Internet content providers focus on the Caribbean

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao—Much ink has been spilt and many hands wrung over how slow and expensive the Internet is in the Caribbean. The latest snapshot from ICT Pulse, for example, is a reminder of the price paid and pain felt by those subscribing to regional service providers’ fixed Internet broadband packages.

But Internet woes are much more than just a personal inconvenience to individual citizens. In fact, strengthening the Caribbean’s critical telecommunications infrastructure is a first step to growing the region’s digital economy. And an upcoming meeting of minds in the southern Caribbean could bring one important piece to the region’s Internet economy puzzle.

The event focuses not on handsets or SIM cards but handshakes and smiles. And perhaps predictably, the key is something called Peering.

“Peering is an arrangement between two or more networks to exchange Internet traffic between their networks without cost, typically at an Internet exchange point,” explained Bevil Wooding, one of the key architects behind the event.

“Peering arrangements are key to the growth and development of the global Internet. The relationships between content providers and network operators are a critical link determining network performance as well as content delivery costs,” added Wooding, who serves as the Caribbean Outreach Manager for the US-based non-profit Packet Clearing House (PCH).

PCH has played an active role in the establishment of over two-thirds of the world’s Internet exchange points. It has worked closely with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, an inter-governmental body and with the Caribbean Network Operators Group, CaribNOG, to actively promote peering throughout the region.

Yet, although more than 300 IXPs exist in 80 countries around the world, some with developing economies do not yet have IXPs of their own and depend on imported Internet bandwidth. So, why isn’t there more peering in the Caribbean, a region that can hardly afford to haemorrhage scarce foreign reserves?

Wooding says when it comes to peering, the Caribbean has made significant strides over the past five years, but there is still a long way to go.

“Only 20 per cent of what needs to get done to make peering possible is technical. About 80 per cent of it is more about social engineering.  In the Caribbean, as in other parts of the world, the notion of collaborating with competitors for mutual benefit is not always reflexively embraced.”

Tackling the problem head-on, Wooding, working with his counterpart Shernon Osepa, the manager of Regional Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, created the Caribbean Peering and Internet Connection Forum specifically to bring service providers, telecommunication regulators, policy makers, researchers and other key stakeholders from across the region together with international content providers and Internet organisations, such as Facebook, Google and Akamai.

The result was the first Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum, or CarPIF at the Hilton Hotel, Barbados.

“The aim of the forum is to bring major service providers from across the spectrum of the regional and international Internet ecosystem into one space to build relationships and explore opportunities to strengthen the Caribbean Internet economy,” Wooding said.

For CarPIF’s second edition, major international content providers, regional telecom regulators and Internet services providers, will again meet, this time in Willemstad, Curacao.

CarPIF is an initiative of PCH and the Internet Society , with the support of the Caribbean Network Operators Group and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union. The Amsterdam Internet Exchange is co-host of this year’s event.

The immediate goal is to explore ways for Caribbean states to improve regional connectivity and strengthen digital infrastructure. But the more long-term aim is to drive technology-based innovation and economic growth in the developing region.

Wooding and other event organisers will be hoping that regional Internet service providers will be willing to take a fresh look at service innovation and explore opportunities to continue advancing the Caribbean Internet.

Originally published: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

Belize Launches Caribbean’s Latest Internet Exchange Point

The Belize Public Utilities Commission announced that Belize’s first Internet exchange point, named BIXP, was successfully launched in Belize City on April 27 at the campus of the University of Belize.

The launch was the culmination of unprecedented collaboration between Belizean Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the highly competitive local telecommunication sector. The Belize Public Utilities Commission, the national regulator, facilitated the process, with support from regional and international agencies.

An Internet exchange point is a piece of physical infrastructure through which ISPs exchange traffic between their networks. Many ISPs in the Caribbean pass the data through faraway networks in the United States or Europe, before rerouting to their consumers in their own country.

The new Belize IXP was formally inaugurated in a ceremony attended by Patrick Jason Faber, Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture and Frank Mena, Minister responsible for Public Utilities. Also present at the opening were John Avery, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, Bevil Wooding, Internet Strategist at Packet Clearing House, and Errol Cattouse, Chief Operating Officer, Centaur Cable and the newly appointed chairman of BIXP.

“For ISPs in Belize, having a local IXP means there is now a place in-country where they can come together to interconnect their networks and exchange local Internet traffic. This translates to cost savings for ISPs and increased network reliability for their corporate and residential customers,” explained Bevil Wooding, in his feature address at the launch.

“The new IXP is expected to help improve Internet service in Belize by eliminating dependence on international connectivity for local Internet traffic exchange. The new facility, the twelfth IXP to be activated in the Caribbean, will lower the average per bit delivery cost for local ISPs and significantly reduce the round-trip time for Internet traffic between local ISP networks. As a result, users can expect a more reliable, more resilient local Internet,” Wooding added.

His audience included representatives of Belize government, local Internet service providers, the private sector, the media and the University of Belize.

The BIXP launch is a major milestone for the telecommunication sector in the Central American nation. The country has ranked poorly by regional standards. The Belize Public Utilities Commission and industry watchers hope that the establishment of a local IXP can now catalyze the delivery of services based on e-health, distance learning, domestic data storage, video and audio streaming, e-government services, VoIP and other applications that depend on local traffic exchange.

According to Cattouse, the local exchange point is expected to serve as a hub for local Internet operators, a catalyst for innovation and the development of new Internet services in Belize.

The Belize IXP was established with the support of Packet Clearing House (PCH) and the Caribbean Network Operators Group, CaribNOG.  In the lead-up to the launch, PCH and CaribNOG successfully organized several IXP workshops attended by ISPs, government officials, computer engineers and the private sector.

Wooding, who has played a key role in the establishment of IXPs across the region, explained that with the proliferation of local IXPs, the Caribbean can now earnestly begin building applications that run efficiently across local networks.

“Initiatives to connect our schools, courts, police stations, health facilities, and government and business offices and to deliver local and regional Internet-based services now have a far better chance of being deployed without the frustrations that would normally be associated with bandwidth-intensive local applications in the region,” Wooding said.

He pointed out, however, that the launch of a new IXP does not guarantee ultimate success. More work has to be done, he said.

“Discussions have to be initiated to develop new country-level network services. This must include strategies and incentives for ISPs to upgrade the ‘last-mile’ of their networks in order to deliver improved speeds and quality of service to consumers and businesses. In this regard, we can look at the IXP launch a small but vital step in the journey toward the development of the Belizean and the Caribbean Internet Economy.”

Packet Clearing House, a US-based non-profit firm that has played an active role in the establishment of over two-thirds of the world’s IXPs, has worked closely with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), an inter-governmental CARICOM organization, to actively promote the development of IXPs in the Caribbean.

So far, more than 300 IXPs exist in eighty countries around the world. Still, some ninety countries that are predominantly developing economies do not yet have IXPs of their own and depend on imported Internet bandwidth.

The CTU has also collaborated with CaribNOG, a volunteer-based community of network engineers, to stage technical workshops across the region.

Among the local ISPs participating in BIXP’s network are Alliance IP, Belize Telemedia, BroadBand Belize, Centaur Communications Corporation, NetKing, Network Solutions and Speednet.

TTIX key to internet economy growth

The recent establishment of an Internet exchange point (IXP) in T&T is a necessary step in strengthening the country’s local Internet economy. But it is not enough, says Bevil Wooding, Internet Strategist with Packet Clearing House (PCH).

“The launch of the local internet exchange point, TTIX, is definitely a positive step for internet users and in the development of the Trinidad and Tobago internet economy. However, the launch of an IX is not enough to guarantee its success,” Wooding said, speaking with the T&T Guardian after taking part in a panel discussion on IXPs as part of the Internet Society’s (ISOC) INET TT Forum, hosted by the Telecommunications Authority (TATT) on October 8 and 9.

“Now that the task of getting the local IX up and running is over, focus must shift immediately to the development of local applications and content to take advantage of the availability of a local exchange point.”

PCH has been involved the development of more than two-thirds of the world’s IXPs, and Wooding has been actively involved in IXP deployments across the region. To be truly successful, he said, exchange points have to have a clear plan for attracting local and international content providers and encouraging local Internet innovation to take advantage of the local exchange.

“Deliberate steps must now be taken to encourage local organisations to build local apps, create local content and deploy local services. A new set of local stakeholders must now be mobilised to steward the process of translating the promise of a local IX into the reality of a local Internet economy."

The four-member INET TT panel discussion highlighted the urgent need for significant upgrades to critical Internet infrastructure across the region. It included Internet Society (ISOC) representatives Jane Coffin and Christian O'Flaherty, who emphasised the importance of IXPs globally in improving the resilience, efficiency and security of local networks.

Setting up an IXP is not technically difficult and is not necessarily costly, Coffin said, but it does require collaboration and cooperation, at times among parties who are otherwise competing in the same market.

In the audience were dozens of regional and local technology experts gathered at the TATT office in Barataria for the two-day forum, which was also broadcast globally to a live streaming audience online.

Called INET TT, the event brought together private sector representatives, government officials, academic researchers and members of the local and international technical community. Present were delegates from the regional Internet registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and the T&T Network Information Centre (TTNIC).

The fourth speaker on the INET TT panel on IXPs was Kurleigh Prescod, vice president of network services at Columbus Communications Trinidad. Prescod, who is the chairman of T&T’s recently launched IXP, shared perspectives from his personal experience of working with colleagues from competing ISPs to set up the local exchange point.

Called TTIX, the new IXP brought together seven of the country’s Internet service providers (ISPs): Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago, Digicel, Massy Communications, Open Telecom, Greendot, Lisa Communications and Flow.

“TTIX is a limited liability company formed by all existing Internet service providers in Trinidad and Tobago,” said Cris Seecharan, TATT CEO. He described the TTIX launch as “one of TATT’s major contributions to the country’s Internet landscape.”

The next step, he said, was to work with TTIX in seeking to establish a root server for the IXP.

Vashty Maharaj, an official from the ministry of science and technology delivering remarks on behalf of the minister, described IXPs as “a vital part of the Internet ecosystem.”

"TTIX is intended to make the exchange of local traffic more cost effective and contribute to the development of a robust domestic ICT sector,” she said.

The ministry applauded the ISPs for working with TATT to bring better and more affordable broadband Internet connectivity to all local Internet users.

“We want our people to experience all of the social and economic benefits of becoming active participants in the digital society and economy,” she said. The ministry applauded the ISPs for working with TATT to bring better and more affordable broadband Internet connectivity to all local Internet users.

There are over 350 IXPs around the world, of which nine are in the Caribbean. Among the territories in the region actively engaged in setting up IXPs are Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.