London Internet Exchange (LINX) Nairobi is located across three data centre locations in Kenya’s capital, to act as a hub for the eastern continent
The London Internet Exchange (LINX) announced its interconnection hub in Nairobi, Kenya is now live. LINX Nairobi is the new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for East Africa, located at three data centre locations across Kenya’s capital.
Kenya is one of the leading technology centres in Africa, reporting an average of 10.8% growth per year since 2016. The country is well positioned to serve East Africa with rapidly rising fibre penetration throughout the whole region and a submarine cable network providing pathways to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Local welcome
LINX was established in 1994. Nurani Nimpuno (pictured), Head of Global Engagement for the company, led the LINX Nairobi project.
She said, “The welcome we have received from local stakeholders has been very supportive. We can learn a lot from the country’s technical advancements, for example their adoption of M-PESA with Safaricom, taking Kenya strides ahead in the way of digital finance innovation compared to other countries.
“I strongly believe LINX Nairobi can only compliment and continue to grow the ecosystem in Kenya.”
Working with stakeholders
LINX has been working with key stakeholders on the ground in Kenya leading up to the launch of LINX Nairobi. Nurani adds,“At LINX we depend on our data centre partners, fibre providers, ISPs and content providers, customers, and other partners, and we come together to enable each other. But it is when we work together and complement each other’s strengths that we become successful.”
The LINX Nairobi interconnection hub is a multi-site, interconnected platform accessible from IXAfrica, Africa Data Centres, NBO1 and iColo facilities. Networks located in any of these facilities can plug into the LINX Nairobi hub and peer their traffic, “creating a secure and redundant digital environment for them to manage their network more effectively,” according to LINX.
It adds, “Peering [is] often more cost effective than other methods of traffic management and improves network latency”.
LINX is working with other technical partners, including Nokia which was announced in November 2022, Smartoptics announced in April this year and Flexoptics to complete the technical set up.
Kenya’s large government has a vision for the country, Kenya Digital Superhighway Project to improve the fibre coverage and set up ‘smart hubs’ for rural areas.