In addition to the Acts identified above, the regulatory framework is quite robust and includes: Telecommunications (Universal Service Fund) Regulations 2008 Telecommunications (Universal Service Fund Contribution) Order 2008 Telecommunications (Licensing Classification) Regulations 2002 Telecommunications (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2007 Telecommunications (Licensing Classification) (Amendment) Notice, 2002 Telecommunications (Fees Regulations) 2007 Telecommunications (Fees Amendment) 2008 Telecommunications (Licensing and Authorisation) Regulations 2007 Telecommunications (Private Network Licensing) Regulations 2002 Telecommunications (Tariff) Regulations 2004 Telecommunications (Interconnection) Regulations 2008 Telecommunications (Spectrum Management) Regulations 2007 Telecommunications (Numbering) Regulations 2008 Telecommunications (Confidentiality in Networks & Services) Regulations 2002 Telecommunications (Terminal Equipment & Public Network) Regulations 2002 Regulations have also been developed for the Money Services Act. The East Caribbean Central Bank is establishing an Automated Clearing House (ACH). In a modern, competitive, post colonial Caribbean era, the nature of SVG’s continued existence depend heavily on what the country can produce and market on the international market, but the cost of interconnecting and doing business is very expensive. It is imperative that new and existing technologies be adapted in order to bring about solutions; and in this particular case, the establishment of a National Internet Exchange Point (IXP). The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly rather than through one or more 3rd party networks. The advantages of the direct interconnection are numerous, but the primary reasons are cost, latency, and bandwidth. Traffic passing through an exchange is typically not billed by any party. A direct interconnection (often located in the same country or region) avoids the need for data to travel to other countries outside the region to get from one network to another, thus reducing latency and the possibility of attack from cybercrime. The third advantage, speed, is most noticeable in areas that have poorly developed long-distance connections and this is absolutely critical for web services, telemedicine and video conferencing, etc. ISPs in the Caribbean region normally pay between 10 or 100 times more for data transport than ISPs in North America, Europe or Japan. Therefore, Caribbean ISPs typically have slower, more limited connections to the rest of the internet. However, a connection to a local IXP may allow them to transfer data without limit, and without cost, vastly improving the bandwidth between customers of the adjacent ISPs. However traffic to an ISP's upstream provider is; and in SVG’s particular case all local ISPs buy bandwidth from a transit provider in the United States. At present an email from the Prime Minister to another member of government sitting across the hall must travel the route SVG, Barbados, Antigua, Miami and back before it reaches him. The case of moving the relevant IXP from Miami to St Kitts, a reduction from 6,000 miles (round trip) to perhaps one mile, the decrease in distance is so dramatic that cost can be minimized to near zero, while speeds can be increased from some multiple of STM-1 to 1 GBPS or 10 GBPS. A local IXP would result in a vast increase in the network capacity (bandwidth) available for sale to domestic customers, without demanding significant corresponding capital or operational investment. This would make more bandwidth available for important activities such as video St. Vincent & the Grenadines National ICT Strategy and Action Plan P a g e | 28 streaming and telemedicine and increase the national penetration of Broadband Internet. An IXP will also add more value to projects like CKLN, EGRIP and the Intranet Backbone. It will also make available a logical place to locate, and hence attract, other Internet infrastructure resources, such as top-level name servers, time servers, performance measurement tools, and research projects. It is clear that SVG is at a disadvantage in the absence of a neighbouring IXP, and that this shortcoming needs to be addressed urgently.