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RE: FW: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP

My point on the commercial IXP is that we can not rule it out in future, as the market grows there will be areas that the UIXP cannot service for one reason or another we are all in an industry where change and uncertainty are the only constants.  We need to embrace it and accept it however we need to build the foundation.  That foundation for our industry now is the UIXP I hope we can all get into constructive dialogue especially the two main players. 
 
We owe it to our loyal customers.  Isaac, Randy thanks for your support.
 
I believe the proposed model will put us in good position to build a self sustaining IXP.  However I do think it needs some tweaking so comments and modifications please.
 
regards
-----Original Message-----
From: Isaac KASANA [mailto:isaac@afsat.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 7:29 PM
To: ntegeb@sanyutel.com; owner-techies@uixp.co.ug
Cc: taskforce@uixp.co.ug
Subject: Re: FW: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP

With all due respect for the advantages of a commercial IXP, the UIXP was first concieved as an ISP co-operation project. In my view to try to commercialise it at this stage is nothing short of breach of trust.
 
BN, let people each make a choice which IXP they will join. Personally I would not mind staying with the UIXP, irespective of the challenges ahead.
 
Isaac K.
 
-------Original Message-------
 
Date: Saturday, February 02, 2002 09:21:50 AM
Subject: FW: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP
 
A number of good ideal situation points have been raised, but lets get a few points in perspective.
 
The internet per se has been in Uganda for a few years now, but it's failure to exceed 1% of the population should not be placed on the fact that computers are too expensive.  I think this is a fallacy, the fact is we in the industry failed to educate the market, As Service and Solution providers when you bring all these new products, we have to realise that the main decision maker is not the guy who signs the cheque but the techies, these are our fast line customers, they make the decision.  We need to give them the opportunity to learn and experience new technologies.
 
We are talking about an IXP here with all due respect If there is an ISP in Uganda with top secret proprietary routing software, I'm more than impressed.
 
The Commercial IXP has been tried and the jury is still out on that one.  Our market is still too young to commercialize right now.  We are all in this business to make money and believe the industry will grow.  But it's our responsibility to grow the industry.  It took us this long to get an IXP because of closed fence views.
 
lets put a fresh approach on this, participation I suggest would be by choice and I do believe we have a number of companies non service providers who will be so eager to sponsor employees.
 
Who knows these guys might even go out after this and support a future attempt on running a commercial IXP, this time with the knowledge and experience, the luxury I believe the earlier commendable attempt did not have.
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-techies@uixp.co.ug [mailto:owner-techies@uixp.co.ug]On Behalf Of Hans U. Haerdtle
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 12:58 AM
To: Badru Ntege; techies@uixp.co.ug
Cc: taskforce@uixp.co.ug
Subject: Re: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP

Well, certainly a very noble idea from a technical point of view, but practically I don't see this working. Building a skill base of engineers and gaining expertise is certainly in any good and professionally run company's very own interest and training will be provided to their technical staff.

This is simply necessary in our industry because the most advanced technology applied will give the respective company the competitive edge in the market. And this is directly proportional to the company's business success due to client appreciation of superior QoS standards and delivery. Of course paired with marketing and sales efforts.

Let's be realistic: How do you address the issue of conflict of interest? By nature of their work and involvement the 3 proposed rotating staff members would need to have a considerable if not in-depth knowledge of all the member ISPs network concepts and architecture. This includes company proprietary software at least to some extend plus even future planned upgrades and introduction of new services. Introduced for the very reason: to provide better performing and more advanced services to their clients and to the industry and market as a whole - and gain market shares! In a fair competition and respecting proper business ethics. And this very competition is the driving force of any market improvement and clients and the industry are the very beneficiaries of this.

Don't get me wrong: As a techie I am, this suggestion is certainly a noble vision and I could support this within a University or Institute environment or even between large industry participants who put high level specialists together in a scientific research joint-venture for reasons of cost and resource sharing. But all this are laboratory setups with fundamental scientific research tasks still far away from practical applications and never close to near-to-market-delivery solutions which are already in the hands of the marketing managers keenly watching market tendencies and deciding on tactical release dates.

The IXP is certainly a very useful institution but let's be honest: It is in the first place a commercial issue and not an inter-networking or technology challenge. This very knowledge is the skill base anyway of the respective member company and a good part of its success in the market. It is the commercial issue, which makes an IXP desirable because of the possible cost saving element. Just like an interconnect arrangement between telecom operators. For the ISP industry in Uganda this will be a saving on relatively expensive international bandwidth, which is at this moment still only available through expensive V-Sat links. Link redundancy could be an additional feature provided that interconnect capacity requirements are met and a commercial agreement is in place.

Therefor the IXP is a commercial issue and a facilitation provision and it has its operational costs for a professional setup and running. Depending on the respective local interconnect traffic of a potential member it is viable or not. Like any other business case. Otherwise even now any two or more companies could go together and setup private interconnectivity for cost saving or other resource sharing reasons.

Also additional data interconnect facilities could be offered by the IXP for wider industry applications (WAN and VPN) or even regional inter-networking could be proposed (if telecom operators are part of this) with ultimately load balancing, resource sharing or link redundancy features and benefits (i.e. Euroring). But this is certainly a different scale and would require a complete different setup and approach in terms of inter-networking architecture and commercial requirements.

In my view, the IXP has to be an independent and neutral commercial entity, a service provider with an offer to the market to provide and manage interconnect facilities and value added services with standard connectivity interfaces and scaled link capacities.

Hans U. Haerdtle
General Manager
Infocom


At 09:04 PM 2/1/02 +0200, Badru Ntege wrote:
Members please find below a suggested method of running the IXP.  This would
help us build a good skill base of engineers and also enable professional
networking between engineers from different companies and network providers.


There will be Three People detailed to work at the UIXP.

1. Project Leader
2. Team member
3. Team Member.

The Project leader will overall be responsible for the running of the
UIXP. Ensuring that the UIXP is up and running at all times and will be
the team leader.He will also be responsible for future planning at the
IXP, preparing progress reports, billing of members, and attracting new
members to using the IXP and enforcing the UIXP Acceptable Use Policy.
He shall be employed on a 6 months - 1 year basis at which point his
contract can either be renewed or some other member takes up the role.

The team members will be technical people from the participating entities
who
will rotate on a 3 month basis. These team members will still be full time
employees at their repective places of work and will be doing part time
work at the IXP. The IXP will pay them a small fee on top of what they get
form their parent companies for the period that they work at the IXP. The
team leader will also be an employee of one of the ISPs doing part time at
his place of work.

Thus at the end of three months, the two technical people go back to their
respective places of work and another team of two from some other members
take up work for the next three months. At the end of 1 year, the current
team leader would either move back to his place of work, or his contract
could be renewed for another 1 year period.

IN case of the former, then one of the other technical people probably one
who interned with the old team leader can take over as the next team
leader. The outgoing team leader is free and encouraged to apply to do a
three month stint as just a team member if he so desires under the new
team leader provided of course that his parent company is willing to
release him further.

It is assumed that all these people remain on payroll at their parent
companies and will work at the UIXP as part time people. it is estimated
that to maintain 10 hours working time from say 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. 7
days a week this would come down to 23 hours per person per week. On any
one day of the week, one of the team is on call and can be called at any
time in case of a failure at the UIXP.

Emoluments for the team will be as follows:

Team leader:   Ush. 480,000/=
Team member 1: Ush. 190,000/=
Team member 2: Ush. 190,000/=

This on top of what their parent companies decide to pay them per month.
It is up to the parent companies to decide whether they will adjust
their employee's salaries during this period or not.

This is done with a vision of creating a skilled and knowledgeable work
force so as to enhance the industry. We believe the knowledge gained would
be useful to the participants back in their parent companies.



Badru Ntege
General Manager
Technical Director
Sanyutel Ltd
mob: +256 777 000 88
Tel: +256 41 345 466
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