Launching the Internet Exchange Point at the National ICT Centre is a significant milestone for St. Kitts and Nevis. This new infrastructure will enhance the country’s digital capabilities and improve the speed and quality of internet services.
By allowing local internet service providers to exchange data within the country rather than routing it through international networks, the exchange point will reduce latency, lower costs, and increase internet reliability. Accordingly, the IXP will benefit businesses and individuals and support the government’s efforts to promote digital transformation and foster innovation in the country.
On January 31, 2024, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Communications Team toured the IXP Room at the National ICT Centre to learn more about the project. Consultant Brent McIntosh of McNet Solutions and his team were on hand to lead the project’s implementation.
Mr. McIntosh explained that the relevant bandwidth savings that the IXP may provide to internet service providers (ISPs) would allow the ISPs to offer larger packages to their customers. Speaking of long-term goals, Mr. McIntosh stated, “In the future, the expectation is to have major global content delivery networks collocated and hosted here whereby end-users can get their popular content locally.”
Director Ophelia Blanchard expressed pleasure with the progress made regarding pairing with local ISPs and the hosting of an internet route server in St. Kitts and Nevis.
