MWEB transit changes started
MWEB recently announced that they will sever their local transit over SAIX, starting today, essentially cutting off local connectivity to MTN, Vodacom and any other ISP not currently peering with MWEB.
Early next week it will be Telkom’s turn and will Telkom either have to peer for free or be in the same boat as MTN, Vodacom and other ISPs not peering directly with MWEB.
Many Internet users have anxiously been waiting to see what the effect of these severed transit links would be. The repercussions should start to show later today [28 October, 2010].
“We kick-started the process about half an hour ago [around 12:00 on 28 October] – i.e. making the configuration changes, advertising the new routes etc. You will probably only start seeing the effect during the course of the afternoon,” said MWEB ISP CEO Derek Hershaw.
It is understood that Internet traffic will be routed internationally to go from MWEB to providers which do not peer with them and vice-versa.
Hershaw previously explained that MWEB will not ‘black hole’ any local ISP’s traffic. “We will simply be rerouting traffic away from congested and very expensive local transit links to our international bandwidth, which is significantly cheaper and not congested,” said Hershaw.
It is currently not clear how Vodacom, MTN and Telkom will respond to MWEB’s ‘peer-or-bust’ strategy. These companies were contacted for comment, but no feedback was received by the time of publication.
MWEB transit changes started << Comments and views
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