Grenada to host Caribbean internet peering forum in 2019

The Eastern Caribbean island-nation Grenada has been selected as the location for the next meeting of the Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum (CarPIF).

The announcement of the host for the fifth edition of CarPIF, to be held on June 12 to 13, 2019, was made by Bevil Wooding, CarPIF co-founder and Caribbean Outreach Liaison at the American Registry for Internet Numbers.

CarPIF is an annual conference for internet service providers, data centre managers, internet exchange point coordinators, content delivery network operators and technology professionals, who come together to exchange practical knowledge and strike deals to develop and improve the region’s Internet sector. Content providers such as Google, Akamai and Facebook have regular attended at the event.

“Technical topics ranging from Internet peering, service quality and network resilience to security and affordability issues dominate CarPIF interactions.  However, another major goal is to facilitate the human connections that enable Internet growth,” Wooding said.

“Grenada is looking forward to hosting this important regional event,” said Brent McIntosh, technical coordinator of the internet exchange point in Grenada. “The Grenada Internet economy has been steadily growing since the launch of our own exchange point. With CarPIF, we fully expect to gain the insight and the connections we need to accelerate our development and advance the local and regional Internet industry.”

The Caribbean held its first Peering Forum in May 2015 in Barbados. The annual event is organised by the Caribbean Network Operators Group and is supported by several Caribbean and international organisations, including the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, the Internet Society, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry, Packet Clearing House and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

In June, more than 100 key decision makers from the Caribbean, Latin America, USA and Europe gathered in Belize City for the fourth edition of the regional forum. The theme for the 2019 event is “Expanding the Caribbean Internet.”