Five day Internet Exchange Point (IXP) workshop arranged by PTA and Pakistan IXP (PKIXP) for the telecom operators of Pakistan, has been concluded on 22nd April 2016. IXP workshop was jointly organized by Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), Internet Society (ISOC) global, Network Startup Resource Centre (NSRC) and Pakistan Internet Exchange Point (PKIXP) for the capacity building of Pakistan’s ISPs and mobile phone operators. Workshop was divided into two parts, where 1st day was dedicated for the commercial aspects of IXP for the decision makers, whereas last four days were dedicated for the technical configuration of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for the technical resource of ISPs and mobile phone operators.

IXP workshop is one of the many successful steps taken by Chairman PTA towards the capacity building of Pakistani IT & Telecom community. Commercial part of workshop was handled by Ms Jane Coffin Director Business Strategy, whereas technical part was handled by Dr. Philip Smith, Senior Network Engineer (NSRC). Both trainers from ISOC and NSRC have full grip on their subject and considered as best technical resource in the world.

Dr. Philip has communicated at the end of workshop that Pakistanis participant of IXP workshop from ISPs, PTA and mobile operators have completed their router configurations, in record time of 90 minutes.

IXP workshop was a step forward towards establishment of IXP at Pakistan, which will lower down the Internet bandwidth cost and will improve quality of Internet Service due to drastic decrease in latency of the local Internet traffic, as currently local Internet traffic is also going through International bandwidth, causing extra cost and lower latency. After the introduction of IXP in three major cities of Pakistan, local traffic will remain local therefore millions of US Dollars will be saved annually, on reduction of requirement for international bandwidth.