Guardian Media reports St. Kitts and Nevis gets internet root server

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Information Technology, Hon. Glen Phillip (Photo by Erasmus Williams)

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JULY 23RD 2012 (CUOPM) – Internet users and businesses in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis received a major boost with news that the country now has its own Internet DNS Root Server.

The Domain Name System, or DNS, is the phonebook of the Internet.

According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Guardian Media, St. Kitts and Nevis is now one of only a handful of countries in the Caribbean to have a local copy of the important service.

Internet root servers contain a database of the top level domain names, like .com .org .net and .info. The equipment required for service was donated by US-research firm, Packet Clearing House (PCH) and officially handed over to the government’s Department of Technology.

The Guardian Media reports that St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister with responsibility for Information and Communications Technology, the Hon. Glenn Phillip and PCH’s Caribbean Outreach Manager, Mr. Bevil Wooding were responsible for bringing the service to the Federation.

Director of Technology in St. Kitts and Nevis Mr. Christopher Herbert said: “This is a very significant milestone for the development of Internet in the Federation. This development is part of Government’s wider plan to transform St. Kitts and Nevis into a knowledge based economy.”

He added: “The establishment of a local root server and the planned activation of our very own Internet exchange point are central to our plans for developing the local technology sector.”

Mr. Wooding explained that having a root server in-country brings several benefits for local users.

“A domestic Internet root server ensures that DNS queries in the country are resolved much faster for local Internet users.”

Mr. Wooding added: “This also means local domain name lookups can continue even if the international connectivity is disrupted. It also strengthens the overall security and stability of the Internet.”

The PCH service provides St. Kitts and Nevis with a copy of L-root; nameservers for over 100 country code top level domain names (ccTLDs) like .kn, .ag, .tt and .jm; and Anycast DNS service.

Currently, there over 240 root server copies around the world, grouped in 13 clusters, operated by various organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Verisign and the US Army. Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are some of the most underserved regions in terms of distribution of root server copies.

Packet Clearing House, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union and ICANN are actively working together to change this.

According to Wooding, the organisations have plans to continue installing root servers throughout the Caribbean over the next several months.