Conclusions of the Workshop on the Best Practices and Management on the

Establishment of an Internet Exchange Point in Swaziland held in Mbabane from

the 4th to 5th of February 2013

In collaboration with the African Union Commission

 I. INTRODUCTION

The Swaziland Government recognizes the promotion and liberalization of the ICT-Sector for socio-
economic development and it is within this context that it adopted the Electronic Communications
Act for the development and growth of Information and Communication Technologies.

In collaboration with the African Union Commission, the Ministry of Information and
Communication Technology (MICT) hosted an IXP best practices workshop from the 4th to the 5th of
February 2013, in Ezulwini

II. OBJECTIVE

The aim of the workshop is to reach a mutual agreement among the ICT Stakeholders Service
providers to work towards the establishment and or possible improvement of the existing local
Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Swaziland .

III. CONTEXT AND BACKGROND

Currently, Africa is paying overseas carriers to exchange “local” (continental) traffic. This is both
costly as well as an inefficient way of handling inter-country exchange of Internet traffic.

An Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is a neutral physical infrastructure whose purpose is to facilitate
the exchange of Internet traffic between different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) within a given
area, thereby keeping local Internet traffic local to that area.

It allows, among other things:

 Optimization of Internet Traffic;

 Cost Savings – accessing local content locally ;

 The improved access speed, quality of service, reduction of latency and limitation of
interruption effects of the international cables on the local traffic;

 Creating revenue opportunities through local content and service which previously would
have been impossible due to slowness and high cost of bandwidth, such as;

- Streaming video/audio

- Video-conferencing

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 - Telemedicine

- E-Commerce

- E-Learning

- E-Government

The participants welcomed the initiative of the African Internet Exchange Point System project
(AXIS) by the African Union with the financial support from the European Union-Africa
Infrastructure Trust Fund with one of its objectives to support Member States to establish Internet
Exchange Points.

IV. WORKSHOP PROCESS

The opening ceremony was conducted by the Honourable Minister for Information, Communication
and Technology, Senator Winnie K Magagula, and the African Union Commission representative,
Mr Moses Bayingana.

The following organizations participated in the workshop:

 Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MICT), Swaziland Posts and
Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), Swazi MTN, Swaziland Internet Service Providers
Association (SISPA), Real Image, Computronics, Posix Online, Swaziland Television
Authority (STVA), Office of the Prime Minister – E-Government Unit, Central Bank of
Swaziland, Standard Bank (Swaziland), Nedbank (Swaziland), FNB (Swaziland), Swazibank,
University of Swaziland and Federation of Swaziland Employers (FSE & CC), SEC.

The list of participants is hereby attached in annex.

(ATTACH PARTICIPANTS LIST)

V. WORKSHOP CONCLUSIONS

The two days workshop, conducted by a facilitator expert, Mr. Nishal Goburdhan, allowed
participants to reinforce their knowledge on the establishment and management of an IXP. The
workshop activities highlighted the importance of an IXP on accessing and keeping local traffic local,
thus saving on cost of access, improved latency and better quality of service.

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Under the facilitation of the workshop facilitator, the participants examined the essential challenges
in relation to the establishment and management of this infrastructure at the national level. These
included the choice of a legal and management structure, and the location to host the IXP.

During the workshop, the stakeholders/participants agreed to establish a working committee for the
establishment of the IXP. The main responsibilities of the Working Committee will include, but not
limited to:
 Developing a draft Constitution,
 Draft the appropriate IXP organizational structure
 Finalize criteria to select the IXP founding members
 Come up with the location and name of the IXP
 Any other legal modalities for the IXP
 Budget and Financial provisions for the setting up of the IXP

The Working Committee consists of volunteers from the workshop participants to ensure continuity.
The membership included the following:

Ralph Nkambule – SISPA

Andreas Dlamini - MICT
Musa Tsela - SPTC
University rep - TBD
Nomfundo Jiyane – Nedbank
Mcebo Shabangu – MTN

The Working committee aims to complete the assigned responsibilities by the end of June 2013.
The following recommendations were also made:
 The organizational structure should be lean, comprising a Board, CEO, and two (2) other
positions, namely, Technical, Finance and Administration.

 The long term model proposed by consensus was the Independent IXP Business Model.

 Bi-lateral peering model and ultimately transitioning to a hybrid peering model was agreed
upon by consensus.

 MICT will expedite the necessary legal and regulatory environment for the setting up of the
IXP.

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  Participation to the IXP should be open, based on certain technical requirements to be
determined.

Participants further invited MICT and the regulator to support and contribute to the process, and
consolidate other on-going activities relevant to the establishment of the IXP.

Name:
Mbabane exchange point
Swaziland exchange point

Organization type:
Commercial
Non-commercial
Consider ; legal challenges, tax exemptions, registration category

Institutional and Operational Model:

Non-profit industry association of ISPs

Names of the committee

Ralph Nkhambule – SISPA
Andreas Dlamini - MICT
Musa Tsela - SPTC
University rep -
Nomfundo Jiyane – NedBank
Mcebo Shabangu – MTN
Consider: constitution, name, location, address, costs, registration of company
Draft constitution by the 22nd instant, 3 months later – final constitution

Founding members: any benefits for them?

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Board Composition:
Size, executive or non, term, when come to effect, general assembly, financial, etc
3 – 6 months

Organizational Structure:
Board committees
Executive role
Technical function
Finance and admin function

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