RE: Comments ......from Nsubuga

[Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>]

> Financing this IXP might be a smaller issue as all ISP in Uganda are making
> money to my opinion. One reason why MTN offered the space/racks etc is
> because MTN has already got the location that requires all the needs.
> Uganda's Mobile phone switches are located in that same  facility. There it
> will be only a share of costs.
> 
> I've been to the IXP setup in Nairobi last year and I was quite sad to see
> what building was chosen and in what condition the place was. Uganda does
> not need that and can do much better.

i understand.  but i also know that there is often a preference for a
neutral location as opposed to a location owned by one of the competing
isps.

on the other hand, unlike hardware vendors, isps are used to having to
cooperate to get the customers' packets delivered.  so maybe the exchange
can be in one isp's pop.  but even if you locate in one isp's pop, the costs
have to be paid, either directly or indirectly, or you have a broken
business model which will cause problems when you want to make decisions
about staffing, change of location, expansion, ...

it can be a matter of tension between local politics and trust and the
quality of the initial location.

randy