In an interview to VRT NWS Dirk Haex, Technical Director of BNIX and Belnet, looks back on 1 year of lockdown and its impact on the Belgian internet traffic.

BNIX, the Belgian internet exchange, has had a record 2020. As a result of the lockdown and the massive switch to working from home, it registered record numbers in all areas.

This month, BNIX (Belgian National Internet eXchange) celebrates its 25th anniversary. BNIX was set up in 1995 by Belnet, the Belgian research and higher education network. At the time - as the Internet was slowly emerging - BNIX started with six participants and one Point of Presence. 25 years later, 58 participants are connected to the platform and BNIX has three Points of Presence (Interxion in Zaventem, LCL in Diegem and CenturyLink in Evere).

Belnet, who manages the BNIX platform, has implemented a plan in response to the outbreak of the corona virus in our country. In this way we wish to guarantee the continuity of our service and protect our employees.

The BNIX platform processed 591 petabytes of data last year. That is an increase of no less than 31 per cent compared to 2018.