Telecommunication Service Providers of Kenya (TESPOK) has announced that it will continue to operate the Mombasa Internet Exchange point, days after its partner, Amsterdam Internet Exchange point (AMS-IX) announced the closure of the exchange.

In a statement the AMS-IX said: "AMS-IX and TESPOK have decided by mutual agreement to close the East Africa Exchange project ... since the exchange point went live in mid 2014 it has proved difficult to attract parties to participate in the exchange. To date there have been only four parties who have connected to the platform, with only one international party namely Google and three Kenyan based parties."

However, TESPOK has now said that it will continue to operate the exchange point without the support of the AMS-IX.

Although the organisation did not stipulate the decision to continue with the project, they said that they had "terminated" the partnership with AMS-IX, but hoped to continue with them in other future projects.

"TESPOK and AMSIX have decided to end the contract due to challenges beyond our control but we are looking at various other approaches to our interaction with AMSIX," TESPOK CEO Fiona Asonga said in a statement.

Fiona attributed the challenges of the exchange to include lack of appropriate local government support for ICT infrastructure investment, absence of carrier neutral data centers in the region and the costs of transit between Nairobi and Mombasa to facilitate peering at both the Nairobi and Mombasa locations.

"We call upon Kenyan ISPs as well as regional ISPs at the MSIXP (Mombasa Internet Exchange point) to peer at the Mombasa Internet Exchange Point and continue realising the benefits of the POP," she said.