Workonline Communications has seen the demand for remote peering services grow dramatically since partnering with the London Internet exchange, LINX, last year.

The comments came ahead of the opening of AfricaCom in Cape Town this week, a year since LINX and Workonline announced their collaboration in Africa. LINX, a mutually owned membership association for operators of Internet Protocol networks, currently has over 25 members within Africa, ranging from national telecoms providers to ISPs and mobile networks and carriers. Connecting to LINX allows Workonline to lower the number of hops to other networks, and makes troubleshooting issues less painful.

The exchange in London provides a central point for Workonline and its clients to peer with the majority of European networks. It also offers a high availability service across different fabrics and two separate LANs. 

The partnership with LINX enables Workonline to lower the barrier to entry for networks looking to reach the LINX peering fabric from sub-Saharan Africa. Their carrier grade core network connects their clients from a Workonline PoP to the LINX fabric in a reliable and cost efficient manner.

Reaching LINX peers over Workonline's network helps ISPs to make the most of the benefits of peering in London. Among the benefits for Workonline’s clients are reductions in IP transit costs and not having to build and manage their own infrastructure in Europe.

Edward Lawrence, director of Business Development for Workonline Communications, says: “Our experience in signing up to LINX was a smooth and easy process. Since joining the LINX reseller program a year ago, we have seen a large uptake in requests for remote peering services from sub-Saharan Africa to the LINX. The fact that LINX is a member run Internet Exchange makes it even more dependable, and ensures that it keeps the interests of the community at heart.”

LINX CEO, John Souter, added: “We are very pleased with our first year partnership with Workonline. The growth potential is good and we are keen to continue working with them to help build an ever stronger and more resilient networking community in the region.”