Folks, Wishing to set up an alternative peering point in our fair city, we have run into a problem with the data center administration. The data center prohibits direct cabling between clients cabinets, even if the clients agree. Our peering point is not in the data center, but is in the same building, and will necessitate data center clients separately running fibre to our room, and paying not only for installation but also monthly fees proportional to bandwidth carried. We are in South Africa, the monthly fees are related to wireline costs, even though the monopoly wireline provider, Telkom, is not involved. Without this rule, we would run one fibre between the datacenter and the peering point, and have peers in the datacenter hop on that fibre. While acknowledging that a data center may make any rules it likes, I am asking nanog how common this practice is. If people mail me offlist, I would be willing to summarise if there is enough interest. Cheers, Andy!