The discussions had as main subjects masification and cost cutting on high speed internet on the first "Broadband Policies Dialogue on Latin America and Europe". RedCLARA had a very active participation on the event, which was held on late March in Spain.

RedCLARA's strategy of creating a ground based high speed network with scientific purposes, was presented as a succesful example on how broadband can be a factor on countries development during the event, held in Barcelon on March 26th to 28th.

RedCLARA's  representative, and Red Avanzada de Investigación, Ciencia y Educación Salvadoreña (RAICES), Rafael Ibarra, talked to different authorities, international officials, private entrepeneurs and different experts about RedCLARA's model to connect Latin American countris through ground based networks.

"Ideally, networks should be Dark Fibers (IRU, Lambda) to handle the bandwidth increases. Being ground based, the national networks (that conform RedCLARA) can use them to build up their own networks" Ibarra explained.

Ibarra described how interconnection developed by RedCLARA in Latin America includes research equipment as such as telescopes and supercomputers, as well as clean and high speed access towards and from universities. "That should be seen as an exemplary way on how interconnect and create high speed communication channels among the different countries from the continent and other regions" Ibarra pointed out.

"RedCLARA participation in the event was very relevant. We represent connectivity's use among our countries with a specific purpose: develop scientific research in a colaborative way amidst alike peopple and institution from Latin America, Europe, United States and other regions" Ibarra added.

Space of dialog

According to Ibarra, dialogue exercises among the authorities of the different Latin American countries allow to build up mutual understanding, as well as to get to know others positions and progress on multilateral, public or private entities, such as International Telecomunications Union (UIT), Regulatel, RedCLARA and EuroIX.

From there, the event's importance on discussing policies to take high speed Internet to the masses and regionally integrate using infrastructure.

The Broad Band Policies Dialogue on Latin America and Europe was organised by CEPAL, @LIS2 and Centro de Estudios y Documentación Internacionales de Barcelona (CIDOB), and was supported by Comision del Mercado de Telecomunicaciones.