Four New IXPs Take off in Central America and the Caribbean
According to the global IXP Database, as of January 2021, of the 630 registered Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), 229 are in Europe, 126 in North America, 140 in Asia-Pacific, 96 in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and 39 in Africa. Although the LAC region is second-last on the list, there has been a strong expansion of IXPs in recent years. There were only 60 in 2016.
At the end of 2019 and throughout 2020 four new IXPs joined the Association of Traffic Exchange Points of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC-IX). They include IXP.GT (Guatemala), IXSY (Yucatán, Mexico), IX.DO (Dominican Republic), and IXSal (El Salvador). They are the fruit of the joint and sustained work of the Internet Society, LACNIC, and LAC-IX under the framework of a collaboration agreement to strengthen Internet infrastructure across the region.
In the Dominican Republic IX.DO Begins Silent Production, with Several Committed Members
The Dominican Republicâs new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) already has 24 members, three of which began exchanging traffic in November 2020. Another four will start this quarter â including the largest operators in the country.
The IX.DO was born after frustrated attempts. A government-led initiative in 2007 never became operational and the data center NAP del Caribe started pushing for the implementation of an IXP when it arrived in the country in 2008.
A decade later, in 2017, the Internet Society Dominican Republic Chapter reignited efforts after organizing a series of local Internet governance forums. They touched on the topic of infrastructure and included discussion panels on IXP best practices with experts from the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC). These were attended by regulators, telecommunications companies, and academics, who also reflected