On Thu, 27 Apr 2006, Martin Hannigan wrote:
It is not unrealistic to charge them a free for your space. The landlord will charge them for conduit access to and throughout the building, they are going to use your power, your facilities, etc. Carriers don't put racks in collocation for free. I'd have to know a lot more about your building, their needs, etc., but you should take it from here. Most definitely you should be paid.
ILECs generally won't pay for space for the "mandatory" telecommunication connections in a building or to a tenent. That's stuff like connecting the base building POTS lines required for fire alarms, elevator phones, etc. Even collocation providers end up giving the ILEC some "free" plywood on the wall next to the MPOE and maybe a duplex electrical outlet. A large skyscaper may have more base building POTS lines, and the ILEC will require more space, but the amount of "free" space isn't that much. For anything above and beyond the mandatory base building POTS lines, its up to negotiations between you, the landlord, and the CLECs or ILEC. If the carrier is selling circuits to multiple tenents, not just you, you may have a stronger negotiating position. The landlord has even a stronger negotiating position. If you are a collocation operator with tenents buying multiple OC192 circuits, the LEC may even pay you a commission for the opportunity to sell to other tenents in the building. Small CLECs are usually willing to negotiate more. Large IXCs and ILECs are usually willing to negotiate less. A large collocation operator like Equinix may be able to get concessions that someone with a 10 rack data center can not get from the IXCs, CLECs or ILECs.