Internet Local Content in Africa Increases by 50%

There have seen an increase in local content hosted within Africa, from 20% in 2012 to 50% this year, signalling the improvement of infrastructure on the continent, according to Networking firm Liquid Telecom.

Most businesses have been hosting their websites and data offshore, which increases the cost for ISPs having to pick up data from other continents. ISPs are charged international exchange costs, which also limits the possibility of cheap connectivity.

Africa currently has over 37 local internet exchanges and most companies peer through them. Peering though IXPs means local ISPs can connect and exchange data themselves, without paying a third party to retransmit their traffic to a local destination.

According to the Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK) local peering has reduced connectivity from $3,375 to $200 per 64 kbit/s circuit.

"By keeping African data in Africa we continue to help reduce the costs of Internet access across the continent, and improve the performance of that Internet to African Internet users," Ben Roberts, chief executive officer of Liquid Telecom Kenya and chief technical officer of the Liquid Telecom Group said.

Speaking at the African Peering and Interconnection Conference, run by the Internet Society, in Mozambique, Mathew Chigwende, head of data networks at Liquid Telecom said that the increase in IXPs, expansion of content delivery networks and the interconnection between telcos and ISPs has led to the increase in Africa's internet network.

"We're now confident we shall reach the Internet Society's target of 80 percent local content on Africa's Internet infrastructure by 2020," Chigwende said.

Roberts added that, "The next bases for all of us, in this Internet Society, are encouraging the creators of content to host their websites locally, and achieving better Intellectual Property protection on local content, so that the move to streaming comes with revenue models that encourage content producers to put their content online."