I was sent the recent thread about LayerOne and the opening of the St. Louis NAP. I read the rules for posting and feel my explanation of our company and the StLouisNAP, while somewhat self serving, is appropriate given the questions and answers posted to the list. My name is Alexander Muse and I am the CEO of LayerOne and I thought I could answer most, if not all, of your questions. LayerOne provides two basic services, the first is network interconnection/access between major carriers. Today LayerOne interconnects the networks of over 60 carriers including Verizon, Bell South, Southwestern Bell, Cable & Wireless, Global Crossing, Worldcom, Qwest, and Williams. Our second basic service is the license of colocation space. We build, on average, 10,000 square feet of data center space to house the critical network elements of the carriers who utilize our interconnection services. We provide basic colocation services to Yahoo, Earthlink, Cox, Level (3), Cogent, Telseon, Yipes, and Genuity. Last year, as part of our nationwide expansion, we purchased a colocation facility that was home to the MiamiNAP. The MiamiNAP was built by former MFS DataNet employees and is home to over 30 network providers. In fact, StarTAP's StarLight Network utilizes the facility as a stitch point. The MiamiNAP was founded on the simple notion that a network access point did not need a centralized switch or router. When we purchased the site the founders suggested that this premise was supported by the fact that traditional network access points operated by MFS, PAIX, Ameritech, and PacBell have seen a sharp decline in the percentage of total Internet traffic that traverses their equipment at a time when Internet traffic has increased over a hundred times. They claimed that private, bilateral peering was the buzzword and that they had perfected the process. Whether they were right or wrong did not really matter to us as we simply wanted the facility. We built our business within the carrier class facility that housed the MiamiNAP and really left the NAP operation alone. Earlier this year one of the NAPs founders indicated that he wanted to expand the NAP idea into each of LayerOne's exchange facilities. He also concluded that a centralized fabric was an added benefit to the NAP and while not replacing private bilateral connections, would offer an alternative solution to folks like Yahoo! who were strongly suggesting that we offer a centralized fabric. This was the basis for the creation of the StLouisNAP. The StLouisNAP is housed within our exchange facility in St. Louis and will be publicly announced in January. The NAP will focus on its primary solution - bilateral peering, while offering a $2.0MM centralized peering fabric with a bias for 10/100/1000 Ethernet interfaces as an alternative for those who cannot afford or do not desire to create private solutions within the NAP. If you have any more questions please email me or give me a call. Regards, Alexander Muse CEO LayerOne Holdings, Inc. 214-752-6204 amuse@layerone.com