MINUTES- UGANDA INTERNET EXCHANGE POINT (IXP) 11-4-2001

["Hope Mugagga" <hopemugagga@hotmail.com>]

Dear All,

Below are the minutes of the Uganda IXP roundtable discussion held on
11-4-2001.

Regards,
Hope Mugagga
Ag Secretary ISOC IXP Forum.



THE ROUND TABLE TO DISCUSS THE ESTABLISHING OF A UGANDA INTERNET EXCHANGE 
POINT (IXP)

Held on Wednesday 11 April 2001 at the Grand Imperial Hotel.

A roundtable discussion was organised by the Uganda Communications 
Commission (UCC) to brief stakeholders on UCC’s intention to support the 
establishment of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Uganda and to 
facilitate discussion of each stakeholder’s views.

The UCC Executive Director Patrick Masambu briefed participants on the need 
for a Ugandan IXP, with the aim of speeding up the establishment of an IXP 
and of guiding the discussions.  Patrick pointed out that the UCC’s role was 
as an observer and promoter of communications infrastructure development. 
UCC had envisioned the setting up of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for 
the sake of reducing costs to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and to 
improve quality of service and provide lower costs for the end user.   (See 
UCC’s Internet Exchange Point (IXP) document.)

Patrick noted that the two major license holders, Uganda Telecom and MTN, 
were allowed to interconnect under their licenses, and that they could – if 
they had not already done so – each one establish an IXP, but that they 
would be enjoined by the UCC to interconnect with each other, and the other 
ISPs.

Patrick mentioned that draft regulations for interconnection would be 
distributed to the major license holders shortly, and that copies would be 
made available to roundtable participants by the middle of the next week, 
around the 18th of April, and would also be posted on the UCC website.

Patrick had urged that an IXP association be established, and that a working 
document be ready for review by the UCC by the end of May 2001, noting that 
it would be desirable for each of Uganda’s ISPs to join the association.

Charles Musisi asked for a clarification on the UCC’s authority with regard 
to compelling stakeholders to interconnect or the advisability of such a 
stance.  Charles also suggested that the arbitrary 31st May deadline for the 
submission of a working document by the IXP association was not realistic.

Bharat Gupta observed that getting ISPs to cooperate in the formation of an 
IXP was a public relations job and that stakeholders would need to be 
closely consulted before joining a Uganda IXP Association.  He said it was 
also a business exercise, and by that he meant that ISPs would lose business 
by not joining the IXP.

Charles Musisi requested the UCC to consider seed funding for staffing 
during the setting up of the IXP.  Patrick said that development partners 
had shown interest in assisting the setting up of the IXP.  He suggested 
that a steering committee be convened.  Patrick also noted that synergies 
resulting from wide participation of stakeholders would augment those of the 
main license holders.

Jako Labuscagne gave a flip chart presentation showing how an IXP worked, 
pointing out the simplicity of its operations and noting the advantages 
enjoyed by it.  The point was made that, technically, each ISP was setting 
up its own IXP for its clients.

Patrick had suggested that stakeholders might enjoyed discussions between 
each other without the presence of himself and UCC’s Simon Bugaba.  Hope 
Mugagga, who is Ag Secretary of the ISOC IXP Forum, was nominated to chair 
the second part of the round table discussions.

After a tea break, Hope, called for lively discussion from stakeholders 
about the formation of working groups.  It was soon established that there 
should be two working groups.  One group would be a steering committee whose 
task would be to draft the working document, which would serve as the basis 
for the IXP’s articles of association or memorandum of understanding.  The 
working document would need to address business, legal and technical issues.

A Technical Workgroup will advise the steering committee and also draft the 
technical requirements for peering and cost of operations.  The Technical 
Workgroup will have one or more representative(s) on the Steering Committee 
Workgroup, and will work in support of that workgroup.  The Steering 
Committee Workgroup - whose interest is to meet the needs of IXP members and 
the Internet community, especially end users - will have one or more 
representative(s) on the Technical Workgroup.

Hope called for volunteers to lead each of the two workgroups.
Vincent Kabunga offered to convene the Technical Workgroup, and
Charles Musisi to lead the Steering Committee Workgroup, assisted by Daniel 
Stern and Hope, with participation of each of the workgroups by 
representatives from each of the ISPs.

In light of progress made during previous discussions with individual 
stakeholders, organised and led by the ISOC IXP Forum, it was suggested that 
the IXP be set up under the auspices of the Internet Society (ISOC).

The task of the interim ISP Task force are the following:

·	coordinate stakeholders towards the establishment of a
        permanent arrangement for a Uganda IxP(UIxP)
·	develop consensus on establishment of an IxP association
·	formulate terms of service, interconnection agreements and QoS
        terms
.       In this regard, a technical working group  has been chartered
        to come up with the technical requirements(equipment and
        infrastructure) for setting up the UIxP, and formulating QoS
        requirements.
·	Any other tasks that may be necessary towards the establishment
        of the UixP.
·	Hand over the management and operation to the Association



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