Malaysia’s internet exchange body, MyIX, has announced that it is looking for new foreign peering partners. The move is being made in the hopes that it will bring more regional internet service providers to peer with MyIX; and indirectly reduce the cost of supporting an internet exchange.
ISPs often have to pay for bandwidth used while routing data through foreign internet exchanges. These transit fees are generally not very high, although there are concerns that the costs will balloon as internet usage increases.
Internet peering allows collaborating internet exchanges to mutually avoid transit fees. Instead, replacing it with an agreement to allowing data from the two exchanges to be transmitted freely. MyIX is hoping that this will control the costs of doing business for ISPs, and translate into cheaper internet charges for consumers.
In line with this goal of reducing infrastructure costs, MyIX also announced a reduction in port fees for ISPs. This applies to all port speeds ranging from 100Mbps to 10Gbps; which will see between 25 and 47 percent in reduced charges.
All this generally means that ISPs will not have an excuse to raise internet prices for the time being. A move that seems to be in line with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s plan to reduce internet costs over the next two years.
