Hi all, It's a pleasure to join this list. I was so excited to hear from ISOC about the fact that we are well on the way to (finally) having a local chapter. I have waited many years for this! As I read through the archives I saw the thread about Kenyan Internet history and would like to contribute the following. - First commercial ISP FormNet - connected to the Internet in 1996 - I was technical manager and set up the link which was a 64k International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) to Pipex, UK - I initiated discussions with all the ISPs about KIXP in 1999 and after several months got agreement. Enaged Cisco to donate the initial kit for the core of the IXP, engaged UNESCO so that we could receive the equipment duty free by Cisco shipping it to them and then them 'donating' it to us ISPs. KIXP then went live in October, 2000 after we arranged for Barry Greene of Cisco to come over and assist us with getting peering sessions up between the first four ISPs that agreed to connect. It was shut down by CCK after about 1 week of operation due to objections from Telkom Kenya and suggestions that it was a 'threat to National security'. It took about 1 year of lobbying, advocacy, negotiation and myth-busting with CCK, govt, Telkom and NSIS before a face-saving way of getting KIXP back up was identified and KIXP became the first IXP to need a license to operate ;) the IXP was then restored operationally and formally launched in 2002. Best regards, Brian -- Brian Munyao Longwe e-mail: blongwe@gmail.com cell: +254715964281 blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com "Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything."