Making The Most Of Caribbean Spectrum

Caribbean countries have found an interesting way to extract value from one shared, invisible commodity.

The valuable resource is known to telecommunication industry insiders as spectrum. That’s the simple term for the complex range of electromagnetic frequencies used to transmit sound, video or data over the airwaves.

Spectrum is vital to everyday life. It’s what carries voice between mobile phones, television shows to screens, and data from one computer to the next, wirelessly. It supports a growing number of important electronic and digital services, from weather forecasting and road safety applications to national emergency broadcast systems.

But because radio frequencies propagate across borders, transmissions from one country can cause what is known as harmful interference in another country. And when two transmitters get their signals crossed in this way, it can be very frustrating for paying customers in both countries, who experience lower overall quality and reliability of service.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) coordinates the shared global use of spectrum, but the question of how spectrum is managed within the small, close spaces shared by Caribbean islands is largely one for regional governments and agencies to hash out among themselves.

As they’ve been working together to figure out how their national frequencies should get used and who should benefit, regional officials have struck on the value of spectrum harmonisation.

“We work with national, regional and international organisations to increase the capacity and expertise of our Caribbean practitioners in the space of spectrum management,” said Nigel Cassimire, Acting Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), an intergovernmental organisation that advises officials on technology and telecommunications matters.

Through initiatives like its Harmonised Caribbean Spectrum Planning and Management Project, the CTU has helped member-states to pool resources and join efforts to synchronise their spectrum policies.

“For years, we’ve had a situation of harmful interference in the Eastern Caribbean, among the English-speaking, French and Dutch islands. But the CTU’s Spectrum Harmonisation project brought together the relevant parties, and there is now a draft agreement between stakeholders in the French territories and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. They are now seeking to harmonise their individual use of frequencies, such that they minimise harmful interference and improve efficiency in their use of spectrum for mutual benefit,” he said.

As part of the ongoing effort to harmonise member states’ use of spectrum, the CTU and ITU organised a weeklong Regional Radiocommunication Seminar from July 18 to 22, facilitated by experts from the ITU, and held with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank. About 50 delegates from the Caribbean, Central and South America gathered in Port of Spain, Trinidad to learn more about the best practices regarding the use of national spectrum, and the current regulatory framework for international frequency management.

“The ITU and the CTU were pleased to work together to bring this forum to the Caribbean,” said Cleveland Thomas, ITU Regional Representative for the Caribbean.

“Forums like these bring together regional regulators, government officials, technical community and academic researchers, and create a space for professional networking and relationship building.”

As part of their effort to avoid harmful interference in the use of spectrum, the ITU holds the World Radiocommunication Conference every three years. But Thomas said more Caribbean voices need to be heard at such international fora, if the interests of the region are to be protected on the international stage.

Cassimire agreed and pointed out that events like the joint ITU-CTU workshop represented a tangible effort to amplify the Caribbean region’s voice on the global stage.

“Meetings like this help us to increase regional awareness of the important issues being discussed at the global level, to encourage governments to send delegations to significant international meetings such as the World Radiocommunications Conference, and to prepare regional delegates to better represent national and regional interests at those multi-lateral gatherings,” Cassimire said.

Caribbean countries have their work cut out as they seek to get the most out of their use of spectrum. In the meantime, the ongoing collaboration within the region is an interesting case study in the power of pooled resources and joint effort in overcoming resource limitations.

Belize Builds Its Digital Dreams

HAVANA, Cuba—Errol Cattouse is a man on a mission.

He’s the Chief Operating Officer of Centaur Cable and the newly appointed chairman of Belize’s internet exchange point. Launched in Belize City on April 27, the exchange point is seen as a key component in the country’s growing technology sector.

For Cattouse and others in the Caribbean, IXPs also hold the promise of better network performance and greater options to innovate in the delivery of services to local consumers. But Cattouse already knows he can’t do it on his own. So he’s on a mission to develop the human resource capacity needed to bring the dream home. And he’s not alone.

Around the region, the investments being made in critical Internet infrastructure are creating a demand for expertise that seemingly outstrips current domestic supply. The growing Caribbean technology revolution can’t be completed until the region can raise up a generation of open minds and able hands ready to seize the opportunities and deliver on technology’s elusive promise. That’s what brought Cattouse and other Internet service providers from across the region to Cuba in May.

The capital city of Havana played host to the twenty-fifth meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Registry (LACNIC) from May 2 to 6.

“I’m here because in Belize, with our newly formed Internet Exchange, we’re looking forward to LACNIC helping us with a lot of technical support,” he told me, when I caught up with him between sessions. “We don’t have access to a lot of technical education and capacity in Belize, and we’ve benefitted of programs from the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) to help build our local capacity. This LACNIC meeting is part of our ongoing efforts to continue making connections with the regional technical community.”

He cited the Domain Name System (DNS) and Border Gateway Patrol routing (BGP) as two areas for which technical training is needed in Belize to get the most out of the new IXP.

The good news? Global, non-profit organisations like LACNIC, the Internet Society, Packet Clearing House, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers are eager to work alongside Belize and others in the Caribbean to grow and strengthen the region’s internet.

“LACNIC is quite focused on building out training opportunities for the region,” said Kevon Swift, LACNIC’s Head of Strategic Relations and Integration, in an interview at LACNIC 25. “We offer workshops that cover everything from the basics of IPv6 to Address Planning and BGP Routing because we recognise that this level of knowledge or expertise may not always  reside in every territory at this time.”

LACNIC’s online campus already offers MOOC-style, self-paced courses, said Laura Kaplan, LACNIC’s Cooperation and Development Officer, adding that there is a plan to expand the curriculum to cover the kinds of topics that Cattouse and others are looking for, and to make it more friendly to English-speaking participants.

“What we offer is not just information but the opportunity to join mailing lists, make new contacts and  build relationships with other people who are also working in the same field,” Kaplan said.

Bill Woodcock, research director at Packet Clearing House, highlighted the work his San Francisco-based organisation has been doing in the region.

“PCH has been working closely with the CTU, CaribNOG and others in the region to support the proliferation of Internet exchange points and to help strengthen the region’s internet infrastructure.”

Woodcock and his PCH team helped set up the Belize IXP and are now actively planning with Cattouse to facilitate a series technical training workshops for Belize, over the second half of the year.

That is likely to reassure those, like Cattouse, on a mission to help the Caribbean move from the land of Internet promises, and into the Internet promised land.

Building The Caribbean Internet Through Relationships: CarPIF Connects The People Behind The Region’s Networks

It seems the region’s tech community is on to something that has eluded our politicians. Human networks are key to our development. And there is an unique group dedicated to getting the right people in the same place at the same time, so that the right deals and partnerships can help strengthen and expand the Internet in the Caribbean. Computer network engineers use the term Peering to describe the arrangement between two or more networks that exchange Internet traffic between their networks without cost, typically at an Internet exchange point. But peering is also an apt term to describe the human connections that make these arrangements possible.

Around the world, Peering Forums are held to promote regional Internet development and grow the global Internet economy. The Caribbean held its first Peering Forum, dubbed CarPIF, in May 2015 in Barbados.

Last week, more than 100 key decision makers from the Caribbean, Latin America, USA and Europe gathered in Curaçao for the second edition of this unique regional forum. The event was held at the Renaissance Resort in the capital, Willemstad, from June 7 to 10.

Participants included senior officials from regional governments, Internet organisations, service providers, exchange points operators and telecommunications regulators—along with  international content providers from companies like Facebook, Google and Akamai.

One of the things that makes CarPIF unique in the growing pantheon of Caribbean tech events is the opportunity it provides regional and international stakeholders to meet each other in an environment specifically designed for building relationship and raising awareness of development opportunities. That’s a big draw, and the two-day event did not disappoint.

Short sessions were punctuated by long breaks filled with coffee-fueled conversation among participants eager to shake hands, share knowledge and broker deals.

“CarPIF is much more than just great technical presentations. It’s about the interactions, human relationships and the shared experiences that help national, regional and international participants shape the future of development of the Internet in the Caribbean in a tangible and meaningful way,” said Bevil Wooding, CarPIF founder and Caribbean Outreach Manager for the US-based non-profit Packet Clearing House (PCH).

CarPIF is an initiative of PCH and the Internet Society (ISOC), with the support of the Caribbean Network Operators Group and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, an inter-governmental Caribbean organisation.

“Given the growth of Internet usage and the increasing importance of Internet infrastructure to every facet of development today, the Caribbean has come to the point where a forum specifically to address issues of Peering and Interconnection is critical to the long-term growth and resilience of the region’s telecommunication networks. And so, the purpose of CarPIF is to facilitate those kinds of interactions and the human relationships that underpin them,” Wooding said.

Shernon Osepa, ISOC manager of Regional Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean, agreed, describing CarPIF as “a testament to the growth and maturity that continues to take place in the Caribbean Internet landscape.”

The organisers received support from the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Registry, the American Registry of Internet Numbers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and other organisations that have been working to increase awareness of what is required to grow the region’s Internet ecosystem.

The big lesson from CarPIF: behind every good Internet connection is a good human relationship. In that sense, the real work of building the Caribbean internet is not technical but human. And that is key to a better connected Caribbean.