Hi Brainiac! [ Brainiac ] wrote:

something that hit the news unnoticed was the announcement that seacom in conjunction with TESPOK have launched another exchange in the coastal town of Mombasa.

Yes this is the case.

I am in kilifi, and most of my traffic goes out, does this mean my packets will not be going through nairobi? i would be very happy if that were the case. someone explain how this works like you would to someone who is still doing comm 101.

Here's the problem statement. There are many ISPs in the coastal region that do not operate in Nairobi. There are also ISPs that are located in both Nairobi and Mombasa. Traffic exchange between Customers of; 1) ISPs that are only operational in the Coastal Region, will take place either in Europe (if buying from SEACOM, etc) or at their upstream provider if they use the same upstream. 2) ISPs that are located in both Nairobi and Mombasa, the traffic is hauled back to Nairobi and exchanged at the Nairobi IXP. =========================Example========================================= If you can do a traceroute from Kilifi to www.kenic.or.ke and to www.kra.go.ke it will be a good test to see how your current traffic is routed within networks based in Nairobi. Another test is to do a trace to an ISP that is based in Mombasa for instance www.ikenya.com or some other. =========================Example========================================= How it works; The way it works is that all ISPs and Content providers in the Coastal region will have to install their own Links to the Mombasa IXP (which should be cheaper than to Nairobi). Using BGP the networks will exchange routing information of their customers and their networks. This will mean that if you Kilifi-ISP-D wants to reach a customer of Mombasa-ISP-A (and both of you are connected at the Mombasa IXP). The exchange will be made locally without going through your International circuit/provider. This will mean that you will not pay for the packet going through the IXP at the International rate but at a local rate. Remember everyhting you send your upstream provider will always be billed at an International rate regardless of its destination (local or international). It will also mean that other providers based in Nairobi can also offer you the ability to have access to Nairobi based operators only (at a lower cost than sending it internationally and vise versa. There are lots of opportunities and we hope that we shall have many operators from the region connecting to the new facility. Please feel free to ask should you have more questions. Regards, Michuki CTO KIXP.