RE: Tanzanian ISPs move closer to establishing an Internet exchange

[Brian Longwe <brian at pch.net>]

We can talk about this offline

;-)

Longwe

On Wed, 14 May 2003 antonio at nambu.uem.mz wrote:

> WOW!
> Can you also sell us bandwidth then?
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> On 14 May 2003 at 2:44, Brian Longwe wrote:
>
> >
> > I would discourage these kind of projects being done by the IXP - it's a
> > quick recipe for failure of the IX because it begins competing with it's
> > members.
> >
> > However there's nothing to stop and operator from offering this kind of
> > solution (if they can win the confidence of their competitors ;-)
> >
> > Having said that, here in Kenya 8 of the top ISPs have gotten together and
> > formed a consortium that is going to aggregate banbdwidth requirements and
> > operate a satellite gateway for delivery of transit services to the
> > members as well as any other ISP requiring transit with a CIR and real
> > SLA.
> >
> > I cannot disclose much of the detail as we have just shortlisted four
> > space segment providers out of an initial 16 who have been fighting tooth
> > and nail to get what is probably going to be one of Africa's largest ISP
> > satellite capacity contracts (this is what they tell us).
> >
> > The important point is that we have come up with a model where we own all
> > of the pipe (all the way to an overseas exchange) and allow ISPs to
> > contract directly for transit at that IX at prices in the range of $40-$90
> > per MB.
> >
> > Since we are buying sapce segment at the transponder level the price per
> > Meg is unbelievable!
> >
> > We should be starting deployment anytime around July/August.
> >
> >
> > Longwe
> >
> > On Wed, 14 May 2003, Mark Tinka wrote:
> >
> > > 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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> > >
> > >
> > >
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>
>


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