ITU and National Administrations Role:
The State of Qatar would like to commend the ITU efforts in focusing on IXPs and its important role for the internet services development in the developing world. The ITU should continue its supporting role for national administrations in planning and establishing national IXPs.
The Telecom Regulatory and ICT Government organization has an increasing role in facilitating the establishment of an IXP, the telecom regulator can incentivize the telecom operators to be engaged in the efforts of establishing and managing a national IXP.
The ITU should recommend the mandatory implementation in all member states, although the number of established IXPs in the developing and developed countries has rapidly increased in the last few years but still a political push from ITU will expedite the deployment of IXPs in the developing countries especially in Africa and parts of Asia.
ITU should cooperate with the global technical community, for example the Internet Society, its supporting the deployment of IXPs in the developing countries (http://www.ixptoolkit.org/).
The State of Qatar Approach for Deploying an IXP:
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and The communications Regulatory Authority have teamed up to work together towards deploying an IXP in Qatar hopefully soon, we will play a facilitator role in initiating the discussion between the internet stakeholders.
We believe that the multi-stakeholders approach is the best model to use in deploying an IXP; It will ensure the engagement and the support of all the stakeholders involved. The ministry “MICT” and the regulator “CRA” will support the stakeholders involved in formulating the IXP governance and business model for the IXP.
We will be able to share our experience and its outcomes more in depth in the near future.
| 