17 January 2003 -- Bermuda-based FLAG Telecom Group Ltd says that, together with local partner National Telecom Company (NTC), it has completed the Cairo Regional Internet Exchange (CR-IX) in Egypt.
The collaboration with NTC is the first of its kind in the region, offering Internet service providers interconnections to freely exchange domestic Internet traffic. FLAG says that the availability of local peering will deliver substantial benefits to business and residential users in Egypt - promising better responsiveness, improved quality, greater reliability and lower costs.
The Internet exchange is now fully operational, extending FLAG's offering to ISPs and carriers in the region with the addition of a domestic peering capability to the global IP, Ethernet and bandwidth services offered jointly with Telecom Egypt.
The exchange was officially inaugurated in Cairo on 18 December 2002 by H E Dr Ahmed Nazif, Egypt's Minister of Communications & Information Technology. The ceremony was attended by senior officials of Telecom Egypt, ISPs in Egypt and senior telecom representatives from the Arab world.
Walid Irshaid, FLAG's Regional VP for the Middle East said, "FLAG has worked in close partnership with Telecom Egypt, developing the Internet market in Egypt and jointly launching global IP services. CR-IX will play an important role in supporting Egypt's continuing strong growth in both domestic and international Internet traffic and should help in attracting new ISPs to the region."
NTC chairman Dr Hussein Elkholy commented, "This project will help advance the Arab Internet community and will help put the Arab world firmly on the global Internet map."
NTC was established in 1995 by founding members Dr Hussein Elkholy, Dr Tawfik Bardai and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), to introduce new technologies in the areas of telecoms and information technology. NTC's strategic plan is to become a regional voice and data carrier, a hub for the Middle East Internet traffic, an IT service provider, a regional multimedia service provider and the dominant regional financial services provider.