Epsilon extends remote peering to South Africa

Epsilon, a global connectivity and communications service provider, has partnered with NAPAfrica to deliver peering at the largest internet exchange (IX) on the African continent. This marks Epsilon’s first IX partnership in Africa, having established relationships with global peering exchanges including AMS-IX, DE-CIX and LINX.

Enabled on its software-defined networking (SDN) platform Infiny, customers of Epsilon can access NAPAfrica directly via the Remote Peering service, without a physical presence at the internet exchange points (IXPs) located in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The NAPAfrica IXP enables peering with over 430 unique networks (ASNs) across 20 countries in the southern African region. 

“Africa represents a massive opportunity for businesses looking to penetrate a fast-growing market with enormous potential for digitalisation. Our partnership with NAPAfrica enables us to deliver on-demand access to key internet hubs in sub-Saharan Africa which will allow businesses to peer efficiently with local and regional partners,” said Mark Daley, Director of Digital Strategy and Business Development at Epsilon. “NAPAfrica is an excellent addition to our global network fabric as we grow our remote peering capabilities. We’re excited to be working with NAPAfrica and bringing our customers into the peering community within Africa.”

In March 2020, NAPAfrica reached 1Tbps of peak traffic – a 1884x growth from its first recorded traffic of 532Mbps in 2012. Africa has experienced the fastest international internet bandwidth growth compared to any market in the world between 2015 and 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45%, according to TeleGeography.

“Our partnership with Epsilon will enable more organisations across the globe to peer directly with their customers and partners in Africa. With Epsilon’s global reach, we see this as a great opportunity to add value to our existing partners and increase the number of peering options for our community,” said Andrew Owens, Technical Lead at NAPAfrica. “This partnership is another milestone for NAPAfrica as we establish ourselves as the internet hub for sub-Saharan Africa. We look forward to working with Epsilon to grow our peering community and accelerate our contribution to the internet ecosystem across the region.”