N-1-3-011.10.1, "A Caribbean Basin Survey", by Daniel Pimienta*, (pimienta!daniel@redid.org.do) The Caribbean Basin has not been left apart of the ongoing network growth within the region. If the user population, except for Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, is still low, infrastructures are in place which expect further developments in the coming months. Costa Rica has been a BITNET key location for several years. It hosts the central UUCP node of a pilot project named HURACAN, which offers accesses to various researchers belonging to different Central American countries via their interconnected national X.25 networks. This project is a result of a cooperative effort started by Canadian Agencies and completed by the UNDP. The BITNET contact is: Guy de Teramond (gdeter@ucrvm2.bitnet). The HURACAN technical contact is: Ted Hope (hope@huracan.cr) and the HURACAN management contact is: Edgardo Richards (richards@huracan.cr). As a result of years of investments and technical follow-up, Puerto Rico is presenting a state-of-the-art network linking all the campuses together with the Internet by high speed lines. It allows students to operate Telnet functions in a fraction of seconds in several terminal areas spread over the country. CRACIN (Corporation for the National Academic Scientific and Research Network) can now concentrate on user support and make available some time to help its neighbor. Puerto Rico is heading a sub-regional project, named CUNET (Caribbean Universities Network), which has put seeds virtually in all English speaking islands of the Caribbean. CUNET has a star organized design where UUCP nodes route, by switched connection, into the Puerto Rico network which gates the traffic toward the Internet. The user number is reported to have a steady growth in various countries (for instance Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica). The project is sponsored by OAS which pays for the expert travelling and the dial-up connections to Puerto Rico. The CRACIN and CUNET contact is: Roberto Loran (R_Loran@racin.clu.net). Cuba is experimenting a spectacular growth of the network. The island has a traditional strong science and technology sector and is in a good position to present user applications and scientific data bases. INFO93, a congress planned for May 1993 in La Habana, will focus on networking. The Cuba contact is: Jesus Martinez (jemar@ceniai.cu). Surprisingly, the French West Indies have stayed aside from the area move. There is a RIO (Orstom network) node, but a 1988 plan to make the University (UAG) join EARN-France has not yet been implemented. However, moves are underway to make them an active player in network related training. The Dominican Republic's REDID was born last May (see hereafter article, "REDID: Red Dominicana de Intercambio para el Desarrollo"). Also, one of the 25 Dominican universities (PUCMM) is maintaining a PC station connected to the CUNET project and has been planning a BITNET node for some time. Haiti was targeted to be part of the REDID creation process. The political turmoil in this country has jeopardized the process. Other alternatives, such as training a group of researchers outside the country, are currently under study. University of Nicaragua is maintaining a UUCP node. The contact is: Teresa Ortega, teresa@uni.ni RAW ESTIMATION OF USER FIGURES: SERVED POTENTIAL Costa Rica: 900 2500 Cuba: 800 9500 Cunet: 100 2000 Huracan: 400 4500 Dominican Republic: 50 1000 Nicaragua: 100 1000 Puerto Rico: 2400 3000 ________________________________________ TOTAL 4750 23500 *Asesor Cientifico Union Latina, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana