Business View Caribbean - November 2016 19
lished in the Caribbean, and several others are being
considered. While we continue to push for strength-
ening of critical Internet infrastructure in the region,
our focus must also expand to development of the
Caribbean Internet-based economy. We need to
build out the Caribbean cloud,” he said.
Internet exchange points, or IXPs, are pieces of criti-
cal infrastructure that provide points of physical in-
terconnection between the networks that make up
the global Internet. PCH has played an active role in
setting up more than two-thirds of the world’s IXPs
and almost all of the exchange points in the Carib-
bean.
The non-profit firm has worked closely with the
Caribbean Telecommunications Union, an inter-
governmental CARICOM organization that focuses
on regional technology policy. Together, they have
actively supported the proliferation of Internet ex-
changes in the Caribbean.
While establishing physical exchange points is nec-
essary, it is not sufficient to advance the regional
Internet economy, Wooding said. Another crucial
step is needed. “Getting the exchange points up
and running is a start. But there has to be a shift in
the conversation, from local traffic exchange to local
content production, local application development,
and local innovation. What we want to see is not
just more people on the Internet, but more people
actually taking advantage of the social and econom-
ic opportunities the Internet offers,” Wooding said.
“The private sector, academia, and governments all
have to work in sync to create opportunities for digi-
tal innovators and entrepreneurs to take advantage
of the Internet and build on the local IXPs that now
exist. We have to actively build the Caribbean cloud.”
Wooding was speaking as part of a panel discussion
on developing the Caribbean Internet economy, held
on the first day of “St. Maarten on the Move,” a re-
gional, technology development conference jointly
hosted by the Latin America and Caribbean Internet
Addresses Registry and the Internet Society (ISOC)
in Philipsburg, St Maarten, from October 27 to 28.
He co-presented with Eldert Louisa, chairman of the
Open Caribbean Internet Exchange and Chief Tech-
nical Officer of St. Maarten telecom operator TelEm
Group. Karen Rose, senior director of strategy and
analysis at ISOC, moderated the panel.
St. Maarten on the Move was part of Internet Week
St Maarten, a five-day conference coordinated by
the St. Maarten telecommunications regulator, BTP,
and focused on developing the Caribbean Internet.
The week started with the twelfth regional meet-
ing of the Caribbean Network Operators Group,
which was jointly held with the LAC-I-Roadshow of
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, from October 24 to 26. A broad range of
technical, social, and policy issues related to Carib-
bean technology development were covered in the
three-day event, held with the support of the CTU,
the American Registry of Internet Numbers, and
ArkiTechs.
