Burkina Faso is enriched with new Internet exchange points and virtual landing sites
September 8th 2020
Burkina Faso will be able to benefit from an overall international bandwidth of 60 gigabits. This improvement in connectivity is made possible by the commissioning, on September 4, of its new Internet exchange and virtual landing points based in Bobo-Dioulasso.
In accordance with the country’s digital transformation ambitions, the government of Burkina Faso has invested the sum of 3.105 billion FCFA in the construction of an Internet exchange point (PIX) and a virtual landing point (PAV) in the town of Bobo-Dioulasso. The two infrastructures, housed in the premises of the Transmitting Center in Sarfalao, were officially inaugurated on September 4, 2020 by the Prime Minister, Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré (photo).
The Internet exchange point will allow local interconnection between telecom operators and Internet service providers. This interconnection will improve the latency of the network, that is to say the times of connectivity to data servers on the Internet, and will greatly improve the speed of traffic. The virtual landing point is a dry port for submarine fiber optic cable. It will manage the capacity of international bandwidth for the benefit of local players in the telecommunications sector.
These essential components of the national broadband telecommunications infrastructure project were carried out within the framework of the West African regional electronic communication infrastructure project, a component of Burkina Faso financed by the World Bank. They will consolidate the quality of Internet connectivity, which has improved significantly since July 2018 with the entry into service of the Internet exchange point and the virtual landing point in Ouagadougou.
The Prime Minister indicated that “the putting into operation of the PAV and IXP of Bobo-Dioulasso will strengthen capacities with 15 new gigabits / second of international bandwidth including 5 gigabits for the PAV of Bobo-Dioulasso and 10 gigabits for the Ouagadougou PAV ”. The Minister of Development of the Digital Economy and Posts, Hadja Fatimata Sanon, stressed that the commissioning of the additional 15 gigabytes will increase the overall international bandwidth available in the country to more than 60 gigabits in 2020.
Back