Abbreviation KIXP Website Official website | Location Kenya Date founded 2000 | |
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Full name Kenya Internet Exchange | ||
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The Kenya Internet Exchange (KIXP) is an Internet exchange point started in late 2000 by Kenyan Internet service providers as an attempt to cut their operating cost by avoiding the use of expensive international links - mostly via satellite at the time. Without a local peering point, communication between hosts on different service providers had to travel abroad for peering.
The incumbent monopoly telecom operator at the time, Jambonet (owned by Telkom Kenya) filed a complaint with the Communications Commission of Kenya (equivalent to the Federal Communications Commission in the US) which ruled the peering point illegal, and KIXP was closed the same year. After a court process, it was re-opened in February, 2002 after and peering members have since increased from the initial four to its current 20 members.