Africa and the Middle East
Research networking in the region of Africa and the Middle East has only recently begun to be addressed in a concerted manner. EUMEDCONNECT was the first initiative to draw the attention of the global research networking community to the ICT needs of researchers on the African continent.
EUMEDCONNECT has altered the landscape for research networking in North Africa and the Middle East. The countries bordering the Mediterranean can now connect to their European counterparts through the links between EUMEDCONNECT and GÉANT2, at speeds of up to 622Mbps. For more about EUMEDCONNECT, please follow the link in the right-hand menu.
GÉANT2 has been connected to South Africa since October 2004. GÉANT2’s 155Mbps connection to the Tertiary Education NETwork (TENET), the South African national research and education network, was achieved via a link between the two networks' PoPs in London. More information about South Africa is available from the link in the left-hand menu.
In January 2007, GÉANT2 also agreed to allow peering with the UbuntuNet Alliance. The Alliance is an association of African NRENs dedicated to developing regional research networking in Africa. Its activities have initially focused on the NRENs of Eastern and Southern Africa. UbuntuNet proposed a similar approach to that employed by TENET, connecting to the GEANT2 PoP in London from a new UbuntuNet router, to be located also in London.
Momentum is building behind initiatives to improve connectivity in southern and eastern Africa. A number of studies have been carried out, the findings of which fed into the development of a workshop held at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November 2005. Efforts are focused on how to address the connectivity needs of other parts of the African region; however, it is likely that it will be some considerable time before any real results can be seen.
