• INX-ZA has said that the new exchange in Gqeberha will be operational in June.
• The exchange means ISPs won’t have to backhaul content from other regions leading to cost savings.
• INX-ZA has waived port fees, and the co-location facility has waived monthly recurring fees for cross-connects in a bid to push uptake at the exchange.

Network operators in the Eastern Cape, specifically in Gqeberha, can now make use of the first node operated by INX-ZA in the region to improve connectivity and performance for customers.

The Nelson Mandela Bay exchange (NMBINX) joins the other community-run internet exchanges in Cape Town (CINX), Durban (DINX) and Johannesburg (JINX). NMBINX is located at the Dimension Data facility in Newton Park and will be operational from the first week of June.

“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 said in a statement.

The exchange launching in the region means that content won’t need to be backhauled from Johannesburg or one of the other exchanges. This means potential cost savings for ISPs that could be passed along to the consumer.

In a bid to push uptake and promote interconnectivity in the region, INX-ZA has waived port fees and the co-location facility has waived monthly recurring fees for cross-connects.

“INX-ZA’s overarching objective is to keep Internet traffic local to lower costs and improve latencies. The community-run INX-ZA manages SA’s data centre-agnostic and multi-site Internet exchange points for the benefit of Internet consumers as an independent operating division of ISPA. The latter’s members regularly contribute towards the country’s INXes,” the organisation added.

INX-ZA offers a range of services South African businesses can take advantage of, a list of which is available here.

Not only can businesses and ISPs in the region take advantage of INX-ZA’s services which have remained uninterrupted since June 1996.

[Image – Taylor Vick on Unsplash]