UbuntuNet Alliance

"UbuntuNet Alliance is not to be confused with Ubuntu Linux"

UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking (also known as UbuntuNet Alliance) is a non-profitassociation of African National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). It was founded in the later half of 2005 by established and emerging NRENs in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Mozambique and South Africa with the goal of securing high bandwidth connections, mainly fibre-based, in gigabits per second instead of the current kilobits per second - at affordable prices, that connect African NRENs to each other, to other NRENs worldwide and to the Internet generally. It was incorporated in 2006 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the Trade Registrar of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The Alliance has a close relationship with the Association of African Universities, which appoints the Chairperson. The Chairperson since February 2007 is Zimani Kadzamira.

Mission and Objectives

The mission of UbuntuNet Alliance is to ensure that African NRENs have efficient and affordable bandwidth for their member research and education institutions and to participate in the global research and education networking worldwide. This will be achieved under the following objectives: a.develop high-speed terrestrial inter-connectivity between the networks of participating NRENs throughout sub-Saharan Africa; andb.provide participating NRENs with high-speed, terrestrial connectivity to GÉANT in Europe, Abilene in the USA, other Research and Education Networks worldwide, and to the Internet generally;c.promote and nurture the formation of NRENs in African countries, and assist them and their member research and education institutions to migrate from dependence on VSAT communications to terrestrially-based communications through NRENs;d.promote and nurture the development of ICT knowledge and skills within the research and education institutions of Africa.

UbuntuNet Alliance intends to build UbuntuNet fibre backbone network which will interconnect NRENs in Africa and connect them to the global research and education networking community through GÉANT, the European regional network.

UbuntuNet Clusters

At a strategic planning meeting in October 2006, UbuntuNet Alliance adopted an opportunistic approach that seeks to build the fibre network based on the potential for broadband terrestrial connectivity that exists in the region. Two initial backbone development clusters were defined as UbuntuNet East and UbuntuNet South.

UbuntuNet East will interconnect NRENs in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania, and will connect to the global NREN community through the planned submarine fibre landing in Mombasa.

UbuntuNet South will interconnect NRENs in southern Africa and connect to the global NREN community through the SAT3 cable. NRENs in this cluster are those from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.

UbuntuNet West has yet to be fleshed out together with NRENs from West and Central Africa. Ultimately, these three sub-backbones will inter-connect into a seamless single, redundant backbone.

Membership

Membership to UbuntuNet Alliance is open to all bona fide African NRENs inclusively serving research and education institutions. A list of members is on UbuntuNet Alliance , [http://www.ubuntunet.net website] .

Similar Organisations

Similar organisations elsewhere in the world include TERENA, Internet2, APAN (Asia-Pacific Advanced Network) and CLARA (Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzandas).

External links

* [http://www.ubuntunet.net UbuntuNet Alliance website]
* [http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_282.html Balancing Act 282]
* [http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-91755-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Come Together: African Universities Collaborate to Improve Bandwidth]