This week, a Caribbean Telecommunications Union team of IXP development experts, supported by the CaribNOG was in Saint Martin to help establish Smart-IX, the territory’s new Internet exchange point. The work was conducted under the CaribIX project, which also aims to set up and grow internet exchange points in Saint Barthélemy and Guadeloupe.

“In Saint Martin, Internet access has become absolutely essential to the everyday life of our population and our visitors. The Collectivité of Saint Martin will continue to support the establishment of underlying Internet infrastructure on an impartial and neutral basis, so that access can be made available to all users.”— Alain Richardson, 1st Vice President, Collectivity of Saint Martin.

“The Smart-IX launch comes after a long period of strategic collaboration between government, private sector and technical actors across the English and French-speaking Caribbean. More participants are expected to join as Smart-IX continues to develop and grow,” said Mr Gary Kalloo, Director of Business Development and Implementation Support, CTU, and Project Coordinator of the CaribIX Project.

The launch included the signing of an IXP memorandum of understanding, which signifies the willingness of the first Smart-IX members to begin peering. Signatories included:

Alain Richardson, 1st Vice President, Collectivité de Saint Martin;

Eve Riboud, CEO, Dauphin Telecom; Jean Arnell, CEO, Computech; and Kendall Dupersoy, CEO, TELEM.

Smart-IX is managed by Tintamarre, and coordinated by Computech.

More info on PeeringDB https://www.peeringdb.com/ix/4008 and on the Smart-IX website https://www.smart-ix.fr

CaribIX was formally launched in a virtual ceremony in March, and received funding from the Interreg-Caraïbes programme, co-funded by the @European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.