Telecoms2.09.2013

SEACOM and France-IX strike a partnership to interconnect African Internet players

SEACOM, the pan-African service provider, has entered into a partnership with France-IX, the Internet exchange point operator, to provide peering services to its African customers. As the owner of a high-speed fiber-optic network that serves both the East and West coasts of Africa, SEACOM’s goal in becoming a reseller of France-IX is to extend African operators & service providers’ networks to reach international peers and content at the interconnection point in Marseille. The commercial offer will officially be launched next week during the Africa Interconnection and Peering Forum (AfPIF) in Casablanca, Morocco.

Shortening the path to global content delivery networks

The main advantage of this partnership is to provide African operators and service providers with a shorter path to the content delivery networks (CDNs) which handle both French- and English-speaking content. France-IX already counts many international CDNs in Paris and some of them have also doubled their connection with a port in Marseille, mostly dedicated to exchange traffic with African and Middle-Eastern networks.

More precisely, SEACOM will be able to carry its customers to Marseille where it will interconnect through a 10Gbps port to France-IX. Specific circuits will then be configured across this 10Gbps port for each customer in order to begin peering across the exchange. Even though these customers will be connected through SEACOM, they will benefit from the same services and rights as any members directly connected to France-IX: access to a webportal with their own SFlow statistics, 24/7 technical monitoring and support, vote during the general assemblies.

More than 19 countries to benefit from this offer

“Partnerships such as this, together with our African and Global points of presence, allow SEACOM to provide innovative solutions that enable our customers’ to enhance their service offerings. Furthermore such a combination continues to place SEACOM at the forefront of improving the Internet experience in Africa.” explains Robert Marston, Product Manager at SEACOM.

On France-IX side, this new strategic partnership aims to increase the number of international members connected to the point. “We expect to welcome more and more networks coming from abroad in the following years and we rely on SEACOM to reinforce the presence of African operators on our infrastructure” adds Solène Souquet, marketing manager at France-IX.

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