The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) has said that the country will be saving at least $40 million annually if all its internet content is hosted locally.
This came as the Exchange Point achieved a milestone of 500 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of internet traffic as local hosting increased.
The Chief Executive Officer of IXPN Mr. Muhammed Rudman, who disclosed this in a statement, said the 500 Gbps traffic was an improvement from 300 Gbps recorded last year.
He attributed the milestone to the inclusion of several global and local content providers who are now exchanging traffic locally via the exchange point.
According to him, IXPN has over 120 connected members, which include 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.
Savings from local hosting
Citing a report by the Internet Society (ISOC) about IXPN and Kenyan IXP, Rudman noted that in early 2020, the port charge at IXPN was US$0.428 per month per Mbps (for a 1 Gbps port), while the cost of international IP transit was US$27.45 per Mbps per month (also for 1 Gbps capacity).
- “The report added that accessing traffic or content at IXPN thus costs about US$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 US$40 million per year. These savings have resulted in numerous ISPs expanding their businesses and creating opportunities for new ISPs to enter the market, increasing local total internet traffic,” he said.
Rudman went on to say 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.
On the new threshold achieved by the Exchange, Ruman 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.”
An Internet exchange point enables local networks to efficiently exchange information at a common point within a country rather than needing to exchange local Internet traffic overseas.
To achieve this, IXPN deploys infrastructure in multiple locations across Nigeria, making its services easily accessible thereby allowing local service providers to save costs through peering.
