Kingstown, March 2nd, 2016- The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has marked yet another significant milestone in the development of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry with the launch of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP).
On January 25th, 2016, the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) in collaboration with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) launched the IXP at a ceremony which took place at the National Insurance Services Training Room, in Kingstown.
The IXP, which is an internationally recognized mechanism for achieving cost and service gains and ICT sector growth, was jointly funded by the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) SVG Project at a cost of EC $166,000 or US$61,824 and the Packet Clearing House (PCH) at EC $114,217 or US $42, 525. It is a location at which Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in country or locality, exchange domestic Internet traffic domestically between their customers on accost-neutral basis.
Now joining several CARICOM countries and the wider Caribbean in the operation of an IXP, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is poised to derive national benefits such as the provision of privacy control by keeping local traffic local, sensitive data would not be subjected to inspection by other governments and it enables co-ordination of security, infrastructure protection and abuse response activities.
