RE: Tanzanian ISPs move closer to establishing an Internet exchange

["Mark Tinka" <mtinka at africaonline.co.ug>]

Hah, I thought of something similar last week, where a single satellite
service is erected at say the IXP, and each ISP has a local fibre link to
the IXP and shares the bandwidth, and bandwidth costs. This can be uplink
only or uplink and downlink.

However, honestly, you won't be able to get that level of trust among
various ISPs, unless it's a government ruling. I guess the only way ISPs
will be able to share a single transport service is when trans-oceanic fibre
makes its way into the country. Only then, do I see ISPs scrambling for a
piece of the pie.

Regards,

Mark Tinka - CCNA
Network Engineer
Africa Online Uganda
5th Floor, Commercial Plaza
7 Kampala Rd,
Tel:   +256-41-258143
Fax:   +256-41-258144
E-mail: mtinka at africaonline.co.ug
Web:     www.africaonline.co.ug
 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-afnog at afnog.org [mailto:owner-afnog at afnog.org] On Behalf Of
Brian Candler
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 11:57 AM
To: antonio at nambu.uem.mz
Cc: Bill Woodcock; John Tully; afnog at afnog.org
Subject: Re: Tanzanian ISPs move closer to establishing an Internet exchange


On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 09:08:11AM +0200, antonio at nambu.uem.mz wrote:
> I don't know about numbers but I know that we aren't profiting from
> it and the satellite providers are overprofiting to such an extent that 
> now you get thousands of satellite providers coming to you 
> everyday to offer you their services. They get a transponder which 
> will take up to 45Mbps of traffic, they will sell portions of 1Mbps, 
> 2Mbps, 5Mpbs and make a huge profit on that transponder. As I am 
> told, a transponder costs about US$45,000.00 a month and they 
> charge as much as US$15,000.00 for 2Mbps. So per transponder 
> they can get as much as US$360,000.00 a month..... That's what I 
> am told....

Sounds like there is scope for a consortium of smaller African ISPs to buy a
transponder and divide the bandwidth (and costs) between its members - if
there is sufficient trust between them to achieve this.

It does sound like these resellers are making excessive profits, but then
again they are also taking some risks. If a client ISP folds or stops paying
their bills, then the reseller ends up paying for the segment anyway; they
also pay for unused portions on the transponder.

Cheers,

Brian.

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