posted on May 25, 2011 14:47
Port of Spain, Wednesday 25th May, 2011: “Grenada is now better positioned to take advantage of the revolution in technology and truly move toward the establishment of a knowledge based economy". This according to Senator Arley Gill, Minister of ICT at the launch of the Eastern Caribbean’s first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in St George’s, Grenada.
Speaking at the Grenada leg of the Caribbean ICT Roadshow hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Minister Gill noted that the establishment of IXPs is essential to encouraging the domestic development and technology‐based economic growth.
GREX allows local ISPs to interconnect directly, locally, at no cost, rather than by purchasing expensive transit services from foreign ISPs. Speakers at the GREX launch explained that over the next several months consumers could expect the roll‐out of new services and
improved quality for high‐bandwidth applications such as peer‐to‐peer file sharing, online video and audio streaming and gaming. Dr. Spencer Thomas, Chairman of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, and a central figure in facilitating the process stated, “The NTRC sees the role of the regulator as fostering investment and growth in the telecommunications sector.” He added, “We believe that encouraging development of Internet‐based services, accelerating the development of Caribbean content and reaping social benefits from technology is dependent on reducing Internet connectivity and bandwidth costs and improving the quality of service to all citizens. GREX is a key component to achieving our goals.”
Dr. Thomas commended local Internet Service Providers LIME and Columbus Communications for working together to make the GREX initiative possible. He also singled out for praise Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the CTU and Bevil Wooding, an international expert with the US‐based non‐profit organization Packet Clearing House (PCH), for their role in the process.
GREX’s two major Internet Service Providers LIME and Columbus Communications, committed to collaborating on the next steps toward establishing an Internet Exchange Point in Grenada.