The Internet Society is taking its annual Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) to Tanzania for the first time this year.
The organisation has announced that it is partnering with the Tanzania Internet Service Providers Association to hold the seventh edition of AfPIF in Dar es Salaam from 30 August to 1 September 2016.
Organisers say the event will serve as a platform to expand internet infrastructure and services across Africa by bringing together key players to address the opportunities in interconnection, peering and traffic exchange on the continent.
"The forum seeks to build cross-border interconnection opportunities and facilitate discussions on African Internet infrastructure challenges, including terrestrial capacity, development of national and regional Internet Exchange Points (IXP) and local content," stated an announcement by organisers.
Dawit Bekele, Regional Director for Africa of the Internet Society explained the need for the annual meeting which has previously been held in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal and Mozambique
"Internet connectivity in Africa has increased over the last few years delivering access to close to a third of the population on the continent. Improving interconnection and traffic exchange has become even more important today as an increasing number of Africans rely on the Internet in their daily lives,"
Bekele adds that a notable increase in investments and initiatives has led to improvements in the extent and quality of national and regional interconnection since AfPIF was first launched six years ago.
"This has been possible thanks to the connections people make at AfPIF. The forum has in particular enabled Africans to collaborate and work together towards the development of the Internet infrastructure on the continent,"
Vinay Choudary, the chairman of TISPA, emphasised the benefit for Tanzania as 2016 host. "TISPA remains committed to advancing and protecting the interests of its members while promoting the advancement of the Internet sector. We believe by working with AfPIF to host this auspicious event in August will be one leap forward for Tanzania in terms of network optimisation."
Last year's AfPIF event featured 232 participants from 57 countries and an online participation of 978 people in 77 different countries according to the The Internet Society.
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