Africa.Inx promises 50% bandwidth price cut
Africa.Inx, South Africa’s first independent network exchange, was officially launched today. “Say goodbye to an historical era of telecommunications monopoly and welcome to freedom of choice, lower rates and independence,” says Eduard du Plessis, CEO of Africa.Inx
Operating a wholesale business, Africa.Inx is buying bandwidth in bulk and then reselling to ISPs in smaller increments. The minimum entry point is 4Mb, with 2Mb upgrade increments.
With a slim margin on the resale and no links to incumbent telecoms operators, Africa.Inx expects rates to be more than 50% less than what ISPs currently pay. The company is connected to JINX through a 10Gb Ethernet port.
Africa.Inx claims that its business model and rate card policy will give medium and small ISPs the same low cost access to the Internet that has been historically enjoyed only by the larger Tier 1 ISPs.
The company is headed up by Eduard du Plessis, CEO and majority shareholder of Ensync, and Mike Brierley, founder and former CEO of MTN Network Solutions.
“We both have extensive experience in the IT industry and we are fully aware of the degree to which many smaller ISPs are oppressed by the few large operators that dominate the market,” said du Plessis.
“It is our intention to break this monopoly by making Internet access easily and cheaply available to the smaller ISPs in order for them to gain independence and pass that saving onto the consumer,” he continued.
“The telco market has changed significantly over the last year with full de-regulation, the arrival of Seacom and the laying of metro fibre. This has resulted in a drop in long haul transmission prices. However, the smaller ISPs and, ultimately consumers, are not seeing immediate benefits. Africa.Inx is changing this,” du Plessis concludes.
Africa.Inx network exchange – discussion
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