private interconnects with the major providers similar to what Sprint/MCI are doing to keep traffic off the NAP's?
On the other hand, maybe you could be the customer that establishes the distributed web server scenario I discussed earlier. If you have read through http://www.ix.digital.com you will not that not only are they running an exchange point but they are also running a web farm of sorts at the same location. Chances are good that this web-farm-at-the-XP concept will become the rule rather than the exception. Note that in Digital's model it would be possible to connect to larger ISP's without requiring traffic to flow through the XP itself.
The differences between digitals exchange and MAE-LA seem to be limited to these items: Digital is escorted MAE-LA is not (things are caged at MAELA) Digital has its generator installed MAE-LA will have its installed in Dec Digital has -48vdc ready MAE-LA has exausted its -48vdc capacity and is adding more Digital has its gigaswitch installed MAE-LA has not, since there is not yet a demand In other ways, they are functionally identical. Both have multicarrier access Both support public and private interconnections Both support commercial access Both havee colocation services Both have UPS,preaction fire, cooling, the whole environmental pkg Oops. forgot these: Digital has a large marketing budget MAE-LA does not Digital is 20-25% more expensive MAE-LA is based on cost recovery Note that MAE-LA, like MAE-West, is not an MFS only activity. They have thier own rates, the other players have theirs. http://www.isi.edu/div7/mla -- --bill