The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is extending its African interconnection platform to PAIX Data Centres in Nairobi following demand from the local networking community.
Networks located at the PAIX facility in Nairobi are soon to be just a single cross-connect away from peering opportunities with any network present at LINX Nairobi, from global content networks like Meta to local ISPs such as ICON Fiber, Mtaani Telecom, Mymanga Networks and PepeaNet.
LINX Nairobi has a fully interconnected dual fibre infrastructure between the data centre sites for full resilience and redundancy. The addition of PAIX will enhance the LINX fabric to a 4-site interconnection hub. The installation work is being prepared and is expected to go live in the coming weeks.
Launched back in November 2023, the new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is going from strength to strength with a strong community of local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), global content networks and strategic partners already interconnected, and traffic starting to build. The team at LINX have spent a lot of time with the local engineering community. Following interest from key networks located at PAIX it was decided that the infrastructure needed to grow – only 9 months after launch.
PAIX Nairobi NBO-1 is located at the Britam Tower in Upper Hill, Nairobi, the central business district and a known key financial hub for East and Central Africa.
Emmanuel Makina, Sales Manager of PAIX Data Centres, says: “With our cloud—and carrier-neutral datacentre located in the centre of the business district, we host communities of interest for the financial and content industries, which includes financial services, advertising, broadcasting, and entertainment companies.
The customers that host their mission critical equipment in our facility must be online 24×7 in today’s digital economy. They all benefit from connecting to multiple networks, easily scale their bandwidth, reduce their connectivity costs, and have the lowest latency to their partners.
The PAIX facility is a natural communications hub for Nairobi: in a central location in Upper Hill, and next to Britam Tower where our customers can collocate their antennas for wireless connectivity to all parts of the city.”
Jennifer Holmes, LINX’s CCO, comments: “We didn’t expect to be expanding the LINX Nairobi network this soon, but we like to pride ourselves in our commitment to the local community. They said, and we listened. By expanding the peering opportunities to the customers at PAIX, we are adding value to the entire LINX Nairobi community and prospective new local and global networks with whom we are in talks.”
Wouter van Hulten, CEO & founder, says: “PAIX Data Centres is fully committed to the development of Kenya’s digital infrastructure, with support for all the latest AI hardware and software. PAIX Data Centres is invested in by Africa50, a private equity fund in which the Republic of Kenya is a shareholder. We are building and operating the infrastructure to enable Africa’s digital economy, with local datacentres, local teams, and world class operations, all essential ingredients for the developments that lie ahead. We warmly welcome LINX to the PAIX Community in Kenya.”
