BTC CEO Leon Williams called on the government to lead the way toward The Bahamas becoming the hub for regional information and communications technology (ICT) in his recent address to ICT professionals at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner’s 2nd Annual National Training Symposium in Nassau.

The symposium theme, “The 7th Data Protection Principle: Personal Data Security Offline and Online,” is one of the eight data protection principals that guide the industry.

Mr. Williams was one of seven speakers and an honoree of the Data Protection Commissioner for achieving forty-six stellar years of service in the telecommunications industry.

Others honoured were Mr. Felix N. Stubbs past President-Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, Ms. June Collie Director of Department of IT, Mr. Raymond Wells, Deputy Director of IT NIB, Detective Sargent Dale Strachan, Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Mr. Williams spoke to, “Does The Bahamas have the necessary IT infrastructure to become a premier data relocation jurisdiction?”

CEO Williams answered, “not yet” on his subject matter, but he envisions a day when investments will be made to build the country’s ICT sector to full capacity.

He said that The Bahamas must “dare to dream” to reach its full potential as an ICT and data hub in the region.

“I dreamt last night of something called digiBahamas,” said Mr. Williams.

“In the dream, The 21st Century information age forces leaders to re-think the present mode and its ability to sustain the economy without exploiting the digital dividend in the industry of ICT.

My vision is that the government of The Bahamas would diversify the economy, as it did with tourism and financial services. It would implant ICT as the third economic pillar by making Bahamas the hub for regional ICT.”

Mr. Williams believes that the foundation for this vision already exists if resources and opportunities are utilized correctly.

“We must use our proximity to the US mainland to our advantage,” the CEO urged.

“We have at our disposal the existing 4 fiber optic submarine cables between The Bahamas and the US: the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS) network connecting us to 14 caribbean countries, and our Bahamas Domestic Submarine Network International (BDSNi) connecting 14 Bahamian Islands and Haiti.”

Mr. Williams suggested a multi-pronged approach to achive his vision.

“We should establish ourselves as an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), establish data centers and create incentives to attract manufacturers, revise our ICT regulations and laws, and capitalize on our skilled labour force.

There is no shortage of Bahamian engineers but we must find ways to counteract brain drain and attract them to come home.”

An IXP is infrastructure where internet service providers (ISPs) exchange internet traffic between their servers.

Warning that the country may be falling behind, the CEO explained.

“Many countries in the Caribbean have already created local IXPs, we are falling behind. The IXP, like our regulating body URCA, should be created by the providers. Having this structure will save money for the ISPs and the consumer, as the bandwith to send data to the US and back would no longer be required.

Further more it is more secure, so the data from our country stays in country. The major benefit is national security.”

Mr. Williams related that in a meeting with Cable Bahamas Chairman, Anthony Butler the previous week they enjoyed a meeting of minds and objectives with regard to national interests and he surmised seeing more cooperative actions in coming years.

“Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Cisco have anywhere from $45 billion to $137 billion, if we could attract companies of this magnitude to build manufacturing hubs here, we could do away with tax structures like VAT and address the country’s debt.”

Speaking further on data security, Mr. Williams reiterated the need for a sovereign, local IXP. He explained that currently Bahamian data is at the mercy of foreign entities.

“Recently, we talk a lot about the NSA, the National Security Agency, but all of our data passes through Miami currently.

Since 2011 there has been something called the Patriot Act, where no ICT company can have an encryption that the NSA cannot access.

With a local IXP, we limit data access to Bahamian eyes.”

He also stressed personal responsibility in data security and told users to beware overshare in the digital age, warning that data mining by international companies and governments could endanger personal information.

“Everytime you use an App. to count your steps, for example, you tell Google, or whomever, where you are. You must ask, who else are you telling by extension? We must stop putting so much blame on law enforcement, because no matter what they do, they can’t protect your data better than you.”

CEO Williams was honored for his stellar 46 years of service in the telecommunications industry. Mrs. Sharmie Farrington Austin, The Data Protection Commissioner referred to Mr. Williams as one of the country’s finest, and a trailblazer in the industry. Mr. Mark Barrett, RBPF Cyber Crimes Unit and Mrs. Sharmie Farrington Austin, Data Protection Commissioner present his award. BTC CEO Leon Williams was a speaker at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner’s 2nd Annual National Training Symposium Symposium, where he addressed the topic “Does The Bahamas have the necessary IT Infrastructure to become a premier Data Relocation Jurisdiction?”