Imbalances in the penetration of ICT services have created a significant gap allowing to continue to increase investment and the volume of resources allocated to broadband and the sector in general.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
From the Executive Summary of a report by the CAF entitled "Expansion of Regional Infrastructure for Internet Interconnection Traffic in Latin America":
The internet has become an essential tool for economic and social development. Consequently, internet traffic has grown and it is expected to keep growing quickly in the coming years. This traffic is being accommodated by national and international transport networks. At the same time, it is clear that it is not enough to expand transportation networks, it is also necessary to have a framework and networking infrastructure that can make their use efficient, reduce transit costs, reduce latency, and increase the exchange of regional traffic. Ultimately, the efficiency and growth potential of the internet depends directly on the amount of interconnections it has. A greater amount translates into lower costs, better quality and greater availability to transmit information.
The overall objective of this study is to contribute to the development of interconnection infrastructure in Latin America. Specifically, the study responds to the following objectives:
• Establish regulatory and public policy basis to promote investment and use of IXP (Internet Exchange Point) in Latin America.
• Establish the economic, technical and operational factors for development and consolidation of a larger IXP infrastructure which promotes efficient exchange of regional internet traffic .
• Determine the locations and potential regional IXP feasible in the light, inter alia, of traffic projections and demand profile data in Latin America.
• Suggest alternatives and IXP business models in the region, along with corporate, operational and governance models.
• Estimate the economic impact on the region of IXP deployment, analyzing the impact on interconnection costs, final prices of broadband services and results in the quality of connections.
A proposal to develop an underground fiber optic network aims to differentiate the Panamanian capital from the rest of the region, making it a smart city.
An underground fiber optic network would make the capital city of Panama stand apart from the rest of Central America in terms of access to technology, efficiency and attraction of foreign investment, because of what that means in terms of interconnectivity for businesses and the economic growth of the country.
While in other countries there are a greater variety of packages and lower prices than those offered in Costa Rica, lack of modernization of networks and costs are preventing operators from improving their services.
At present, only 56% of the population has internet access and of this total 80% use services with download speeds of 1 Mbps, 10% with 2 Mbps and less than 1% use download services with over 10 Mbps.
Panama is proposing installing on its territory a regional IXP to reduce the cost of data transmission between Central American countries.
An IXP is a piece of infrastructure which enables internet traffic to move between networks and through this interface to connect directly, without using an intermediate network.
Costa Rica has implemented a Neutral Internet Exchange Point, a concept that could be extrapolated to the entire region to reduce operating costs and increase connection speeds.
There is no need to explain the benefits that greater use of the internet brings to economic development, which is always dependent on the associated costs.
×
7974Government Procurement Opportunities in the region
español
7974
