Faster Internet coming to Belize

Sometimes the best solution to a technical problem is social engineering. After a journey of two years, that’s exactly how Belize has come to a major milestone in its technological development. The country’s Internet service providers (ISPs) have committed to set up Belize’s first-ever Internet exchange point (IXP), a piece of critical Internet infrastructure through which they can exchange local Internet traffic between their networks. The process was as simple—and as difficult—as getting nine Internet service providers (ISPs), all fierce competitors, to agree to work together for the greater good.

Belize Telemedia, Speednet, BroadBand Belize, and Network Solutions signed the historic agreement on April 16 at the University of Belize’s (UB) Belize City campus, clearing the way for the establishment of the region’s latest IXP, called Belize IX or BIX.

“As with all things important and meaningful, it was not an easy task to get to this point. However, the journey of the negotiating the pathway to this agreement for the Belize Internet exchange (BIX) was in indeed rewarding,” said Michael Kong, owner and CEO at NetKing Solutions, who spoke at the signing on behalf of the ISPs.

Other signatures to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) include Centaur Communications Corporation, Alliance IP Belize and NetKing Solutions.

“I speak on behalf of all providers when I say that determined team effort and collaboration for the greater good made this historic day a reality. We can all be happy and proud to know we are part of a milestone that will go down in ICT history in Belize,” Kong said.

The agreement marks a significant moment for Belize. It is the first time that the country's ISPs put aside their differences to work together to address a challenge that affects them all—bandwidth.

“The upcoming launch of BIX will put an end to a costly and inefficient situation whereby data and access to other critical local services has to be routed internationally just to get back to a local customer, who could be only a few feet away from the person who sent it. In other words, we were using expensive international Internet connections to exchange domestic traffic,” said Bevil Wooding, Internet strategist with international non-profit Packet Clearing House, speaking in an interview following the signing.

Packet Clearing House, a non-profit organisation, plays a key role in implementing IXPs around the world. In the Caribbean, Wooding and his team have worked closely with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, regulators and local ISPs to set up IXPs across the region.

Faster Net Traditionally, local internet traffic would need to leave Belize to an ISP in the United States and then get rerouted back to Belize. Once BIX is set up, that local traffic will no longer have to leave the country. That means better speeds for local Internet users.

Establishing a local IXP brings benefits not only to local consumers but also to the ISPs’ bottom line, Wooding explained.

“A local IXP improves the quality and cost effectiveness of delivering local Internet-enabled services to citizens and businesses. That’s a major benefit for local ISPs. The IXP also enables new forms of local innovation and entrepreneurship, as Internet users benefit from greater opportunities for e-commerce and local content development, including online education."

Alan Slusher, President of the University of Belize, said the university “is looking forward to greatly expanding its capacity to deliver training across the length and breadth of the country and directly into the homes and workplaces of our work people. Thus greatly reducing the costs of education while expanding its availability. We are looking for a great leap forward as a result of this corporation.”

The soon-to-be established IXP will not only address the inefficiency of local Internet traffic exchange. It will also allow other important Internet infrastructure to be located in Belize, such as domain name root services and content delivery caches from major content networks like Google, Netflix and Yahoo.

Roosevelt Blades, chair of the ISP working group, is already looking ahead. He announced at the signing there are plans to have a similar facility built in Belmopan, once the Belize City IX is up and running.

Technical discussions about how to set up the IXP started two years ago, with a working group that included ISPs, the Belize Public Utilities Commission, government ministries, Packet Clearing House with support from other regional stakeholders, including the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, and the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG).

Speaking at an October 2013 CaribNOG event at which the plans to establish BIX were announced, Kingsley Smith, then Director of Telecommunications at the Belize Public Utilities Commission said, “This development is expected to provide significant benefits to local ISPs and the Internet users in Belize.”

With the signing finally becoming a reality, Belizean Internet users are one step closer to a faster, stronger and more secure Internet.

(Other sources: The Reporter, 7News)  

Originally published: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

Digicel Joins St Lucia Internet Exchange

Saint Lucia’s Internet users can look forward to better connectivity and faster speeds between local Internet service providers (ISPs). Digicel signed a memorandum of understanding on April 2, agreeing to become the newest member of the Saint Lucia Internet exchange (SLiX). Digicel joins its competitors FLOW and LIME, founding members of SLiX, in an initiative designed to improve the reliability of the Internet in St Lucia.

The three ISPs met last March at the Ministry of Public Service, Information and Broadcasting to discuss the possibility of Digicel joining the local Internet exchange. That meeting ended with a unanimous vote, clearing the way for Saint Lucia to become the first Caribbean territory where Digicel is participating in a local IXP.

With the three telecommunications companies peering at SLiX, their networks will interconnect directly, rather than through a third party in a foreign territory.

That translates to faster connectivity for customers, and lower operating costs to the Internet service providers, explained Christopher Roberts, Project Coordinator for the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (CARCIP) in Saint Lucia.

“Without a local IXP, for example, e-mail sent from a customer on one St Lucian ISP to a customer of another St Lucian ISP would have to travel all the way to an IXP in the USA before returning to Saint Lucia. The involvement of that facility in the USA is expensive, could result in delays, and could result in someone or some foreign government inspecting your data,” Roberts said.

“With the implementation of the SLiX, that data now travels from a local sender to a local recipient without ever having to leave Saint Lucia. The benefits are faster delivery times and reduced cost, because that unnecessarily longer trip has now been eliminated.”

SLiX was launched in February 2014, with support from Packet Clearing House, the world’s leading implementation of Internet exchange points or IXPs. Bevil Wooding, Internet Strategist with PCH, said, “Given the consolidation currently being witnessed in the Caribbean telecom sector, Digicel’s participation in SLiX is an important milestone for the region. It proves that competitors in the space can collaborate on areas of mutual benefit for their business and their customers. SLiX is already one of the fastest growing IXPs in the region, and Digicel’s inclusion will only help make it even better for Local Internet users.”

The growth of the SLiX is part of the wider ongoing effort by the Saint Lucia government to support the Internet-based economic growth, under the umbrella of CARCIP. Funded by the International Development Association of the World Bank and coordinated by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, CARCIP seeks to help governments and private sector to harmonise the development of critical telecommunications infrastructure across three participating Eastern Caribbean countries—Saint Lucia, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The SLiX implementation was also supported by the engineers from the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), which will host its next regional meeting in St Lucia at the end of April, to continue its work in training network engineers to support IXPs and other critical internet infrastructure.

“It is good to see ISPs in the region supporting local traffic exchange through IXPs,” said Stephen Lee, a founding member of CaribNOG. “CaribNOG has been working with PCH to support IXP proliferation across the region and those efforts are now bearing fruit.”

The Saint Lucia exchange is one of nine IXPs in the Caribbean.

Other active IXPS are located in Barbados, Curacao, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Maarten, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Belize and St Kitts and Nevis are expected to be the next countries to establish IXPs soon.

The upcoming Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum will bring all the region’s IXPs together to share experience and forge new relationships with international content providers.

That meeting takes place in Barbados in May.

Networks of Trust: Caribbean needs to strengthen its Internet infrastructure

Electronic security threats levels are on the rise globally, and the stakes are getting higher. Kaspersky Lab’s Global IT Risks Report (2014) estimated that, after a data breach, small and medium sized business could spend up to $22,000 on staffing, training, and systems. Larger enterprises could potentially spend up to an additional $59,000 on staffing, $35,000 on training, and $75,000 on systems, the report said.

The Caribbean is far from exempt. Computer networks in both the public and private sector are increasingly under attack by a variety of malicious sources, and successful attacks can cause physical damage, economic loss and other cascading effects that could disrupt services, communications or trade.

The engineering needed to strengthen the region’s digital defenses is not only technical but social, says Bill Woodcock, Executive Director of Packet Clearing House, a US-based non-profit research organisation. Speaking on cyber security at the recently held Grenada ICT Week, in St. Georges, Woodcock said the key is to strengthen the region’s Internet infrastructure.

"One of the best strategies for governments and businesses to strengthen security is to invest in critical internet infrastructure and strengthen the human resource capacity within the region to analyse vulnerabilities, verify emerging threats, and execute mitigation strategies," he said.

Establishing resources such as Internet exchange points, domain root servers within the region is key to improving the resilience and reliable of Internet services to citizens and businesses, he said, adding that building and educating the regional technical community is a vital component in protecting against cyberattacks.

Woodcock commended the work of the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union in creating greater awareness about cyber security issues across the region.

“Threat detection and response has been a challenge for governments and private sector for years," said Stephen Lee, CEO of ArkiTechs Inc and a cybersecurity expert at CaribNOG. “Having a region-wide community committed to defending networks at the local and regional level makes a huge difference to minimising the havoc hackers can wreak.”

The volunteer-based CaribNOG group has staged a series of workshops and public awareness events to help organisations and network administrators across the region tackle the increasing barrage of cyber threats and attacks.

Countries, particularly in resourced constrained developing regions, are only just beginning to understand the complex, cross-border nature of the challenge being faced, and the damaging consequences, Woodcock explained.

“As government networks, financial institutions and even small business come under attack, the urgency to train personnel, strengthen computer systems and update antiquated laws and policy is becoming apparent,” said Woodcock.

"Public-good, technical communities like CaribNOG, and other Network Operators group around the world play an important role in implementing solutions and safeguards to protect the Internet."

Originally published on Trinidad and Tobago Guardian