M-Lab will keep Nigerian ISPs on their feet, IXP CEO says

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Muhammed Rudman, Chief Executive Officer of Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), says the introduction of the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) in Nigeria will help keep local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on their feet to deliver optimal service levels to the consumers.

Rudman said this in Lagos at the media launch of the M-Lab, a diagnostic tool that employs a combination of variables used to analyse the performance of ISPs.

The event which started off with an intensive training sessions, brought policy makers, researchers, academia and stakeholders in the ICT industry to have a practical knowledge of how M-Lab works.

According to him, the critical role of independent quality of service measurements to achieve policy and regulatory needs, prompted the Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) to begin the process of obtaining and hosting the M-Lab Network in 2014.

[blockquote right=”pull-right”]“An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows several ISPs and network operators to exchange traffic between their networks, generally referred to as autonomous systems, by means of mutual peering agreements, which allow traffic to be exchanged at no cost.” [/blockquote]

“Although, the motive of the launch of M-Lab is not profit-driven, it is expected that consumers and the ICT public will be better served by it’’ the IXPN CEO adds.

An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows several ISPs and network operators to exchange traffic between their networks, generally referred to as autonomous systems, by means of mutual peering agreements, which allow traffic to be exchanged at no cost.

Muhammed added that the launch of the M-Lab service has been made possible with the support of Google, an M-Labs consortium partner and Glo 1.

“It is with delight, therefore, that the IXPN is now able to announce the full installation of M-LABs in Nigeria as a next step, and with the support of Google, build the necessary capacity and sensitise key stakeholders on M-Labs,”, he adds.

According to him, ‘’the M-Lab service became necessary in view of the fact that mobile Internet penetration in Nigeria has increased tremendously.’’

“This, therefore, calls on stakeholders for the doubling of efforts at ensuring that the quality of service, even as the internet is visibly playing a big brother role on all sectors of the Nigerian economy and the society at large”, he adds.

Latest market information from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that the number of Internet users in the country’s telecom networks increased to 83,362,814 as at February 2015.

According to the telecoms regulator there was an increase of 1,316,176 internet users on both the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks in February.

Also, 82,046,638 users were recorded on the networks as at January 2015. It showed that of the 83,362,814 Internet users as at February, 83,209,380 were on GSM networks, while 153,434 users were on the CDMA networks.