Durban's internet exchange point a first in SA

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"The extension of DINX makes it easy for internet companies who already have infrastructure in Umhlanga to connect to peers at the existing DINX location," said Nishal Goburdhan, INX-ZA's manager.

"Peers at the new site will have the same peering experience and will be able to be directly linked, at no additional complexity to all existing, and future DINX peers," added Goburdhan.

Saul Stein, technical manager of the project, said the multi-site INX in Umhlanga had afforded Durban-based customers the same experience as their counterparts in Johannesburg and Cape Town, allowing inter-connection to peer ISPs in the region. "Being based in Umhlanga, it was a phenomenal experience for the INX to be extended out to Umhlanga, rather than having to build out to the INX," said Stein.

Working towards socio-economic goals

The officials said by contributing resources from its Ethekwini Fibre Metro project, the City of Durban had been able to work towards its socio-economic goals to promote the local economy.

Having multiple site internet exchanges lowers the operating costs for local internet service providers based in Durban, increases the quality of the experience for Durban users, especially when accessing websites hosted locally in Durban.

INX-ZA began as a project of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), but is now independently managed by the users of the internet exchanges. INX-ZA currently operates the only community-run, public internet exchanges in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

"We've been busy, working silently to build systems that help to improve things at network infrastructure level. We expect that in the next few months, many of these initiatives will start to mature, and network operators, present at the various INXes across the country, will start to reap the benefits."