connectivity needs over the last decade utilizing low-bandwidth leased circuits and, eventually, satellite service providers. However, neither of these modes proved to be sustainable methods that could satisfy the UWI’s growing connectivity needs.
Over the last decade and more notably within the last five years there has been a gradual influx of other telecom providers that reduced connectivity costs considerably. Trinidad and Tobago, the UWI’s largest campus, was one of the last countries in the region, however, to break the telecom monopoly. As a result, Trinidad and Tobago trailed the region by having higher telecom costs for a longer period. It also caused a marked disparity in telecom costs across the region.
In 2009, the St. Augustine Campus of the university took a bold step and entered into a new venture through partnerships LAUREN (Latin America University Research and Education Network), CIARA (Centre for Internet Augmented Research and Assessment), AMPATH, and Florida International University. These partnerships allowed the university to obtain direct connectivity from Trinidad to Miami (Network Access Point of the Americas) and then peer with research and education networks in North America and the rest of the world.
A high-speed link allowed the St. Augustine campus to enter a realm that did not exist previously in the English speaking Caribbean. After leaders in the Information Technology Unit made the link operational, UWI researchers could sit at their desks and laboratories and experience peer-to-peer connectivity with other researchers in North America similar to their counterparts in some North American universities.
This new link also provided the campus with Commodity Internet at a much lower cost than what was available on the island at that time.
The success of this initiative was supported by the fact that for persons to use this new connectivity link, no new software or machine was needed. The researcher could now initiate standard networking procedures to connect with researchers, databases, persons or even supercomputing facilities and machines at other Institutions across the world. For the end user, the only notable difference was enhanced performance which some would have erroneously attributed to increased Internet bandwidth.
For staff, students and researchers on the campus, this now created the possibility of a new teaching, learning and research paradigm. But with increased connectivity speeds, the challenges of uptake now became more apparent. Over the last few decades, the UWI’s researchers had gotten accustomed to either working in local campus groups or by themselves in their academic pursuits. This new level of connectivity and communication was underutilized for quite some time. The approach, then, was to inform deans, department heads and researchers in an aggressive campaign (both formally and informally) about the new network functionality.
The successes at St. Augustine naturally led to an exploration of expanding the level of connectivity at the other campuses. Unfortunately, the cost-benefit analysis that made this venture so beneficial for the St. Augustine Campus did not have the same level of attractiveness at the other campuses.
30
The University of the West Indies links 47,000 students across 16 campuses throughout the English-speaking Caribbean.