Hey there!
... ok this time I am not going to call it PRIX 
well name doesn't matter
really. Nearly 13 years ago I have attempted to start Puerto rico Internet
exchange in San Juan. I have lived there over 5 years and i just wanted to
really watch videos faster. The project somewhat died when i moved to LA
but now there are few interested party to start an internet exchange in
Puerto rico. The jsland historically had one of the slowest
broadband/internet services which seemed to have improved in recent years
however as of 2017 there still is not an IX in Puerto rico.
We , 3-4 internet engineers (on island and remote) , want to look into
relaunch of this IX and hopefully find a way to keep local traffic
exchanged at high speeds and low cost. We need expertise, and people who
want to help any way they can.
We are trying to make this IX a not-for-profit one and we are looking at
opeeating models to adapt which has worked incredibly well like Seattle IX.
We are hoping the relaunch to happen sometime in 2018. Thanks in advance
hope to share more info and traffic data sometime , soon. Watch this space!
Mehmet
Reach out to Gino Villarini at Aeronet.
What about the PRBI project for an IXP?
I think that is working, possibly it just need a hand. If possible, I would
like to put my effort in something that is working and improve it rather
than start something else from scratch.
Regards
as
I have been trying to get a hold of someone from that project. No response
yet. Still hoping to find someone. Peeringdb contact info didnt help.
Hello:Have you looked into WIFI?
Cyrus
On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 7:29 AM, Mehmet Akcin<mehmet@akcin.net> wrote: Hey there!
... ok this time I am not going to call it PRIX well name doesn't matter
really. Nearly 13 years ago I have attempted to start Puerto rico Internet
exchange in San Juan. I have lived there over 5 years and i just wanted to
really watch videos faster. The project somewhat died when i moved to LA
but now there are few interested party to start an internet exchange in
Puerto rico. The jsland historically had one of the slowest
broadband/internet services which seemed to have improved in recent years
however as of 2017 there still is not an IX in Puerto rico.
We , 3-4 internet engineers (on island and remote) , want to look into
relaunch of this IX and hopefully find a way to keep local traffic
exchanged at high speeds and low cost. We need expertise, and people who
want to help any way they can.
We are trying to make this IX a not-for-profit one and we are looking at
opeeating models to adapt which has worked incredibly well like Seattle IX.
We are hoping the relaunch to happen sometime in 2018. Thanks in advance
hope to share more info and traffic data sometime , soon. Watch this space!
Mehmet
Hey there!
... ok this time I am not going to call it PRIX 
I thought that was a perfectly good name.
[...] The jsland historically had one of the slowest
broadband/internet services which seemed to have improved in recent years
however as of 2017 there still is not an IX in Puerto rico.
What happened to Internet Exchange of Puerto Rico (ix.pr)?
Run by AS36810?
We , 3-4 internet engineers (on island and remote) , want to look into
relaunch of this IX and hopefully find a way to keep local traffic
exchanged at high speeds and low cost. We need expertise, and people who
want to help any way they can.
https://www.pch.net/
Basically i and second key person moved to california, could't push
politics remotely and project died after couple gigs if traffic getting
exchanged over ixp via few asns
Hi Arturo,
Good call. I believe the funds are coming from the USF? (Mike Hammet knows
more about this than me). I had conversations with multiple congressional
staffers about using USF funds for IXP development. They're in for good
projects. The USG and US congress is more than willing to fund IXPs using
USF funds. Commercial or otherwise, depending on the bnenefits and commits.
I agree, it would be a good vector to work an improved IXP with larger
scale support in Puerto Rico, building on the work Mehmet did with
PR^H^HIX-PR. 
I remember that conversation here vividly. Still requires
a key location e.g. Power + fiber. Where to?
Econmically, PR is long overdue for a neutral IX, locally organized, that
can make an impact.
Cheers,
-M<
Hi Martin
I'm curious about the mechanism for funding such a thing. Historically the
majority of USF funds have gone to telcos rather than ISPs, if I am not
mistaken.
I'd love to continue this discussion off list if necessary.
Hi Everyone!
Thank you for 10s of great leads regarding PR and Internet EcoSystem. I am
wondering if we were to have a Peering Forum in Puerto Rico, when would be
the most preferred time? December, February are two options we have for
now.
Idea would be to create a day where people who are local and involved in
network engineering/operations can meet with those in similar functions
outside of the island.
Thanks once again for amazing support and leads. We look forward to 2018
and the reLaunch.
Mehmet
Update :
Event scheduled tentatively for February 5-7, 2017 in San Juan Puerto Rico!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1968437066707713/?ti=icl
Please confirm if you are able to attend, while we are working on details
of agenda few highlights I want to share.
High level datacenter intros within PR (15mins per provider, technical
focus,-not sales-)
Puerto Rico / San Juan network providers intros (cls to dc/dc to dc/dc to
business) connectivity option providers ( technical not sales, dark fibre,
waves, etc)
Interneational / out of island capacity providers update.
Peering round tables, local isps meeting with large content providers.
And much more.
If you are interested in contributing Puerto rico internet exchange
initiative, please contact me directly or via fb.
There is so much interest about this via linkedin/fb/ and nanog. Looking
forward to support any level from basic accounting to technical ixp setup
and other peering basics.
Best regards and thank you everyone for supporting in advance
Mehmet
pardon , correct date is February 5-7, 2018 (apologies for sending twice )
Looking forward to updating https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Internet_Exchange_of_Puerto_Rico
thank you very much to so many people who have reached out providing leads
, made introductions and followed up offering help.
I wanted to update the list with the progress we have made so far.
1) We've identified several datacenter facilities where networks are
commonly present and diverse from each other with some additional network
assets. We will soon be touring these facilities.
2) We've talked to backbone and transit providers and got incredible deals
for this market & caribbean
3) We've engaged few "core" Content networks and asked them to join our
initiative (Great interest here but we need more.)
4) Last but not least, we need some people on the island for bootstrapping
and ongoing support of the IX and the members (this is a challenge, I will
personally work on resolving by spending 2 weeks in August in Puerto Rico
both searching & interviewing candidates.
5) We were offered some hardware donations but they are fairly old, and we
are looking for modernish IX equipment that are easy to setup & manage. If
anyone has suggestions please do let me know, I am thinking about just
buying some stuff from Ebay
Anyway, I will be at NANOG Denver and if anyone is interested in speaking
in person please feel free to setup time to discuss this
https://calendly.com/akcin
PCH is always willing to donate new equipment to support any IXP. We’re generally giving out 100G-capable switches for IXPs now.
-Bill
It has been little over a year and we have been working on launching an internet exchange in puerto rico but of course hurricane and other things got in the way of achieving this.
We now have identified what we believe the right location (most of the isp’s have presence in this location) backbone/ip transit connectivity, local team to provide onsite support.
Having said that We have been engaged with several content delivery networks, OTTs but general feedback was that Puerto Rico was not on their radar for 2018 hence delayed launch. Now we are talking to same players about 2019 but general answer seemed like people were satisfied enough to serve Puerto Rico from Miami.
Perhaps we are talking to really big CDNs, OTTs and we should engage differently however the level of interest is very low and I really don’t want to “build and they will come” again
Bottom line is, if there was an IXP in Puerto Rico similar to ones in Florida, I am trying to understand who would actually deploy (just speak to your company only please) because most of my assumptions were proven wrong
I guess I want to ask two questions, given its location in caribbean, does Puerto Rico need an internet exchange point? Would you join it?(it will be a membership based IXP where members share cost)
Mehmet
Mehmet,
My opinion to you (and I have no network in the Carribbean or interest in it other than a purely academic and technical exercise) would be that you guys go ahead and start, even if you just initially split the cost of the switch and interfaces to peer among yourselves. Once you get a base established of a lot of routes available, it may give you better “clout” for getting some larger players to connect to your IX or at least help sponsor an extension over transport to a Miami reach?
Just thinking aloud.
James W. Breeden
Managing Partner
![logo_transparent_background]()
Arenal Group: Arenal Consulting Group | Acilis Telecom | Pines Media
PO Box 1063 | Smithville, TX 78957
Email: james@arenalgroup.co | office 512.360.0000 | cell 512.304.0745 | www.arenalgroup.co
It has been little over a year and we have been working on launching an internet exchange in puerto rico but of course hurricane and other things got in the way of achieving this.
We now have identified what we believe the right location (most of the isp’s have presence in this location) backbone/ip transit connectivity, local team to provide onsite support.
Having said that We have been engaged with several content delivery networks, OTTs but general feedback was that Puerto Rico was not on their radar for 2018 hence delayed launch. Now we are talking to same players about 2019 but general answer seemed like people were satisfied enough to serve Puerto Rico from Miami.
Perhaps we are talking to really big CDNs, OTTs and we should engage differently however the level of interest is very low and I really don’t want to “build and they will come” again
Bottom line is, if there was an IXP in Puerto Rico similar to ones in Florida, I am trying to understand who would actually deploy (just speak to your company only please) because most of my assumptions were proven wrong
I guess I want to ask two questions, given its location in caribbean, does Puerto Rico need an internet exchange point? Would you join it?(it will be a membership based IXP where members share cost)
Looking at it in my mind, the decision point is really about how much traffic can be served by being there. It took a long time to recover to pre-hurricane levels. I would hope in the longer term that it’s a growth story and makes that more compelling, actually having a destination to put equipment in and reach peers helps of course.
Having any anycast service, to me it looks like Puerto Rico has significant connectivity landing places other than Miami. Most likely due to America Movil MAC and PCCS or other landings in the US/BVI. We we see Puerto Rican networks reach us in Atlanta, DC area and even New York.
Mehmet,
In general an IX only makes sense when there are local resources to exchange. It doesn’t seem like PR has a lot of, if any, content providers of its own, so most consumer content is coming from offshore anyway. Given modern DWDM fiber, backhauling all that content shouldn’t be an issue. I recall that in mid-2015 PR landed the "most advanced undersea fiber-optic cable in the Caribbean and Central America”, uniting a total of seven countries and territories. The head end was at Telephonica’s data center. I remember in your Nanog talk ten years ago that you felt that peer-to-peer file sharing and VoIP were major bandwidth consumers, but I’ve never seen the actual statistics for that. But even if that’s the case, the small number of ISPs should be able to form and fund their own IX given a business need.
I’ve done work in the Dominican Republic, and they’re in a similar situation, with no real business interest in an IX.
You asked a pointed question: given its location, is an IX in PR necessary? I know you’re invested a ton of time and effort in making a PR exchange work, but I think you may already have the answer, given the low interest. That answer seems to be “no”.
Of course, if you can get some major content provider buy-n, that might make the business case more solid.
-mel
Our SF2 facility’s IXP has a Netflix OpenFiler; https://openconnect.netflix.com
That alone might be worth an XC/IXP.
Even where bandwidth is available, it can still be prohibitively expensive - conversely lowering costs could translate to lowered fees to customers.
-Ben.