{"id":617850,"date":"2025-11-11T11:40:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=617850"},"modified":"2025-11-11T11:43:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:43:16","slug":"south-africas-biggest-internet-exchange-point-hits-major-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cloud-hosting\/617850-south-africas-biggest-internet-exchange-point-hits-major-milestone.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s biggest Internet exchange point hits major milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teraco announced on Tuesday that its NAPAfrica Internet exchange point (IXP) has reached a milestone of 6Tbps of traffic, driven by the continued growth and expansion of its peering community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith 680 networks peering at its exchange points, NAPAfrica continues to play a critical role in keeping African Internet traffic local, reducing costs, and improving network performance,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teraco said NAPAfrica has more than 2,300 physically connected ports and a total connected capacity of almost 45 terabits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its latest announcement comes after NAPAfrica offered 400Gbps interconnects to its clients in March to accommodate the growing bandwidth demands of content and cloud providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to NAPAfrica\u2019s milestone achievement, Teraco also announced the introduction of a new application programming interface (API) for its Africa Cloud Exchange (ACX).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teraco said the API enables customers to automate cloud connectivity and enhance hybrid and multi-cloud performance across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that it lets customers provision ACX connections at the software level, creating virtual connections to any participant on the exchange once a physical connection is established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACX improves enterprise hybrid and multi-cloud performance by providing secure, direct, and flexible interconnection to a wide range of local and global cloud providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese developments reflect Teraco\u2019s ongoing commitment to creating a more connected and collaborative cloud ecosystem,\u201d said Andrew Owens, Teraco interconnection and peering lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owens said increased traffic volumes between cloud providers, enterprises, and networks highlight how peering is an enabler in accelerating digital transformation across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe continued growth at NAPAfrica is a testament to the continent\u2019s vibrant Internet community,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe community has embraced peering, data-intensive applications, cloud adoption, and the rising demand for video, content, and gaming services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keeping Internet traffic local<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Teraco said most of Africa\u2019s Internet traffic was traditionally routed through Europe, resulting in increased latency and higher costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAPAfrica has helped keep African traffic within the continent, leading to improved performance for ISPs, mobile operators, and enterprises, while fostering a more self-sufficient African Internet ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although many global IXPs charge for port access, NAPAfrica offers free peering, enabling ISPs, content providers, and enterprises to reduce transit costs while improving network performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It operates in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, three of South Africa\u2019s key Internet traffic hubs. NAPAfrica serves as a critical interconnection point for regional and international networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teraco said that NAPAfrica attracts global technology leaders and content providers, including Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enables direct content delivery and cloud access across Africa. In 2025, NAPAfrica welcomed 32 new members, including Cable & Wireless Seychelles, Rain Networks, and SES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s strategic position as a landing point for submarine cables, including 2Africa, ACE, EASSy, Equiano, METISS, SAT3\/SAFE, Seacom, and WACS, has significantly bolstered international connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Networks across sub-Saharan Africa peer at NAPAfrica to access global content efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that NAPAfrica has deployed additional cache servers in Teraco data centres to cover regional connectivity requirements, including hosting Netflix Open Connect in Cape Town and Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By reducing the distance data must travel, this initiative enables faster load times and enriches the user experience for local audiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teraco announced that the NAPAfrica Internet exchange point has reached a significant traffic milestone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":617852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[10028,50875,6673],"class_list":["post-617850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-hosting","tag-andrew-owens","tag-internet-exchange-point-ixp","tag-napafrica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":617853,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617850\/revisions\/617853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}