Gabon Internet Xchange (Gab-IX), created on 23 January 2014 by an agreement signed between 15 public and private operators and Internet service providers of Gabon, was chosen as Internet exchange point in the Central Africa sub-region. This means that the Internet traffic of Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Chad and the Central African Republic will be routed through this infrastructure. The selection of Gab-IX as digital airport for Central Africa is the result of a consultation of experts from the African Union Commission (UA), meeting in Addis-Abeba in Ethiopia in July 2015.

Gab-IX is managed by an economic grouping of the same name (GIE Gab-IX). It is open to all players wishing to connect to it (operators, Internet access providers, service providers, large corporations, local authorities, etc.). it will help improve Internet connection speeds for populations and will contribute towards reducing access costs in Central Africa. Thanks to the Internet exchange point, data traffic between countries of Central Africa zone will not rely on far away infrastructure (Paris, London, Amsterdam, even New York).

With the sub-regional fiber optic network project (Central Africa Backbone) currently under process, Gab-IX will strong contribute towards the development of a secured, fast, high speed and cheaper access in the CEMAC zone.

An internet exchange point is a physical infrastructure which allows interconnected players to swap local internet traffic thanks to mutual agreements called “peering”.