[Maputo, Mozambique- 27 February 2015] The Internet Society has partnered with the Eduardo Mondlane University Computing Centre (CIUEM) to bring the sixth annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) to Maputo, Mozambique from 25-27 August 2015. Designed to address the key challenges and opportunities in interconnection, peering and traffic exchange on the continent, the conference provides a platform to help grow Internet infrastructure and services across Africa.

Over the past five years, AfPIF has positively impacted the Internet interconnection and traffic exchange landscape in Africa through experience sharing, capacity building and business linkages. During this period, there has been a notable increase in investments and initiatives that have led to improvements in the extent and quality of national and regional interconnection.

“The Southern African region has demonstrated leadership in establishing national interconnection with over 70% of the countries in the region having an operational Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and I believe it has a lot of experience to share with the rest of Africa. For this reason, we are pleased to partner with CIUEM to organize the AfPIF-2015 event in Mozambique,” said Dawit Bekele, the Internet Society’s Regional Director for Africa.

“The establishment of the Mozambique Internet Exchange (MozIX) in 2002 was a result of a long and painful process, whereby some of the local ISPs were reluctant to join the initiative promoted by CIUEM, allegedly due to lack of trust. Today, we are glad to see that 16 major operators are already connected to the MozIX. Therefore, by hosting the AfPIF-2015 event in Mozambique, we’re also celebrating these small but meaningful steps in the history of the Internet in our Country,” said Francisco Mabila, the CIUEM Director.

AfPIF has previously been held in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco and Senegal, with each event attracting more than 150 participants from more than 30 countries.

The Internet Society aims to advance the African interconnection agenda at AfPIF-2015, in line with the vision to achieve 80% local and 20% international Internet traffic by the year 2020.  The event welcomes sponsors as well as past attendees and new participants to the main peering and interconnection forum for Africa, promising more than just a forum – AfPIF provides an opportunity to advance peering and interconnection arrangements and to make a positive contribution to Africa’s Internet resources.

Read about last year’s event: AfPIF 2014 Report

About the Internet Society

The Internet Society is the trusted independent source for Internet information and thought leadership from around the world. It is also the organizational home for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). With its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society promotes open dialogue on Internet policy, technology, and future development among users, companies, governments, and other organizations. Working with its members and Chapters around the world, the Internet Society enables the continued evolution and growth of the Internet for everyone.

Media Contact: Betel Hailu, hailu@isoc.org

About the Eduardo Mondlane University Computing Centre (CIUEM)

The Eduardo Mondlane University Computing Centre (CIUEM) was established in 1981, as a small technical unit, designed primarily for the provision of ICT related services and support, as well as, for advising and assisting the University management in ICT policies and strategies formulation and implementation. However, with the fast growing demand on IT services in the country, the Centre was soon challenged to also provide services to other entities outside the University.

In 1992, CIUEM has pioneered the first Internet connection in Mozambique, acting soon as the only ISP in the country until 1996. During the following years, it was involved in a number of initiatives, aiming at promoting awareness among the Government and civil society about the importance of ICT in general and the Internet in particular. As a result of those awareness campaigns, the Government approved the national ICT Policy and the Implementation strategy in 2000 and 2002 respectively, whereby CIUEM was involved in providing technical expertise and advice.

CIUEM is the “mz” top level domain administrator and since 2002 is running the Mozambique Internet Exchange (MozIX).

For more information, visit www.ciuem.mz

Media contact: Avelino Mondlane, mondlane@uem.mz