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<b>[Please disregard previous mail] <br>
<br>
Cybercity, Ebene, Mauritius, 18 October 2012 -</b> The African
Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) and the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today signed letters of
agreement to facilitate the deployment of anycast instances of L
Root DNS server, operated by ICANN, in the African region. The
cooperation includes AFRINIC helping to identify hosts for the
installations as well as providing financial and technical support
where needed, to the hosts.<br>
This agreement is signed just as the African community, in the new
initiative it is taking to ICANN has highlighted regional
infrastructure resiliency as one of the main pillars of Internet
development in the region.<br>
<br>
The letters of agreement were signed by Adiel Akplogan and Fadi
Chehadé respectively Chief Executive Officers of AFRINIC and ICANN
in Toronto, Canada, where ICANN’s 45th public meeting is taking
place.<br>
“This agreement comes in at a perfect time here in Toronto when
ICANN has unveiled a new initiative to increase presence and
participation across our region" said Adiel Akplogan. “Besides
policy related discussions and participation, Africa needs to
strengthen the resiliency of its Internet Infrastructure in order to
attract local contents investments.”<br>
<br>
“This very important agreement is a further reflection of the hard
work of the Africa stakeholders and their spirit of engagement,”
said Fadi Chehadé, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.
“Our commitment to this sort of cooperative effort is framed by the
initiative of the Africa Support Working Group, which is aimed at
increasing African participation in ICANN.”<br>
ICANN, as the operator of the L-Root Server, will work cooperatively
with AFRINIC to identify candidate sites within the region of Africa
that meet the criteria for the hosting of anycast instances of the
L-Root server operated by ICANN.<br>
<br>
As part of AFRINIC’s mission, the organisation is committed to
promoting Internet development within the region, and has
demonstrated commitment to enhancing the stability, reach, strength
and response times of the DNS system regionally as well as globally.
AFRINIC has currently several projects to accomplish those
objectives. Amongst these, the African Root Server Copy Programme
(AfRSCP) project aims to increase the number of DNS root servers
instances in the African region as well as its own DNS Anycast
platform where AFRINIC hosts its own DNS services but also make it
available at no cost for ccTLDs in the region.<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ms. Babusha Radhakissoon Tel: +230 403 51 00
PR and Marketing Assistant, AFRINIC Fax: +230 466 67 58
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:babusha@afrinic.net">babusha@afrinic.net</a> - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.afrinic.net">www.afrinic.net</a>
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Join us at AFRINIC-17 for our Public Policy Meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, on 24 – 29 November 2012
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