[LACNIC/Napla] Fwd: [icacaribbean] Dominican Government spurs the Network Access Point

[Bill Woodcock]

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On Mar 14, 2007, at 6:55 AM, Erick Iriarte Ahon wrote:
> ...un desarrollo desde el gobierno, distinto a los procesos desde  
> el sector privado, siendo asi, para una clasificacion unos vienen  
> impulsados/promovidos/fomentados/generados desde el sector gob, los  
> otros tienen en la autoregulacion (porque al final es una  
> autoregulacion basada en el acuerdo y manifestacion de voluntades)  
> del sector privado.


On Mar 14, 2007, at 7:29 AM, Raul Echeberria wrote:
> ...el proyecto de Rep. Dominicana es algo que funcionara como si  
> fuera un proyecto privado pero financiado por el gobierno. No creo  
> que se necesite de ninguna regulación al respecto. El mercado dirá  
> si funciona o no.


Speaking from PCH's point of view, although we're normally invited to  
assist in the formation of an IX by either a group of ISPs, or by a  
national ISP industry association, there have also been occasions,  
much less frequent, when ISPs simply haven't been getting an IX  
built, and a particularly forward-thinking ministry of communications  
or treasury or regulator asks us to assist, in order to stem the  
flight of capital through unreciprocated internationally-purchased  
transit.  Jamaica is one such country, for example.  There are also  
many successful IXes which have received start-up funding from  
governments.  Also, governments participate in most exchanges, as  
ordinary users, connecting their BGP routers to the switch fabric.   
And this is also desirable.  So I wouldn't say that governmental  
involvement is problematic, per se.

I believe, however, that regulation in this area is a much more  
delicate issue.  We had a very interesting panel discussion at the  
APRICOT meeting two weeks ago, on what the role of government might  
be with respect to Internet exchange points or Internet traffic  
exchange between ISPs.  We started with a very diverse group of  
panelists, but found common ground, which surprised me.  Essentially  
all of the panelists agreed that a government was well within its  
rights to make sure that at least one IX exists within its borders,  
and that domestic traffic (traffic from one person inside the country  
to another person inside the country) does not cross the national  
border.  Also, that if an IX begins to have trouble, losing  
participants or traffic, and no other IX comes into existence to  
solve the problem, that the government should probably step in to  
stabilize it, rather than just watching it collapse, as happened in  
Cape Town.

                                 -Bill



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