In a market where small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) often struggle to compete and expand their services, Lifi.net, a rising ISP based in Nigeria, has crushed the barriers to growth through a strategic partnership with Workonline Communications. Renowned as one of the largest IP transit networks in Africa, Workonline has actively supported the development of the African internet market. IP transit is a service that enables ISPs to connect to the global internet and exchange traffic with other networks.

Lifi.net’s remarkable journey serves as a prime example of how collaboration with industry leaders can pave the way for smaller players to thrive and flourish in the ever-evolving internet landscape.

LiFi.net provides high-speed internet connectivity to individuals and businesses in Lagos. The company was established in 2018 and is headed by CEO, Abraham Oluwambe.

Abraham Oluwambe is passionate about providing reliable internet connectivity to Nigerians, which he believes is crucial to the country’s development. Having experienced first-world connectivity when he trained  in both London and the United States, his vision was to replicate the same back home, and bridge the digital divide in Nigeria by providing affordable and high-speed internet services to all.

LiFi.net started by reselling internet connectivity from other ISPs, and began to grow by connecting organisations and multinationals. However, Oluwambe and his team aspired to expand further and explored the market in a quest to offer better services.

Realising that their reseller business model would not scale to support such growth, they sought assistance from Workonline Communications.

Abraham Oluwambe explains: “We found we were at a point where providing internet access alone was not enough. We wanted to be in control of the routing of our internet packets and keep traffic in Nigeria. However, we were hamstrung by the number of hops our traffic had to take, with each hop costing quality and time – and we were at the mercy of the ISPs who provided us with bandwidth, both in terms of price and quality of service.

“As a an experienced wholesale provider, Workonline, have an extensive pan-African and global footprint, and  could connect us to all the Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) already on their network. This reduced our latency to some key content and websites. Workonline helped us to aquire our own block of IP addresses through Afrinic, the African Internet Registry, with their guidance. All of these are prerequisites to cross-connect and peer traffic with local and global service providers.

“In a matter of a months, we were able to peer with other providers and effectively eliminated buffering,” adds Mr. Oluwambe. LiFi.net peers at IXPN, The Internet Exchange Point Of Nigeria.  IXPN is ranked the third largest internet exchange point in Africa by traffic. It was created to reduce connectivity costs in millions of dollars in offshore internet bandwidth payments and reduce latency for local content.

Head of Business Development for the Workonline Group, Benjamin Deveaux, explains the process that they helped LiFi.net navigate. “By obtaining a licence with the Nigerian Communications Commission, an AS number and an IP block, an ISP is able to optimise their traffic routing – either locally or internationally.“

Workonline has presence across Africa including Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, and was the first African wholesale IP transit provider to deploy Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) Origin Validation (OV) to improve the security of Internet routing in 2019.

“Workonline used their market experience and technical expertise to guide us. It’s been an incredible journey,” says Oluwambe.

Looking to the future, Abraham  Oluwambe is optimistic of his vision to expand the company’s success, and to taking the company further into East and Southern Africa. Workonline’s network architecture will make this easier as their footprint across Africa includes South, East and West African points of presence.

“We’ve come a long way, but there’s still so much to be done. Our goal is to continue expanding our services, reaching more Africans and empowering them with the tools they need to succeed in the digital age.”