1 UbuntuNet Duncan Martin Planning Workshop amongst IEEAF, RENU and UbuntuNet Kampala, 16 – 17 October 2007

2 What is UbuntuNet? Organisation Purpose Strategy Projects

3 UbuntuNet: organisation Born at WSIS in 2005 –Incorporated in 2006 in Amsterdam –Non-profit association Members are African NRENs –KENET, MAREN, MoRENet, RwEdNet, SUIN, TENET –Soon also RENU, TERNET, ZAMNET, others Board of 9 directors –Chairperson: Prof Zimani D Kadzamira –Company Secretary: Margaret Ngwira Development plan –Establish services and concomitant revenue –Establish home base in Nairobi –Appoint CEO, technical officer, admin officer

4 UbuntuNet: purpose Develop and improve connectivity between member NRENs and –other member NRENs –other RENs worldwide –the Internet generally. Provide related auxiliary services to member NRENs Develop the knowledge and skills of ICT practitioners in universities and research institutions in the region

5 UbuntuNet: strategy Focus on optical fibre –Help manage the migration from VSAT Develop UbuntuNet regional backbone –Vision: REN backbone for Sub-Saharan Africa –Strategy: Develop sub-regional “clusters” –Reality: Not one cross-border link realised yet Worldwide REN connectivity –The vision: High-speed connectivity to the World –The reality: No submarine cables; no backhaul –BUT: what about the SEACOM? IEEAF? The Géant connection –Tunneled connections to Géant for all institutions –Connect via an UbuntuNet hub in Europe

6 Projects: Cluster development UbuntuNet East Cluster UbuntuNet South Cluster Southern TZ LS BW NA ZM MW MZ SA SW UG Northern TZ KE SD ET EG RW

7 Géant General Internet UbuntuNet router Projects: The Géant connection

8 Completed tasks –ASN, IPv4 and IPv6 address space from AfriNIC –CISCO 7606 router donated by CISCO –Installed in DANTE’s cage in Telecity, London –REN transit connection to Géant To be organised in next few weeks –1 Gb/s connection to LINX –Settlement-free peering with all comers –Internet transit Soon –1 Gb/s connection to Abilene

9 Projects: Incorporating VSAT campuses UbuntuNet router UbuntuNet routers at VSAT teleports in Europe VSAT- dependent campuses all over Africa Backhauls to London

10 Projects: Incorporate PHEA Bandwidth Consortium Existing consortium of universities that buy VSAT capacity –6 in Nigeria; 3 in Ghana, Makerere, Nairobi, Dar –Consortium initially created by PHEA –Located in AVU, Nairobi –Needs new home Can UbuntuNet provide that new home? –IDRC and PHEA sounded out UbuntuNet –But UbuntuNet needs to establish capacity –Leadership from IDRC’s Steve Song Matter being finalised

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