The AXIS “Best Practices Capacity Building” workshop, which is conducted by the Internet Society in collaboration with the African Union, opened today 20 November 2014 in Mauritius at Domaine Les Pailles, near Port Louis. For the next two days the workshop will be mainly aiming at providing participants with the required knowledge to enhance their understanding of the benefits of IXPs as well as reinforce their awareness on the establishment and management of an Internet Exchange Point. The workshop will further be focusing on highlighting the importance of an IXP on accessing and keeping local traffic local, thus saving on the cost of access, improved latency and better quality of service.
More than 26 representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Mauritius, Bharat Telecom, Central Information Bureau (CIB), Central Information Systems Division (CISD), Government online center (GOC), Mauritius Telecom, EMTEL, Universities and other organizations are attending this workshop, which is expected to reach important conclusions, including forming a task-force to enhance the Management of an Internet Exchange Point in Mauritius.
The workshop comes in at a good time where, in August 2014, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Mauritius had announced plans to bring faster and more developed nationwide Internet service through a well established Internet Exchange Point in the island’s premier technology hub. It is believed that the existence of an efficiently functioning IXP will enable all Internet Service Providers in Mauritius including Mauritius Telecom and Bharat Telecom to connect a local exchange point into their service networks bringing about more content, enhanced reliability and faster speeds at cheaper costs to the public as well as businesses.
Mauritius is the 28th African country where the Internet Society has offered "Best Practices Capacity Building” assistance under the African Union AXIS project, which has been working on supporting the establishment of IXPs across the continent.
Find out more about how to join the AXIS workshops!
