IXPN saves Nigeria $40m internet cost – Report

A report on Critical African Internet Infrastructure, commissioned by the Internet Society, has said the Internet Exchange of Nigeria (IXPN) in 2020 grew to peak traffic of 125 gigabites per second with a cost savings increase to $40 million per year.

The report, ‘Anchoring the African Internet Ecosystem: Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria’s Internet Exchange Points Growth,’ which was unveiled via a Zoom Webinar, also revealed that the growth in peak traffic is a huge increase from Peak IXP traffic of 300 Mbps and cost savings of $1,080,000, when in 2012 it commissioned a study to identify and quantify the significant benefits IXPs in Nigeria.

It also validated the growth in traffic to the current COVID-19 crisis, which has put a growing reliance on the Internet to replace face-to-face interactions during COVID-19 induced lockdowns and social distancing, adding that Nigeria and Kenya have reached Stage 2 of Internet development, with nearly 70 percent of traffic localized from the 30 percent it recorded in 2012.

“Since 2012, both countries have experienced profound growth across all aspects of their Internet ecosystems, including their IXP, Internet access and content infrastructures. Specifically, savings in Nigeria are even greater.

“In early 2020, the port charge at IXPN is US$0.428 per month per Mbps (for a 1 Gbps port), while the cost of international IP transit is US$27.45 per Mbps per month (also for 1 Gbps capacity).

“To be able to access traffic or content at the IXP thus costs about US$27 less per Mbps per month than it would by accessing it abroad, and given the amount of traffic exchanged, this is a savings of over US$40 million per year,” the report stated.

It added that although, the cost of IP transit is much lower than it was in 2012, there is so much more traffic through the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria that the savings have multiplied roughly 40 times from 2012.

Commenting on the report, the Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Exchange of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, urged local content developers who currently host their content outside Nigeria, to host it inside the country in order to benefit from lower latency and ultimately, help increase local traffic.

He said smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should connect to the IXPN in order to widely peer with other members and increase the efficiency of their interconnections, disclosing that IXPN covers eight Point of Presence (POP) across Nigeria.