Re: Tanzanian ISPs move closer to establishing an Internet exchange

[Brian Candler <B.Candler at pobox.com>]

On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 07:01:21AM -0700, Brian Longwe wrote:
> Our ideal/vision is  for "digital arteries" - optical fibre trunks -
> between countires that would allow direct exchange of traffic; telecoms,
> data, internet etc. Thus limiting the inordinate use of overseas
> facilities for interconnection.

Sure. But can you make money on it? Is there enough traffic between your
country and your neighbour to justify the cost of putting in fibre? The
labour costs for digging the holes should be low, after all.

If you could make money, but it's not being done, then maybe there are
non-financial obstacles (regulatory regimes, political regimes, and the
associated risks which scare away capital). Or as you say, the people who
are making money on the current system don't need to bother shaving a tiny
fraction off their base costs, since their margins are so high anyway.

> Africa for this interchange of traffic. I will post a graph later that
> demonsttrates how a handful of western  teleom companies have been reaping
> big time from this situation

Oh I've seen that close hand, I assure you. But where I saw it, the problem
was the government which maintained a private monopoly at the expense of its
own people. Fixing governments is a more difficult problem...

Cheers,

Brian (the other one)

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