On the evening of 15 February, Internet exchange point (IXP) NAPAfrica reached the 3Tbps traffic threshold.
This peak in Internet traffic was experienced globally on the back of some significant new gaming releases and software updates.
This increase in NAPAfrica’s average traffic throughput has continued and peaked at 3,44Tbps on 19 March. The continued surge in data traffic is largely thanks to a dynamic African Internet community that has embraced the value of peering, the increasing use of data-intensive applications, enterprises continuing to move into the cloud, and ever-increasing demand for video, content, and gaming delivery services.
These trends have driven greater traffic levels between cloud and service providers, enterprises, and end users. Internet traffic has surged 70% over the last 19 months since NAPAfrica reached 2Tbps in July 2021.
“Reaching the milestone of 3Tbps throughput reflects the rapid growth and a new reality of an escalating demand by enterprises for content and cloud services via NAPAfrica,” says Michele McCann, head of platforms at Teraco. “What started as an idea to assist global content investment to African shores, while also improving latency, has emerged as a leading interconnection hub, increasing and shaping access to the Internet across the continent.”
The arrival of new substantial undersea cable systems over the last few years, including 2Africa, Equiano, METISS, and ACE, provides Internet access to more than 1-billion people. These subsea cables connect Africa to Europe and have landed at various sites in South Africa. The substantial increase in Internet capacity will become a major catalyst driving the African digital economy.
Established in 2012, NAPAfrica today has over 550 members actively peering and has grown to become Africa’s biggest Internet exchange and the seventh largest globally by the number of members.