On July 1st, and 2nd, 2015 Mr. Giovanni King COO of Bureau Telecommunications and Post St. Maarten participated in the Broadband Latin America Forum 2015 in Sao Paulo – Brasil, hosted by Informa Telecoms & Media on how to make Broadband Internet access accessible and affordable in Latin America and the Caribbean
Mr. King was one of the speakers at the forum and gave an in-depth presentation on key drivers to make broadband Internet access more affordable and accessible to the islands. He explained the audience that it’s to his believe that the creation of competitive markets in the international access infrastructures (submarine cable systems) and local access infrastructures (fixed and mobile networks) are the key drivers to make broadband Internet more affordable and accessible to the islands.
Government & regulators should facilitate and incentivize the roll-out of broadband Internet access infrastructures, which can be done by the creation of a framework that enables service level competition as opposed to competition based on infrastructure. It’s also their task to promote the construction of cost effective infrastructure, meaning:
1. Promoting the joint use of existing physical infrastructure
2. Enabling a more efficient deployment of new physical infrastructure so that such networks can be rolled out at lower cost
3. Putting rules and regulations in place to oblige network operator to give access to their physical infrastructure for the deployment of broadband Internet access networks, upon reasonable request and under fair terms and conditions, including price
4. Mandatory local peering, this will keep local IP-traffic local. For so far as possible try to keep regional IP-traffic in the region
5. One of the important consideration that pertains to local telecommunications infrastructure should the creation of a single physical infrastructure for small markets (consider the Singapore model)
In conclusion Mr. King stated that broadband internet access is a driver for economic development, and affordability and accessibility broadband internet is determined by availability of physical infrastructure and competitive markets.