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STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
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 BRIAN LONGWE ON KENYA’S LOCAL INTERNET EXCHANGE How did you first become involved in the internet? In 1994, Kenya had several companies that offered store and forward email services. Two of the most aggressive (and the largest) were Form-Net Africa and Africa Online. At the time, I had just started my consultancy firm, Pure Innovations. I made contact with Form-Net and became a reseller of their email and BBS service. Two years later, in 1996, I joined Form-Net on a full-time basis doing sales and installations. It didn’t take long for them to notice that I had a wealth of network experience so I was invited to join the technical department doing systems and network administration. During this time, Kenya Posts and Telecomunications Co. (KPTC) the State-run PTT was able to offer, for the first time, international half-circuits for data. Form-Net immediately applied for a 64k and contracted with Pipex-UK (now UUNET) to provide the other half-circuit. We purchased a Cisco 2500 router and with a lot of help from Anne Lord (APNIC) who was then an IP engineer at Pipex and Tony Barber, we managed to configure the point-to-point link. This was followed shortly by a major launch at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel where the Minister for Transport and Commmunication officially launched the Internet service. It was also Kenya’s first live public demonstration of Internet access. I still get chuckles when I recount how a ball-room full of close to 300 of the cream of Kenya’s business community oohed and aahed when they heard the squeals and shrieks of the modem handshake and saw web pages start to (slowly) load. What was the starting point for the Kenyan Internet Exchange Point? Kenyan ISPs started discussing a peering point through the ISP Task Force in the East African Internet Association. Everyone knew that it was necessary to set up local traffic exchange but no one really knew how to go about it. In 1999 the EAIA’s ISP Task Force was disbanded because the ISPs decided to form their own association, the Telecommunications Service Providers of Kenya (TESPOK). At the time, I was working for a non-profit service provider Mission Aviation Fellowship. I attended the ‘99 Inet Network Training Workshop which took place in San Jose, CA. The track I participated in was "Backbone Internetworking Technology", which focused on building scalable networks and Internet exchange points. I came back to Nairobi burning with vision for a local Internet exchange point (I now knew how!). Shortly thereafter I left MAF to join the team that started ISPKenya. We immediately joined TESPOK and got involved in the ongoing project. Among the first items on the TESPOK agenda was the establishment of an Internet exchange point, all the member ISPs agreed that this was a priority issue. In the process of looking at what it would take, I contacted one of the Cisco people that I had met in San Jose, namely Barry Greene, one of their Consulting Engineers. Through a series of dialogue we came up with a design for the Internet Exchange. Cisco also offered to donate the core equipment needed for the exchange point. TESPOK accepted the offer and before long we were well on the track to getting the exchange point established. Will it now get the go-ahead from the regulator? We have been given indications that the regulator will approve the exchange point at their September board meeting. This, however, is hearsay but we have chosen to be optimistic and expect the best from our regulator despite the rough experiences we have had. Which other countries are interested in developing local internet exchanges? Uganda is at a very advanced stage of their exchange point setup. Mozambique, Tanzania and Mauritius have also indicated similar intentions. Is anyone yet thinking ahead to possible regional exchanges? Yes, we have already made this proposal to an Infrastructure committee set up by the Kenyan Ministry for Transport and Communications. Will Kenya Telkom start to look at co-location? The official word is "No". In terms of the training work you do through AFNOG, what’s the most recurrent problem people bring to you? The training work I do is very focused. It is purely centered on ISP operations and especially the networking aspects i.e. network basics, network design, Cisco router operations, network management and operations. The most common problem encountered is unfamiliarity with unix-based systems e.g. linux, freebsd, etc... There is also a lack of solid foundational knowledge of TCP/IP and Internet protocols. Why is ISPKenya different from other ISPs in Kenya? ISPKenya, in the two short years since inception has become one of the top five ISPs in Kenya (out of 30 operational ISPs). Two things distinguished ISPKenya immediately from many of the other ISPs: - Customer Service; (an independent survey by the Computer Society of Kenya rated ISPKenya as having the best Customer Service in the year 2000) - Quality of Service; through a combination of low-cost DSL technology and well thought out bandwidth management, ISPKenya has been able to maintain a very high quality of service, notwithstanding the frequent interruptions and downtime caused by Telkom Kenya’s intermittent service. Is the dial-up market in Kenya growing and by how much? At the present the dial-up market in Kenya is not really growing. TESPOK’s estimate of the number of dial-up users is approximately 35,000.The main contstraint is the high cost of computing equipment. The unavailability of ‘phone lines in many areas and the high telecommunications costs association with providing services out of the capital Nairobi. What’s your favorite web site at the moment (other than your own)? www.google.com ;-) This is my favourite starting point. Besides this www.nationaudio.com, the local daily newspaper’s website
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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