IX.br celebrates 20 years with a prominent role in improving the Internet in Brazil

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As the largest set of Internet Exchange Points in the world, it is an international reference and has been contributing to better connectivity for Brazilians.

The IX.br (Brazil Internet Exchange), an initiative of the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) supported by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), celebrates its 20th anniversary in July 2024. Responsible for deploying and promoting infrastructure for direct interconnection between networks that make up the Internet in Brazil, the project has contributed over the years to improve the quality of connectivity reaching Brazilians. With 36 Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) spread across metropolitan areas in all five regions of the country, IX.br is currently the largest set of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the world.

Installed in one or more data centers within a locality, Internet Exchange Points are neutral points where there is a physical interconnection of access networks (Internet service providers), networks offering services and content such as e-commerce, video streaming companies, search engines, social networks, banks, universities, government agencies, among others. This shared infrastructure allows networks to exchange data packets with each other, shortening the route these data packets travel and preventing it from traveling to locations outside the country. In practice, the result is a faster, more efficient, resilient Internet with lower costs for users.

"IX.br is very much aligned with the purpose of working to develop the Internet in the country. Its consistent growth over the years confirms the timeliness of the initiative, which today represents the largest set of IXPs, not only in terms of the number of locations and participants, but also in terms of the amount of traffic exchanged. Celebrating two decades of this project's existence and seeing it reach this level of excellence is a source of great pride for all of us," said Demi Getschko, NIC.br CEO.

The robustness of IX.br is attributed to the model adopted in Brazil, where the revenue generated from the registration of .br domains is invested in improving infrastructure and strengthening the Internet in the country. “As a non-profit initiative, IX.br is committed to achieving the best performance and quality for its clients, as well as ensuring efficient Internet operations. Everyone benefits from this,” emphasizes Milton Kaoru Kashiwakura, Director of Special Projects and Development at NIC.br. “In addition to promoting direct interconnection between networks, we have been working to bring new content to Brazil. Our team has been inviting foreign content companies to establish a presence in Brazil, which has 180 million Internet users. For us, it is crucial that content within the national territory is interconnected with IX.br, as this results in lower latency and higher quality for the user,” notes Kashiwakura.

Eduardo Parajo, director of the Brazilian Internet Association (Abranet), highlights the importance of the project, which, in his words, is "very efficiently" operated by NIC.br. “IX.br is a milestone when it comes to improving the quality of the Internet in Brazil. It has made an extraordinary contribution, benefiting users in different regions of the country, whether they are individuals or companies. We will continue to work together to promote and encourage this initiative, so that more providers will join, to improve the Internet in Brazil as a whole," he states.

Basílio Perez, director of the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (Abrint), recalls that IX.br was fundamental to democratizing Internet access in the country, as it has enabled regional providers to bring quality broadband to cities where large operators have little commercial interest. "If it weren't for IX.br and the small Internet service providers, only 40% of the population would have access to the Internet. Currently, in any of the more than 5,000 Brazilian cities there are three or four small providers, which represents significant competition, even in smaller locations, and this means that Brazil is better connected," he states.

History

IX.br began operating in July 2004, after CGI.br approved the NIC.br initiative via the PTT Metro project. The initiative initially served the metropolitan region of São Paulo and reintegrated into IX.br the first Internet Exchange Point in Brazil, operated by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (Fapesp) since 1998, in addition to those that emerged via academic and private entities. The model adopted by PTT Metro allowed all its participants to exchange traffic with each other upon connection, which increasingly attracted the participation of content and access providers.

In 2015, the opening of a NIC.br datacenter in São Paulo was considered a milestone in the history of IX.br, as it expanded its connection infrastructure. Built with its own resources, the new datacenter had five times more space than the previous facility and offered nine times more electrical power.

Investments in innovation have been continuous. If in 2017, for example, IX.br made a leap, going from 10 GB ports to 100 GB ports in São Paulo through a change in technology, today the process is repeated, with 100 GB ports being expanded to 400 GB.

Successive records

In recent years, IX.br has been breaking Internet traffic exchange records across the 36 locations where it operates. In February 2024, it recorded an aggregate of 35 Tbit/s. On that occasion, the São Paulo IXP - the global leader in traffic exchange volume and number of participants – alone reached 23 Terabits per second.

To reduce content providers' dependency on IX.br São Paulo and decentralize Internet traffic in Brazil, NIC.br and CGI.br support the OpenCDN project. This initiative promotes the creation of additional content distribution cells linked to the Internet Traffic Exchange Points within IX.br across various regions of the country.

OpenCDN is already operating in Manaus (AM), Salvador (BA), Brasília (DF), Belo Horizonte (MG) and Recife (PE), and will soon be operating in Belém (PA) and Cuiabá (MT). The project is continually seeking partnerships with CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), datacenters and providers to facilitate its activity in other IX.br locations.

About IX.br
The Brasil Internet Exchange (IX.br) is an initiative of CGI.br and NIC.br that aims to establish and operate Internet Exchange Points (IXP), providing the necessary infrastructure for the direct interconnection of the Autonomous Systems (AS) that make up the Brazilian Internet. IX.br collaborates to reduce costs and improve the performance of participating networks and the Internet as a whole, in alignment with the Internet Exchange Federation’s definition. The initiative already encompasses over 30 independent Internet Exchanges, spread across all five regions of Brazil. For more information visit: https://ix.br/.

About the Brazilian Network Information Center – NIC.br
The Brazilian Network Information Center – NIC.br (https://nic.br/) is a non-profit entity that is in charge of the operations related to the .br domain, as well as the allocation of IP numbers and the registration of autonomous systems in the country. NIC.br has been implementing decisions and projects of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee – CGI.br since 2005. All the funds that are collected come from its entirely private activities. It takes actions and conducts projects that are of benefit to the infrastructure of the Internet in Brazil. Also part of NIC.br are: Registro.br (https://registro.br), CERT.br (https://cert.br/), Ceptro.br (https://ceptro.br/), Cetic.br (https://cetic.br/), IX.br (https://ix.br/), and Ceweb.br (https://ceweb.br), in addition to projects like Internetsegura.br (https://internetsegura.br) and the portal Best Practices for the Internet in Brazil (https://bcp.nic.br/). It also houses the office of the W3C Chapter São Paulo (https://w3c.br/).

About the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee – CGI.br
The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, which is responsible for establishing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinates and integrates all Internet service initiatives in the country, and promotes technical quality, innovation, and the dissemination of the services on offer. Based on the principles of multisectoralism and transparency, CGI.br represents a democratic Internet governance model that has been internationally praised, in which all sectors of society participate equally in its decisions. One of its formulations is the 10 Principles for Internet Governance and Use (https://cgi.br/resolucoes/documento/2009/003). More information is available at: https://cgi.br/.

Press contact:

Weber Shandwick
https://webershandwick.com.br/
PABX: +55 11 3027-0200 / 3531-4950
Milena Oliveira - moliveira@webershandwick.com – (11) 98384-3500
Paula Boracini - pboracini@webershandwick.com – (11) 98123-5235

Communication Advisory – NIC.br
Carolina Carvalho – Communications Manager – carolcarvalho@nic.br
Ana Nascimento – Communications Coordinator – ananascimento@nic.br

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