AFRICLOUD linked its network to GigaPIX, Portugal’s national internet exchange, on 22 September 2026, creating another hub for traffic between Africa, Europe and Brazil in the capital city.
Expanding peering points in the Iberian Peninsula
The cloud provider already uses several exchanges: NAPAfrica in Johannesburg, IXPN in Lagos (joined in July), DE-CIX facilities in Lisbon and Madrid, and INTERIX. Adding GigaPIX, a neutral non-profit that began as the Portuguese Internet eXchange in 1995 and was renamed in 2001, brings 63 additional members.
DE-CIX Lisbon hosts 64 members, while its Madrid site connects 229. GigaPIX contributes 27 networks not present on the other two, meaning each venue supplies a distinct community that broadens reach beyond a single exchange.
African networks across the exchanges
Routing data lists 20 networks registered in 15 African nations: three in Angola; two each in South Africa, Cabo Verde and Ghana; and single entries in Eswatini, Mauritius, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
These participants fall mainly into the wholesale layer. Eight are carriers—seven operating pan-African services, two of which own submarine cables. Six are access providers serving homes and businesses, one is a content network, and five have no publicly visible type.
Distribution across the three Iberian venues is uneven: fifteen appear on DE-CIX Lisbon, ten on GigaPIX and nine on DE-CIX Madrid. Eight of the twenty are present on only one exchange, while just two are visible on all three. AFRICLOUD’s Lisbon router receives routes from 16 of the 20 through these points.
The Africa Coast to Europe cable system terminates at Carcavelos, and a Lisbon data centre has announced direct links to Accra and Lagos. An exchange in the city often serves as the first meeting place for African and European networks without incurring carrier charges.
Brazilian reach through Iberian hubs
Through the same set of exchanges, the provider now sees routes to 8,073 of the 8,735 Brazil-registered networks in its table, covering 48,523 prefixes, about 56% of its Brazilian inventory. Direct peering exists with only six Brazilian members; the remainder arrive via other participants that carry Atlantic traffic.
This configuration supports a Lisbon region that already serves South American clients alongside European and African customers. With Johannesburg and Lagos handling local peering and the capital city linking across three Iberian exchanges, the network centers on locations where inter-continental traffic naturally converges.
Disclosure: AFRICLOUD is operated by the same ownership group as tech.africa.
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