INX-ZA launches Eastern Cape Internet exchange point
INX-ZA has announced the launch of a new Internet exchange point in Nelson Mandela Bay, which it says will help boost the growth and development of the Eastern Cape Internet ecosystem.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Internet Exchange Point (NMBINX) is the fourth Internet exchange point in South Africa operated by INX-ZA.
It also has exchange points in Cape Town (CINX), Durban (DINX), and Johannesburg (JINX).
The first node of the NMBINX is located in Gqeberha — formerly Port Elizabeth — at Dimension Data’s facility in Newton Park. It will begin its operations during the first week of June 2023.
INX-ZA says the new Internet exchange point will help enable faster and more efficient traffic routing in addition to other benefits.
It should also help lessen network disruptions’ impact in the region.
“NMBINX offers network operators in the Eastern Cape region the opportunity to improve their Internet connectivity and performance by connecting to other local networks, content providers and cloud service providers through a single peering point,” it says.
“This will result in faster and more efficient routing of traffic, reduced latency, and improved network resilience.”
“This region has a history of outages due to multiple simultaneous backhaul failures. This development should hopefully lessen the impact of such network disruptions,” INX-ZA adds.
INX-ZA says this is thanks to content being backhauled locally rather than from Johannesburg.
“From June, if a consumer is making use of an ISP based in Nelson Mandela Bay, instead of the content being backhauled all the way from Johannesburg, it can be served locally,” it says.
“The ISP saves on costs and this could be passed on to the consumer.”
The company has waived port fees, and Dimension Data’s co-location facility has waived monthly recurring fees for cross-connects to help promote interconnection in the region.
