Internet peering in Mexico- You got a long way to go baby

Here it is, I am about to go off on another mindless rant. This time about Internet peering. This is not about VoIP peering, however international Internet peering. Specific case in point, Mexico.

Recently I started evaluating ISPs in Mexico. I have looked at many aspects of Business and residential ISPs, however with a close eye on latency and peering.

What I have discovered should be considered an embarrassment for ANY country. In the case of Mexico There is very little (if any at all) internet peering in Mexico. What this means is that when Juan who uses Telecable (which appears to really uses Bestel) in Guadalajara pings Maria who uses Telmex infinitum, ALL traffic travels ALL THE WAY TO THE USA AND BACK AGAIN! This is a completely ridiculous situation.

Firstly, I do not believe Telmex, nor Bestel are internet Backbone providers in the USA. This means that each of them pays to get their traffic into the USA or from the USA.

Secondly, this represent money leaving Mexico to terminate traffic back to Mexico! Not only that but in the aforementioned case, both Bestel and Telmex are paying for US backbone access for traffic originating and terminating in Mexico!

Thirdly, BOTH of these providers might save a bundle on USA backbone access if they only peered with one to another.

Fourthly, VoIP is beginning to become far more common in Mexico with Major carriers jumping on the bandwagon. However, it is a whole different game in Mexico because of the distance involved to the backbone of the internet and (lack of Mexico) peering. With latency, comes a higher probability of jitter. These issues result in lower call quality for users, making VoIP less attractive, unless of course your broadband provider is your VoIP provider. In some cases, VoIP users may be better off connecting to USA based servers than Mexico based servers if their Mexico based VoIP provider and broadband Provider are not the same company.

I think it is time that countries like Mexico begin improving their own infrastructure in order to improve service to their customers. At the same time they may also keep more money in Mexico instead of paying it in the USA.

COFETEL has an interest in supporting Mexico based VoIP, and they have the power to regulate Internet in Mexico. So let me ask, can they not see the writing on the wall?

Pings From Zapopan
Ping from Telecable Zapopan (Suburb of Guadalajara) to Telmex DSL Guadalajara: Average = 106ms
Ping from Telecable Zapopan to Telmex DSL Zapopan, literally the next door neighbor!: Average = 96ms

Compare those above with a ping from Telecable Zapopan to Dallas TX US Average = 53ms


Next, we compare the pings from Dallas TX to two of the same IPs that we used before
From Dallas TX to Telecable Zapopan: Average = 49ms
From Dallas TX to Telmex Infinitum Guadalajara: Average = 68ms

As you can see from the examples above, the Internet has a long way to go in Mexico. Mexico should immediately instigate better peering, so that neighbors' traffic between them is not routing out of the country first! I suspect this will have to be done by force with a Mandate from COFETEL.

As always, I welcome any reader comments.