The Chamber for Telcos (Casetel), that gathers 47 authorized firms in the sector, is fostering the creation of a local access point in Venezuela. The project NAP Venezuela emerged two years ago, fostered by Casetel, the National Telecom Commission (Conatel) and the Venezuelan Chamber of E-commerce. The initiative was filed before the Research and Development Fund for Telecoms, that passed funding in November 2001. However, the agreement was modified as from debates started with Conatel, and resource allocation remained pending.
The agreement comprises the voluntary involvement of all the ISPs authorized by Conatel, whether they are members of Casetel, or not, under equal treatment, rights and obligations. The companies to enter the NAP will start bearing costs after a year of operations, and each will have the obligation to deploy the most convenient connection on its own, and at their own risk. Besides, the project may set a Management Committee made up of members, though Casetel may be in charge of the operation of the NAP.
The design of the NAP may count on a simple but redundant architecture, with a switched platform, and a routing one. Likewise, it will use standard interfaces -Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet- to serve the requirements of the different ISPs, and may have modular growth capacity. The protocol to be applied may be the BGPv4 on the remote management platform.
In a first phase, to last for three months, deployment includes a basic interconnection point, and there will be parallel research, to determine possible service expansion. For 12 months, in the second phase, the NAP will enable further availability of services, and integral app development.
According to Casetel, supply and deployment of gear is to be decided through a tender conducted among expert firms. Besides, the selection of the firms to be in charge of operation and maintenance is also pending. How feasible next project phases will be, and how to keep relations with other NAPs in Latin America to assess possible operative rules have not been defined, either.
Casetel¿s project has not been agreed upon with the rest of the chambers in the sector. Hernando Soto Montiel, Director of the Venezuelan Chamber of Information Technology (Cavedatos), told Convergencialatina the entity supports the technical and operative aspects Casetel filed, but rejects the concept of the initiative. According to Soto Montiel, Casetel¿s project implies deepening the involvement of Cantv and Telcel-Net, companies under the chamber. Likewise, he warned on the difficulties of the sector to debate issues such as the development of a NAP, as chambers in different sectors do not act in block.
In 2002, the Venezuelan Internet market registered a total of 337,012 subscribers, 269,610 of which correspond to dial-up connections, while 67,402 subscribers count on dedicated accesses. Estimates for users reached 1.27 million, 5.06% penetration, taking into account a population of 25.2 million inhabitants. Currently, there are 17 authorized ISPs, and 164 network access public centers. Internet businesses in Venezuela are led by Cantv, that concentrates 55% of users, and Telcel-Net, with 35% of the internauts. The remaining 10% is split among the 15 ISPs in the segment.
According to Casetel surveys, some 70% of the traffic in Internet has international origin, given the low levels of local content production. Traffic structures at peak hours go as follows: 50% for browsing and e-mail, 30% for VoIP, and 20% for multimedia apps. Connection times for users is around 30 hours a month. Broadband requirements for each service is 20 Kbps for browsing and mail, 64 Kbps for VoIP, and 384 Kbps for multimedia. Total traffic amounts to 1.325 million Kbps, split in 125,000 Kbps for browsing and mail, 240,000 Kbps for VoIP, and 960,000 Kbps for multimedia.