LACNIC on the Move in the Caribbean

30/07/2019

LACNIC held its most recent LACNIC on the Move event in Curaçao, an event that brought together leading regional experts. The goal of the event was for participants to analyze critical local Internet development issues, IPv6 deployment, and the main threats to regional cybersecurity.

Organized by the regional RIR together with the Bureau Telecommunicatie en Post (BTP), the telecommunications regulator for Curaçao, this three-day event addressed local and regional difficulties faced by IPv6 development and shared potential forms of cooperation to advance the deployment of this protocol.

With the participation of LACNIC member organizations, government representatives, the local National Police, and major players of the Caribbean telecommunications sector, the conference sought to bring LACNIC closer to the Caribbean community, observed Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integrations at LACNIC.

Curaçao is a country with many advantages at the technological development level, as its residential broadband penetration rate is more than 82%, it is connected to seven international submarine telecommunications cables, and has received investments in datacenters and cloud services. Nevertheless, IPv6 deployment in the country is 0.04%. “We are approaching the Curaçao community with the following message: promoting IPv6 is worth it,” Swift added.

The presentations on IPv6 evidenced the local community’s need for greater knowledge on the mechanisms used to transition from IPv4 to IPv6 and the improvements that come with the use of the latest Internet protocol.

The event also included a one-and-a-half-day workshop organized by LACNIC’s AMPARO Project, which focused on the creation of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) and the development of capabilities for responding to local and regional cybersecurity challenges.

“LACNIC on the Move events are held around the region to afford the local community the chance to discuss the challenges they are facing in Internet development and, even more importantly, to find concrete solutions to these challenges,” Swift concluded.