San Diego Metropolitan - The Connection

Those tired of physical border crossing delays now can create a virtual crossing, following in the footsteps of Cox Communications and Cablemas.

For an example of how this e-crossing works, assume a scenario where a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego is taking courses on international accounting. One morning a prominent accountant in Tijuana is lecturing on a very specific NAFTA-related topic. This is a must-attend because the lecturer is a recognized expert on taxation for each of the three partner countries. But the student also has another class at 11:30 a.m. at the UCSD campus. How can she be in Tijuana for the one-hour lecture and be back on campus in time?

It’s easy: she would stay at the UCSD campus using the Cox-Cablemas border crossing to attend the lecture, ask questions, take notes and then go on to her next class.

What Cox, a U.S. cable and communications giant, and Cablemas, Mexico’s second-largest cable company, have done is found a way to bring their talent and customers together by building the first-ever fiber optic connection between the United States and Mexico.

This virtual border crossing connection, carrying voice, video and data, is now the backbone that can be used by universities, businesses, manufacturers, hospitals, organizations, and governments on both sides of the border to communicate in real time, with high quality, security and scale of economy.

The idea for this virtual border crossing was born about nine years ago when both countries saw the continued growth of the maquiladora industry, the creation of NAFTA and the general growing economic integration between Tijuana and San Diego. These things, coupled with the emergence of fiber-optic technology making it possible to transport high-quality signals over long distances, set Cox and Cablemas on the road to realize their vision.

The quest resulted in a historic connection in April 2000 when Cox activated a video link of the San Diego Padres game to Cablemas cable customers. Thus was born Channel 4 as the first international affiliate of a Mexican cable company. Everything seen on Channel 4 in San Diego is available to rebroadcast in Tijuana, Tecate and Ensenada.

Channel 4, now piped to Cablemas’ present 50,000 Tijuana subscribers, plus another 50,000 in Tecate and Ensenada, is expected to add another 50,000 subscribers this year.

What Cox and Cablemas have done is create one huge pipeline across the border, which can transport immense quantities of data. What data is transmitted is an open door of possibilities and visions: distance learning, research exchanges between universities, museums, and scientific institutions; high speed Internet access; faster communication for private industry/maquiladoras; connectivity of hospitals and clinics via telemedicine, MRI/CT scan/X-ray diagnosis; data links between city, state and local federal government and agencies; and high-quality image and programming to television stations. And these are just a few of the possibilities.

Looking beyond those possibilities, Cox and Cablemas are able to provide the link for Internet 2, the linking of universities with one another. Already via fiber-optic cable, Cox provides connectivity from UCSD’s Supercomputer Center to Cablemas in Tijuana. The connection is then uplinked from Tijuana to Mexico City by the Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet, a consortium of Mexican universities. The participating universities are using it to offer their local communities access to a vast world of research and learning. Cablemas provides this as a public service at no cost to the consortium.

Making history with the first virtual border crossing was a long process, which included working with more than a dozen U.S. and Mexican government agencies to obtain the necessary permits. Now that the vision is operational, understood and successful, a second cross-border connection is in the design stages. This crossing will provide additional capacity along with a redundant route for increased reliability.

Can the Cox-Cablemas virtual border crossing help ease the snail pace border crossings? It will require political cooperation, but the connectivity infrastructure is there and that by itself could be used to help law enforcement agencies quickly transmit important data.

Last month President Bush officially made border security, along with speedier crossings, a top priority. Now we will see if federal officials can be as entrepreneurial and innovative as Cox Communications and Cablemas.

Patrick Osio Jr. can be reached through San Diego Metropolitan or by e-mail at posiojr@aol.com.