The establishment of Internet Exchange Points across African countries is a significant milestone for the continent’s digital landscape. It will help address the region’s growing connectivity demands and foster economic growth by supporting local internet traffic and lowering dependency on international routes.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) announced, on November 11, an expansion of its interconnection services in Kenya, with the upcoming launch of LINX Mombasa. This development comes a year after the launch of LINX Nairobi, marking a continued partnership with iColo, a Digital Realty Company and Kenyan data center operator.

Nurani Nimpuno, LINX’s Head of Global Engagement, highlighted the impact of this expansion on regional connectivity saying: “The launch of the Mombasa IXP is a significant complement to the existing LINX IXP in Nairobi, a step that will bolster interconnection across East Africa. Improved efficient local traffic exchange enhances network resilience, reduces latency, and supports a seamless digital experience.”

East Africa’s connectivity has traditionally relied on international routes, which require data to travel long distances to Europe and back. In 2012, only about 30% of Kenya's traffic was localized, with limited local content. By 2020, this increased to nearly 70%, and the Kenyan IXP (KIXP) saw peak traffic grow from 1 Gbps to 19 Gbps, saving an estimated $6 million annually, according to the 2020 report by the Internet Society titled “Anchoring the African Internet Ecosystem: Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria’s Internet Exchange Point Growth.” This growth highlights IXPs' role in building sustainable internet infrastructure to enable local traffic exchange and content access.

Mombasa, a strategic coastal city, now serves as a key digital gateway for East Africa, housing major submarine cables, including 2Africa, SEACOM, TEAMS, and EASSy. These undersea cables link Africa with the world, providing essential high-capacity, low-latency internet connectivity.

The new LINX Mombasa IXP is set to leverage this infrastructure, reducing dependency on international routes that previously required traffic to be rerouted to Europe and back. This local peering will lower latency and cut costs, boosting network efficiency in Kenya and neighboring nations, such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and even landlocked countries like South Sudan.

International content providers, cloud services, and digital infrastructure companies—including major players like Google, Akamai, and Netflix—already have a presence in Mombasa’s data centers. By hosting high-demand content locally, the new IXP will enable faster access speeds and lower bandwidth costs for users across East Africa.

LINX Mombasa will be hosted at iColo’s MBA2 facility, with interconnected services across both sites through a fabric setup. It will launch in Q1 of 2025, mirroring the technical setup of LINX Nairobi by using Nokia technology to enable peering from day one, including 100G port capabilities.

With this new IXP, LINX and iColo are setting the stage for greater digital access, innovation, and economic growth in East Africa, positioning Mombasa as a key player in the region’s digital transformation.

Hikmatu Bilali