Dominica may set up regional internet exchange point by year-end, says CTU

The Caribbean Telecoms Union (CTU) is optimistic that a third regional Internet Exchange Point (IXP) will be serving the English-speaking Caribbean by year-end, most likely in Dominica, CTU secretary general Bernadette Lewis told BNamericas. At the end of May, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Grenada both launched IXPs. Other countries that have begun discussions on IXPs are St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Suriname has also expressed interest. The launches in Grenada and the BVI are part of the Caribbean regional IXP initiative, which has been spearheaded by the CTU and research institute Packet Clearing House (PCH), which both donated the initial IXP equipment. Lewis said that even though they are still at the early stages, Grenada and the BVI have seen a noted impact on traffic since launching the IXPs. "We've seen a steady increase in the traffic on those IXPs, and there is a monetary benefit for that: It means you're not paying international transit for that traffic," Lewis said. Major content providers including Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) have been enquiring about setting up servers locally in the Caribbean, which would facilitate increased speed and reduced latency, especially with things like video streaming. "It is already attracting the interest of major content service providers," Lewis said. The perceived benefits of having local IXPs include faster and cheaper internet, the encouragement of local content development, hosting and development of e-government.