Indonesian Internet Exchange

With 35 active ISPs, the need for interconnectivity between the ISPs in operation began to be seen as a significant issue. Local traffic was going through international channels and several hops before it came back to Indonesia. A solution was needed to cut down international costs and provide faster access to local Indonesian destinations.[1]

Government-initiated programs such as the Nusantara 21 and Telematika were eagerly awaited by the internet industry, but never came into effect; it had been planned that these programs would solve the local bandwidth and connectivity issues for all internet traffic in Indonesia.

As the need for local connectivity mounted, the ISPs could no longer wait for the government, so in June 1997 APJII formed a task horse to develop an exchange for the internet. The task horse, consisting of top technicians from each active ISP and Cisco, then developed the new Indonesian Internet eXchange (IIX),[4] a logistical network that would connect every ISP in Indonesia to a single exchange point. The IIX was officially launched in August 1997.

Without funding from the government, the IIX was promoted by the non-profit Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII),[5] which sought sponsorship from international vendors to build the much-needed Internet exchange. Major vendors contributed routers, switches, hubs, servers, and software to APJII for the IIX. These vendors included Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Bay, Microsoft, RAD, and Digital. IP exchange blocks for routing were provided by Bill Manning of isi.edu. The distance from one ISP in Indonesia to another ISP in Indonesia, which was usually more than 12 hops, was shortened to only 4 hops.