Dominica will be launching its first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) later this year in a move that will increase broadband services on the island.
This, according to Minister for Telecommunications, Ambrose George who spoke at the opening of the 10th edition of Creole in the Park on Monday afternoon.
George said presently when Dominicans go on the internet the services leave the island’s shores and bounce back in order to get a response.
But he said the establishment of an IXP will put that to rest and will bring significant benefits to Internet users and entrepreneurs.
“With the IXP exchange all local traffic will remain here in Dominica,” Ambrose pointed out.
Additionally, he said this will give the island the ability to host all internet traffic locally and give companies like LIME the ability to provide more broadband. “What that will mean is that there will be now much more broadband available to LIME so that LIME in itself can provide additional services to the citizens of Dominica,” Ambrose noted.
He said the feature will be launched later this year.
Technology experts have revealed that the perceived benefits of having local IXPs include faster and cheaper internet, the encouragement of local content development, hosting, and the development of e-government.
I am in the telecom sector and this Internet Exhange Point(IXP)provide no or very small saving to the three operators on island and certainly no saving will reach the customers. Currently these three operators are already interconnected locally under the telecom law(ACT) so all the local internet traffic is kept locally.
Note an IXP is Internet Exchange Point and is valid or practical in a markets of 15 or more internet operators like USA and Canada…etc
In these countries the IXP provides a major cost saving to the internet operators as the operator can now have one connect at a single point, the IXP instead 20-100 interconnection to other internet providers . This is economy of scale, by that I mean for this to make sense in DA we need to at least 15 internet providers on island to see any cost savings.
Secondly IXP is setup by private companies who see this as a real business opporunity to make money, by providing saving to internet operators and making a profit but it of great concerns when establish by GOVTs.
Whenever GOVT gets involved in establishing IXP it is more focus on monitoring and censoring its population internet information….Examples in Tunisia, Venezuela and Cuba …….. Jamaica a few years ago had IPX but is not functional anymore. Also in these countries except Jamaica broadband access is very low
Note: It GOVT shutdown the IPX it means people on island has no internet access to the outside world as of now this cannot be done.
Lastly an IPX is not going to increase Broadband acces on island. The only things that is going to drive internet pricing down in Dominica and increase broadband access is laying more undersea cable to Dominica to increase supply,laying more in country fiber to the rural areas to get more customers,then prices might drop due increase in revenue per capital and if more competitors enter the market….which I doubt due to the small market with three existing internet providers….If the GOVT is not contributing in these areas they cannot be the driver for more broadband access or lower internet cost on island.
We should look at this critically! Because that what happen in Tunisia the GOVT controlled the IXP and when the uprising started they shutdown the IXP so the outside world could not get footage of what was going on in country.
You couldn’t have said this any better! FIVE vertical thumbs up for you!
Before they consider introducing new products, I would rather that they provide better services with those that already exist.
Dominica boasted about being the first country to go fully International Direct Dialing but they lag many countries in modern technologies and quality of service and don’t talk about the cost of having those services.
What Ambrose George should consider doing is to have a Government intranet so that all government departs can network among themselves and be able to share information electronically. I am amazed that many government offices still don’t have internet access. In some offices there isn’t even a computer. Can’t we do better than that?
Maybe some offices don’t need one… I’m sure with the turnover of computers in government some which have been thrown out or sold to the general public could have been passed down to a lower department which actually needed it. If government were to just provide things then every government employee would have the latest ipad and the country would cry…
A computer my friend (Free Mind)is a necessity in an office in these modern times. Which government would be so daft as to provide Ipad to employees?
yuh so long.. so more pirating?
So no more i mean…
they said all local traffic. i would more be worried about censorship
it wont necessarily mean cheaper internet, remember a certain company is already charging for 10Mb broadband and not delivering, but i hope those of us paying for that service get speeds approaching 1/10th of what we are paying for.
For those of us relying on the net for transfer of documents to and from the island upload/download speeds of 80-120k are the norm. I think the fastest speed I have ever had was 300k at 2am to transfer a 34Mb file. I have a family member in London where i transferred 10Mb file went in seconds, it left me open mouthed…
It also means that anyone wishing can keep tabs on what “undesirable elements” are looking, block certain sites from view, and flag certain words in email.
A wonderful case of “look what we’re doing for you”, and at the same time “look what we can do for us”. According to one comment already made, there is a move to get all islands with their own, in which case I applaud it as I am sure those countries already pay for and get 10Mb transfer speeds.
You need to look at your computer because I’ve been able to download at speeds in excess of 1000mb and that’s on a 1.5mb connection. If you’re entire office is sharing your connection then they may all be using bandwidth thus making your network slower so you need to look at optimising your network topology and implementing systems to get the best of what you have.
Also if you could send a 10mb file to someone in seconds that means you have that upload speed which means you uploaded that file to them in seconds… bandwidth is a 2 way stream of upload and download. sometimes it’s not that you can’t download a file in seconds it’s that a site won’t provide you with the necessary speeds to do so.
Is that mb = megabits or megabytes? If it’s megabits then that should be obvious for a 1.5mb connection. If it is megabytes then whoaa you’re downloading at over 1GB/s that is frankly amazing.
Now on the other hand with a 3.5mb connection I see speeds of up to ~420KB/s (that’s kilobytes). Considering 3.5mb = 3500mb/s , then that implies 3500/8 = 437. So I should be getting about 430KB/s but considering inevitable fluctuations, packet loss and upload speed restriction for checksum then 420KB/s is pretty realistic for a 3.5Mbps connection.
Basically applying simple networking logic I can verify that I am indeed getting the speeds that I’m paying for. The only problems I would note are the intermittent fluctuations and problems with loading from certain international servers (this should be investigated).
oops when I said 3500mb/s that supposed to be 3500kb/s
I just hope this does not put alternative internet providers such as Marpin at a disadvantage. It is no secret that Govt. is thinking of acquiring the local LIME operations and if so would be in a position to establish a state monopoly in telecommunications.
Why Lime alone is mentioned? We know that lime does a poor job. Marpin and SAT should be at the front.
Will that finally end the Lime/Marpin/SAT/Digicel interconnection issues????
Wasn’t that interconnection thing about telephone services?
lol. Look blatant lies~! hahahahah. Cheaper? DAM LIES~!
All that’s gonna happen is same price for current packages and more for “greater” packages.
This will make it easier for them to close down dissidents as china does.BIG BROTHER HERE WE COME. Simple way to control the population, tell them all will be cheap and they will not stand in your way
Where the cost saving coming from? Google going to host one of its servers online too so I get better youtube streaming. Point being this articles explains nothing. IXP. So what? Is local traffic really the cause of the ISP providers here having the cost of the internet so high? Enlighten me please.
I understood a lot from the article. and if you do not know what is IXP there is a thing they call Google and research.
Cheaper Internet! Same guys who promised us cheaper gas when petro caribe was launched. Wen will it end?
Pow Pow Pow Pow.
Boy your aim good.
llOll.
Oh yes, and we still believe in father christmas! Like the guy who owes money keeps saying “the cheque is in the mail boss”. Is just a scheme for a few dudes to make serious money, just like Petro.
I hope that this is not a closed internet service as I saw in the news a couple weeks ago. I would like to do some research on this IXP.
and i quote….
“presently when Dominicans go on the internet the services leave the island’s shores and bounce back in order to get a response.”
“With the IXP exchange all local traffic will remain here in Dominica”
hahaha i’m not saying he’s wrong but for those of us who aren’t tech savvy…. these dude just said nothing out of nothing lol…. mr george didn’t even understand what he said…. in fact i’ll bet my last dollar (honestly, i only got $1 on me)… this guy don’t know what the abbreviation IXP stands for lol…. the told him backstage….
um mr george just repeat what the I.T pardna tell u ok…. doh worry about what is IXP… is seewo people come for, they not worrying bout dat o.k…..
Umm you seem to be the one spouting nonesense here. He is actually correct. Do a tracert command on dominica news online for example. You will see that you get hopped through your ISP’s servers, to some international servers and then back down to them, that is if they even host their servers locally which I doubt.
Ok fine. What does that have to do with cost to the user? Will Lime,Marpin, and SAT give Dominica cheaper internet because of this? I’ll tell you one thing, most of my internet traffic is off-island anway. Bbc.co.uk or cnet.com or youtube.com. All of these are off-island right? Why didnt a reporter ask how the cost saving coming? At least that way I’d understand unlike when we were told gas/electricity will go down but they go up.
sigh… in other words our IP comes from Guadeloupe, from France and from Europe’s main hub. we have to go through all that before we can do a proper hop. Hence the reason why crappy internet costs so much.
We will hopefully have “proper” internet at the same price.
Secondly, i don’t blame your distrust in the ministers words (I don’t at all). However internet and gas are 2 different matters, don’t try to stray away from the “good” news at hand.
@ NOKO…. DOOM DOOM…. did i ever say he was wrong…. i said the way he said… made it seem he had no idea what he was speaking about…
now go back to shining your shoe before u go to the red clinic…hahahahha ggggeeeeeeezzzzzzz
Um MOTS is right, Dominica don’t host any data centers so the services will live the island regardless.
@MOTS
Two errors:
1. I didn’t say anywhere that you said he was wrong. You accused him of ‘saying nothing out of nothing’ when indeed he was actually speaking about something that is established fact, so how is it that it seems that he has no idea what he is speaking about. You on the other hand was just spouting out incoherent gibberish and seem to have no idea how the internet works.
2. I don’t benefit from any red clinic but nice use of a red herring. Now everyone will think I’m defending the minister because I benefit from their handouts right?
Now on a side note to the other people talking about the effect nowhere did I say anything about how this would affect cost. As one person said most of their traffic is external, such is the case for myself as well. However there are some benefits to be gained from this, if it is implemented right. Anybody who has any idea of VPNs and such will know why. Won’t bother to explain this here as that would be too much of a long comment.
Older folks used to say “all talk not good to talk”.
Mouth of the South, you would have been better off not saying anything.
This is shameful the people resposible for building the country know not of what they speak , its a sad day when my fellow country man cant even articulate himself . i cry inside for dominica , these politicians ar plundering our country , telling lies , selling dreams and the masses have yet to oen their eyes and see it . “presently when Dominicans go on the internet the services leave the island’s shores and bounce back in order to get a response.” i am ashamed to read that staement , give our people a better explanation one thats true valid and of substance , the real deal dont repeat what the tech told u , understand it before u repeat it , cuase u clearly not understanding what u talking about
This is a new forum, not a gossip board, so if you don’t have the facts maybe you should avoid making inaccurate comments. The facts regarding IXPs activity is in the Caribbean as of August 2011 are:
ACTIVE IXPs: Curacao, Haiti, St Maarten, Grenada, BVI
IN PROGRESS: Dominica, St Kitts
THINKING ABOUT IT: Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago
As at May 3, 2012 – Jamaica had “No Internet Exchange Point (IXP)”
I thought St. Lucia had one. I will have to check again.
Don’t for get our free port, Guadeloupe.
Thank you! We’ve been waiting for this!
good news but islands like Jamaica,St.Kitts and Barbados already have those features….
ye and they can censor your search results hmm sounds like communist china
Yes, Get that IXP going Soon! Cheaper and hopefully more efficient for all users in our country. We should not be afraid to log on because of the costs. We are paying too much for internet, phone and other utilities. Too much!
We are Waiting Mr George.
we NEED 4G damnit!!! we paying for the expensive phones, sometimes all $2000 dollars, but get crappy “EDGE” network.. can’t even use youtube or other streaming media….. what’s the point of spending so much money and not be able to use the full potential of the device. CHHAAAAAAAAAAA
Then don’t buy the phones. Why someone would spend so much money on something that which they cannot fully exploit its benefits are beyond me, especially when there are much cheaper options.
fully agreed. =_=
noko, the market trends don’t support your statement. In no time the average person will have a smartphone capable of 4G speeds. The question the telecommunication companies should ask themselves is will they be ready for the future.
Apart from phones 4G phones, sales of other mobile devices such as tablets and ultrabooks are on the increase. Having a proper 4G network will a plethora of benefits for many people in the society.
Welcome to the 1980’s!
lol