[menog] RE: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

Tue Jul 31 14:34:09 GMT 2007

Hello Salman, 

I agree with you on the content part. Whether it was international content
or Arabic one, there is not enough existing traffic to enable cost effective
peering. I too know many International entities that are looking to mirror
their content in the region (and are discouraged because of the extremely
expensive International bandwidth pricing which exist at the moment, but I
know for a fact, in Egypt this issue will undergo a huge reduction in prices
within the next 18 - 24 months), but after doing lots of research on the
Arabic content, believe it or not, there are, unfortunately unknown,
entities. They are individual efforts done from ordinary people, and not
sponsored by big companies or are getting the media attention or are
receiving any acquisition offers even though they generate huge traffic. If
we look closely we will find lots of attempts for placing content in Arabic
on the web, however, we as a ME market and users are still not mature enough
to accept this content, give it the same attention the international one is
getting. We still lack the business environment that can accommodate this. I
personally think that we will get there one day, maybe within the next 5
years or so (optimistic). 

--Abeer

From: Salman Al-Mannai [mailto:SMANNAI at qtel.com.qa] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Abeer Kamal; Fahad AlShirawi; Timo Liuska; menog at menog.net
Cc: Kais Al-Essa
Subject: RE: [menog] RE: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

Hello Everyone,

May be I'm entering this discussion late, but to answer Kais question on
'peering activities among the GCC'?

-          Yes, there was an attempt to progress this particular project
under the umbrella of the GCC council, results; even though modest, but
encouraging. Initially Qtel (Qatar) and Etisalat (UAE) then Bahrain-UAE and
so on, however, don't know if anyone has peered with Saudi Arabia as part of
the scope.

-          The initial proposal, as put together by Saleem (hope he is on
this mailing list) suggested two options: Centralized Model and Distributed
or Bilateral, the above was according to the later.

-          On the centralized model, the obvious locations for an IX are:
Dubai-UAE and Jeddah-KSA primarily due to the global FO availability.

On the other parts of the discussion:

Unless enough contents are exchanged, the peering (via an IX - preferably)
will not be cost effective, where I feel  efforts will have to be exerted in
order to attract major contents providers to be around, I know for sure some
are already looking for an opportunity to mirror their contents in the
region. 

One more note; Abeers announcement is a great one, thank you Abeer, this is
in-line with one of the proposals that was put forward during Menog-1,
whereby not just one but multiple exchange points are set-up which jointly
form a middle-east wide Internet Backbone.

Regards

From: menog-bounces at menog.net [mailto:menog-bounces at menog.net] On Behalf Of
Abeer Kamal
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 1:18 PM
To: 'Fahad AlShirawi'; 'Timo Liuska'; menog at menog.net
Cc: 'Kais Al-Essa'
Subject: RE: [menog] RE: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

HI All, 

Just a quick note, GPX Global systems Inc - Egypt headquarters had already
launched its Middle East Internet eXchange point in Cairo Egypt. At the
moment we are contemplating establishing another IXP in a gulf country.
Still, we are in the process of gathering country information, however, if
things go according to plan, we should be able to establish, deploy and
become operational within in the 18 months. We have all the local ISPs in
Egypt already present in our facility, and are perusing peering agreements
with MENA ISPs. I will keep you all posted on how things develop. 

On another note, it was great to have met all you guys in MENOG 1 and
looking forward to our second meeting in Qatar!

Regards,

Abeer Kamal | Business Development & Marketing Manager
GPX Egypt Ltd.| Tel (+202) 690-7490/91 | Fax (+202) 690-7493 | Mobile
(+2012) 4244982

_______________________________________________________________________ 

2 Al Shahid Ismail Fahmy - 5th Floor, Aprt# 11 - Almaza, Heliopolis 11361 -
Cairo, Egypt

www.gpx.ie 

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From: menog-bounces at menog.net [mailto:menog-bounces at menog.net] On Behalf Of
Fahad AlShirawi
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 12:47 PM
To: 'Timo Liuska'; menog at menog.net
Cc: 'Kais Al-Essa'
Subject: [menog] RE: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

Ah! I should have read on.. Okay this is interesting and I didn't know about
it. What exactly is STC doing with MEIX other than selling transit to GCC
countries and Saudi ISPs? By default once they have GCC countries, they have
them peered anyway.

Also, that's the one in partnership with Teleglobe right? How come they
don't have enough capacity? In what regards? STC is trying to offload
capacity so that's strange.

Fahad.

From: ncc-regional-middle-east-admin at ripe.net
[mailto:ncc-regional-middle-east-admin at ripe.net] On Behalf Of Timo Liuska
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:36 AM
To: ncc-regional-middle-east at ripe.net
Cc: Kais Al-Essa; Osama Dosary ((dosary))
Subject: Re: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

Hi again,

My answer wasn't particularly clear, thanks for correcting Mr. Osama. My
earlier response was about the plans for national IX here in KSA. STC has
indeed the MEIX -project, but at least so far they haven't been able to
provide enough capacity there to make it useful, so at least ISU is not
peering over that link currently at all. 

Best regards,

Timo

-- 

Timo Liuska <tic at isu.net.sa>

Senior Network Consultant, Nixu Middle East FZ-LLC

Network Operations Center / Internet Services Unit

King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology

On Jul 31, 2007, at 11:15 , Osama Dosary ((dosary)) wrote:

Hello,

I used to work in the Internet arm of STC, and as far as I know STC doesn't
have any plans to peer with gulf ISPs. They have already setup what they
call "Saudi Internet Exchange", but they are really selling transit traffic
to the middle-east. I believe that most of the gulf is now connected. 

With regards to CITC, their plans don't include Gulf peering, especially
when that means that the content control for Saudi Arabia will be bypassed.

Since the ISU function (as an International Gateway for Saudi) has now been
integrated into STC, the doors are now open for the two new competitors to
do International peering (ITC and Bayanat,) so they could potentially peer
with the gulf.

Does that answer your question?

Regards,

Osama I. Al-Dosary

  _____  

From: ncc-regional-middle-east-admin at ripe.net
[mailto:ncc-regional-middle-east-admin at ripe.net] On Behalf Of Timo Liuska
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:14 AM
To: ncc-regional-middle-east at ripe.net
Cc: Kais Al-Essa
Subject: Re: [ncc-regional-middle-east] Peering

Hi, 

There has been indeed discussions about building a local internet exchange
ever since the local ISP's could select where to get their international
capacity (around last Ramadan). Before that, KACST/ISU was effectively
acting as an internet exchange in Riyadh and Jeddah. As far as I know, CITC
is one of the key parties in the decision process who is going to build it
and when. So far I haven't seen any final decisions about it, but hopefully
they'll get the decision done quickly.

Best regards,

Timo

-- 

Timo Liuska <tic at isu.net.sa>

Senior Network Consultant, Nixu Middle East FZ-LLC

Network Operations Center / Internet Services Unit

King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology

On Jul 26, 2007, at 21:26 , Kais Al-Essa wrote:

Hello all,

It was interesting to attend the 1st MENOG meeting in Bahrain. I'm looking
forward to such annual meetings.

One of the interesting topics for me as an ISP Technical Manager is Peering
Points.

During the meeting, I didn't see any single initiative about a peering
project in the Gulf. However, I've heared about some attempts or projects,
but was unable to get anything solid.

Therefore, I'm sending this e-mail to the group in order to enquire if
anyone knows for sure about any peering activities between Gulf Countries
for Internet traffic and if there is anything going on with Saudi Arabia in
particular. I personally heared that STC is working on something soon, but
again, nothing was solid and I was unable to obtain clear information.

Regards..

Kais Al-Essa, Founder and Operations & Technical Services Manager

Sahara Net

_______________________________________________________________________

 <http://www.sahara.com/> <image001.jpg>

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