Whoa, your idea is not entirely new, just now coming into vogue.. We put up a prototype in '95, it cut into production a few months later. http://www.indyx.net/ This is a Regional Exchange with ATM access to the national exchanges. (Including switches at FDDI exchanges) We sell longhaul paths, IP transit in Indy, and local exchange services. It seems fairly scalable.... Richard Jonathan Arneault wrote:
On Tuesday, May 19, 1998 5:03 PM black@bleep.ishiboo.com wrote :
Subject: a little thought on exchanging traffic Anyone thought about eliminating large physical exchange points and replacing them with a more distributed architecture?
Actually, this is a good idea, if the co-location or adequate locations to place access equipment and transit routers can be found in the area, or build-out for each provider is an option.
If I could charge for the cross-metro transit at say, $1000/month for a dedicated T3, do you think that the concept of a carrier hotel would go away? If so, which cities should be first (like toasting MAE-EAST?)?
On a similiar note, what if a company were to create a "virtual exchange point", where backbone providers could order service anywhere in the country and get transit to their peers elsewhere for a flat rate. IE, if I run a 4xOC-12c ATM network nationwide, and let transit occur between peers over it rather than at a co-lo facility. I can imagine charging around 5K a month for a DS3 circuit with PVC's to around 5 peers.
Opinions anyone? (VC anyone?)
Jonathan Arneault Director of Business Development CMA / INet Solutions Division 518.783.9003 x 253