Equinix has made it official that its Ethernet Carrier Exchange is open for business, and it came out fighting with 24 service providers already signed on as customers.
While service providers have conducted External Network to Network Interconnection (E-NNI) arrangements with other providers to expand their Ethernet reach, the process has been lengthy and cumbersome. The advent of a neutral carrier Ethernet exchange hopes to eliminate that complexity by allowing service providers to connect to multiple carriers at one common point.
Last October, Equinix announced that it was in the process of developing the details of its Ethernet Carrier Exchange, which included seven participating carriers. The goal of what could be called a beta trial was what Craig Waldrop, senior product manager for Equinix said in a LightReading article was an information gathering session to better understand how carriers would interact with one another.
"When we have it in a live mode, you'll see more interaction than you would think," due to the "amount of information we're going to be supplying to each one of them about their services," Waldrop said.
Since then Equinix has expanded that customer list with the signing of its 24th customer last week. Some of the participating service providers in Equinix's Ethernet Carrier Exchange include the likes of AboveNet, RCN Metro Optical Networks, KPN International, Level 3 Communications, and Reliance Globalcom.
Right now, the exchange service is available in five of the 19 markets where it has Internet exchanges. By the end of the year, Equinix will add the service to its additional 14 markets.
While Equinix's 24 service provider milestone shows the interest in neutral carrier Ethernet exchanges, rival CENX has been able to score Verizon Business as a customer.
For more:
- see the release here
- LightReading has this article
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