Botswana has thrown its weight behind the establishment of regional internet exchange points (RIXP’s), a development yet to be born in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Aaron Nyelesi, Deputy Director Corporate Communications at Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) said the development could spur on regional trade and growth in the local telecoms industry.

The call comes as global body, the Internet Society, kick-started regional internet exchange point workshops for the ‘African Internet Exchange System’ (AXIS) project in Botswana on the weekend.

“RIXP’s will benefit Botswana through regionalisation of high bandwidth, give economies on the bloc chances for upping investment, capacity building, employment and expertise training opportunities,” Nyelesi said.

BOCRA is Botswana’s new communications regulator established at the beginning of April in 2013.

Nyelesi said countries in the region are expected to save money through RIXP on intra-regional internet connectivity compared to routing traffic through other nations in the likes of Europe with higher traffic zones.

Nyelesi further said there could also be a significant reduction in cost on international bandwidth if regional IXPs are built.

“We could also tap more deeply into the underutilised broadband optic fiber networks such as the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSY) and of late the West African Cable System linking Africa to the Arab, Asian and Far East, and Europe and the Americas, respectively. The challenge is for countries like Botswana to absorb this excess capacity and lower the connectivity costs.”