May 22, 2007 – Isla Margarita – With the attendance of more than 320 participants from 29 countries, the Regional Interconnection Forum NAPLA 2007 was opened this morning, an event that brings together representatives of the national interconnection points of the Latin American and Caribbean region. This important event was broadcast worldwide using modern webcasting technology that allows individuals from any region to receive video images and sound in real time and even to submit questions to the presenters.
The moderator, Roque Gagliano of Antel Uruguay, reminded the audience that many of the goals established during the previous NAP meeting have already been accomplished. Traffic exchange points, connectivity providers and government representatives met to share the sector's state of the art, as well as to state the urgent need to initiate applied investigations that will allow interconnecting the different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean at regional level. He presented a project for the interconnection of two cities on the Uruguayan border.
Gabriel Adonaylo of Argentina and Carlos Neira of Colombia highlighted the cooperation and shared use of good practices in the application and development of infrastructure. The meeting began with presentations that reviewed recent activities and future projects of NAPs of different countries.
After mentioning the development achieved in different regions of his country, Milton Kaoru Kashiwakura of NAP Brazil agreed with other presenters on the need to begin investigations on interregional traffic and actively promoting the production of local content to generate a critical mass of users that will make this initiative possible and profitable.
The presentation of Hernan Moreno Escobar of CEPAL covered how the goals of the eLAC2007 project are being implemented. Mr Moreno also presented some examples of good practices in national and regional interconnection. He insisted on the importance of good practices in relation to generating common projects such as the one that is connecting national education portals.
In addition, LACNIC's Executive Director stated, as a personal view, the need to confront difficulties in order to overcome them and to take advantage of the opportunities the international situation offers the region. Mr Echeberría pondered the need to continue working so that technology will be inclusive for everyone. He explained that to achieve this it is necessary to solve the issue of relative pricing. Quoting Gabriel Adonaylo, he informed that "For the same cost as a link between a South American city and the United States, it would be possible to contract a link having 60 times greater capacity between New York and London."
When recounting the initiatives that had been presented, Roque Gagliano, the event's moderator, underlined the fact that several participants explained the need to promote the production of regional content and promoting the creation of more interesting content written in local languages, which In turn would increase local traffic and thus, he added, more people will want to connect locally.
To conclude, Mr Gagliano emphasized that it is important to take advantage of international fora such as eLAC-2007 and the IGF to develop a common vision regarding possible ways of improving conditions relative to interconnection costs, to sensitize the different stakeholders, and to develop a regional interconnection project for Latin America and the Caribbean based on concrete data obtained through a parallel traffic measurement project.
As in the case of other organizations of the region, the Regional
Interconnection Forum NAPLA 2007 is having its meeting during the
LACNIC X 2007 event, which is being held at Isla Margarita,
Venezuela, from May 21 to May 25, at the Hotel Hesperia, sponsored by
the National Information Technologies Center, CNTI of Venezuela.
