His Excellency Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim bin Saif Al-Sulaiti launched the first Internet Exchange Point in Qatar (QIXP) at a ceremony that was attended by several high ranking officials from various organisations.
The QIXP is established at MEEZA’s data center and aims to enable local networks to exchange information efficiently at a common point within the country instead of exchanging the local information outside the country, thus ensuring that Internet users in Qatar have faster and a more secure access to the digital content.
The QIXP functions as a meeting point between Internet service providers and digital content service providers for the exchange of data and information. It is one of the key components of Internet infrastructure, which will directly contribute to improving the quality of the Internet, developing the Information and Communications Technology Sector (ICT), raising the performance of networks by reducing the latency of accessing the content and reducing the number of intermediate points.
Due to QIXP strategic importance in terms of information security and Internet infrastructure stability and sustainability in Qatar, it is also considered as a key factor in supporting the digital services that are needed to achieve the national policies and strategies and contributing to supporting the major events that Qatar hosts such as the FIFA World Cup 2022.
“We are pleased to launch QIXP today, which is a new achievement in developing the essential components of Internet infrastructure in the ICT sector of Qatar. This project will contribute to further improve the country’s international network readiness rankings and to attract global content providers, in addition to enabling the new generations for creativity in the digital content realm and building up the aspired digital future, thus contributing to achieving Qatar National Vision 2030 goals by providing a world-class infrastructural and informatics backbone and a knowledge-based economy that contributes to diversifying the national economy,” said His Excellency Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim bin Saif Al-Sulaiti.
The Technical Affairs Department Manager, CRA and QIXP Committee Chairman, Eng. Abdulla Jassmi said “The launch of QIXP is one of the achievements that we seek to achieve in this field, and it confirms that we are taking sustainable steps towards contributing to the development of a knowledge-based society, because Internet exchange points reduce the cost of interconnection and help in creating the digital environment to enable the future generations to be creative in the world of digital content. The Committee will continue to work as a one team to follow up on the progress of QIXP, in order to reach our desired goal which is meeting the market requirements of providing advanced and innovative services to contribute to achieving the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030.”
