Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday inaugurated the country’s first internet exchange point (IXP) allowing computer programmers and users to host content locally and experience faster internet speed.
With the IXP now operational, users in Islamabad will be able to access content such as videos, music and literature hosted on servers installed locally.
“Just like a phone call is routed through local exchanges, an online request from internet users in Islamabad will be directed to the servers installed in the space provided by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) instead of directing the request to servers in Europe or the US,” said PTA Chairman Dr Ismail Shah.
According to an IT specialist, India has seven local internet exchange points set up in 2003 with the average traffic of 44 gigabytes per second.
“However, Pakistan is doing much better compared to India with the 2.4 gigabytes average speed in just two years time.
We are expecting a phenomenal increase in internet traffic not too far in the future,” he said.