MIT Has Answers

The Kahnawake Mohawk Nation of Quebec unveiled plans last week for establishing itself as a tax-free Internet gambling licensing jurisdiction. This week, Interactive Gaming News takes a closer look at the company providing Internet services and at the facilities available to licensees.

Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT), an Internet service provider (ISP) formed earlier this year by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK), is equipped to deliver an array of technical and business solutions to operators of any and all types of online gambling websites. The company is in the midst of a constructing a full-scale, campus-style technology park on Kahnawake land around 10 minutes from downtown Montreal.

They currently occupy around 9,000 square feet of office space and 4,000 square feet of server room, and they're equipped with four direct physical connections to the backbone of the Internet. An adjoining building with 20,000 square feet of office space is linked to the main building by fiber optics. Two redundant 200 kilowatt generators are on site to assure that power failures do not impede operations. By next year, an additional 100,000 feet building will be added to the campus.

A business financial service building , where MIT will provide Internet solutions to the likes of banks and securities businesses, will also later be added. The financial services will be highly regulated by a financial authority that's expected to be in place within the next six months.

MIT provides Internet services to all types of businesses, although the company expects at least 60 to 70 percent of its customers to be online gambling site operators. A staff of 30-plus employees will maintain the business and technical services and will offer 24-hour, seven-days-a-week technical support. They're currently beta testing their systems and expect Net betting sites to go live by mid October, pending authorization for the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

MIT will allot clients space in the server room and can provide equipment as well if necessary. It will also supply operators with as much bandwidth as they need. Operators can choose whether they want to set up shop on campus or have the MIT staff maintain their systems for them. A spokesperson from MIT told Interactive Gaming News that most of their clients are intent on establishing offices onsite. All operators must be licensed by the Gaming Commission.

For more information on Mohawk Internet Technologies and its services, visit http://www.mohawk.ca.