So, back in the nineties, Telkom SA decided to call their ISP division “South African Internet Exchange”. That is also the last time SAIX updated their web site, but I digress. I think it’s possible that Telkom chose this name because from their PSTN perspective, an ISP looked like a telephone exchange for the Interwebs.

SAIX doesn’t pretend to be an IX (in fact, they don’t participate in any peering points in South Africa) so I’m willing to attribute their confusing name to misunderstanding.

However, the recently launched Africa Independent Network Exchange’s skilled professionals with many years of experience in the ISP industry should know that when you offer consumer broadband and hosting, you’re most definitely an ISP, so what’s with the name?

To be clear, their “peering service” is either IP transit (ISP business), or layer 2 circuits (telco business).