attendance is free to pre-registered delegates.
The change in timing this year is to accommodate iWeek’s new ISOC and AFIX partners which will hold the ninth annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) at iWeek.
AfPIF is an annual event that serves as a platform to expand and develop the African Internet. It connects infrastructure, service, and content providers with policymakers in order to identify and discuss ways to improve network interconnection, lower the cost of connectivity, and increase the number of users in the region. More than 200 participants attended last year’s AfPIF in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire including providers of international, regional, and sub-regional transport, transit, and content as well as more than 20 IXPs from Africa and beyond.
“The first AfPIF was held in 2010 by the Internet Society from the realisation that most of African Internet traffic is exchanged outside the continent, and the region could save costs by exchanging the Internet traffic locally. The target is to have at least 80% of the Internet traffic consumed in Africa being locally accessible, and only 20% sourced outside the continent by the year 2020. We are getting closer to that target every year thanks to AfPIF and many activities that promote interconnection and hosting in Africa,” says Dawit Bekele, regional bureau director for Africa at Internet Society.