In 2022, APIX and the Internet Society (hereafter ISOC) were working together with APNIC and APNIC Foundation after signing the regional commitment to developing Internet Exchange Points to enhance Internet affordability, quality, and reliability in Asia-Pacific. The ISOC has been helping address connectivity gaps for many years, including building and supporting IXPs to improve traffic flow and help people get cheaper, faster, and better service for years. Working in collaboration, we have made a lot of progress, such as supporting local communities to build four new IXPs, including one in Maldives.
The ISOC has the 50⁄50 Vision for Internet Traffic – an ambitious but achievable strategy to rally multi-stakeholder efforts and international and national resources to ensure that at least 50% of all locally generated traffic in selected economies remains local by 2025. Reaching this ambitious target will strengthen Internet quality and reduce individual access costs. Starting in 2010, they worked in collaboration with the African Peering and Interconnection Community on a vision to have 80% of African Internet traffic locally accessible by 2020. A 2012 study established a baseline at IXP hubs in Kenya and Nigeria, and a follow-up study in 2020 showed that local traffic levels jumped from 30% to 70%.
The effort helped increase understanding of the impact of peering on the local infrastructure. While not 80%, it did lead to significant cost savings for participating networks and put these two countries in a stronger position to participate in the digital economy.
APIX also supports the vision. In 2023, ISOC is expanding its work beyond Africa, selecting 12 economies worldwide where IXPs can play a fundamental role in ensuring that the under and un-connected have faster, cheaper, and more resilient Internet access. Among the 12, IXPs in APAC will be included, and APIX will also work together to help the IXPs in APAC up and running.
We hope you will join us as we fully develop the vision and build an action plan to support it. We will seek regional input on improving policy and regulatory processes, fostering relationships with IXPs and technical communities, attracting investment into local Internet ecosystems, and more. We’ll reach out periodically with our progress, but in the meantime, please get in touch with us at ixp[at]isoc.org or sc[at]apix.asia if you’d like to get more involved.