Meet Me in Chicago
August 1, 2003
Part of a series of articles published in FATPIPE magazine from 2003-2005 examining carrier interconnection options in major North American cities. This article was published in the August 2003 issue. To download the complete series as one consolidated PDF (2.7 MB), click here.
With lots of good interconnect options, Chicago is my kind of town. Yet whenever the Chicago market comes up in interconnect conversations, or a network operator wants to know where to go to get connected, two names typically get dropped: the EP Connect Lakeside Technology Center and Printers' Square at 600 South Federal Street.
Even though there are a few other carrier-style properties in the city, the general perception is that these buildings are where most networks in the area are accessible. Since the purpose of this series is to validate general perception, let's dig deeper and see where the connections actually happen within the sites.
Printers' Square -- RACO
Without exception, Printers' Square has one of the largest telecom tenant bases in Chicago's central business district (CBD) and offers superior connectivity to the tenants of other CBD telecom facilities. The property's nearly 30 telecommunications tenants include long haul and local fiber providers; competitive local exchange carriers; and long distance, data, voice, wireless, collocation and cable companies. The building is owned by Waterton Printers' Square LLC and managed by WPS Management LLC.
Printers' Square consists of five original buildings and six annexes situated on a 1.72-acre site that occupies one-half of two city blocks. All buildings are joined by one- to three-story annexes, creating a common hallway running through the first floor. This is a big building, so where does one go to get easy access to the carriers within it?
In 2002, RACO Chicago began operations within Printers' Square. RACO Chicago facilities incorporate more than 5,000 square feet of fully operational carrier neutral colocation and network interconnection space. RACO is one of the most experienced operators of this type of facility in North America. Its success in Chicago is due to the premier 600 S. Federal Street location, carrier neutrality, on-site technical staff 24/7/365 and quick circuit delivery times.
The Lakeside Technology Center -- EP Connect
The Lakeside Technology Center is the largest dedicated telco hotel in the Chicago market. EP Connect is the owner of the building and also the operator of the meet me room (MMR). In addition to being a central point of interconnection for the network operators in the building, EP Connect sees the MMR as having an important role in preserving the structural integrity of the building by preventing direct conduit builds between tenants, thereby preventing massive amounts of random core locations and unstructured conduit routed through the halls and floors. By being a defined central point, the MMR saves the tenants the capital expense of having to build multiple conduits.
The meet me room has no competitors in the building. Colocation is available in the MMR but not marketed as a product. Colocation prices are set to recoup construction and operating costs of the MMR. The main purpose of the colocation is to provide an equipment space to facilitate transporting the cross connected signal back to the tenants lease space. It is a very large building and some signals cannot survive the distance without amplification or transformation.
A secondary purpose of the available colocation is to provide a place to jumpstart new tenants of the building. It can take many months for a new tenant to build out a lease space. The tenant can utilize the MMR colocation for a temporary equipment location to immediately establish its services in the building, thus removing the need to spend additional capital on expediting construction.
The contact at EP Connect is Richard Lloyd, project manager, (713) 962-7015 or [email protected].
For RACO information contact Peter Burns, sales and marketing manager, (716) 852-7950 ext. 233 or [email protected].
Carrier Lists
RACO
- Ameritech (SBC)
- AT&T Local
- WorldCom
- Dominion Telecom
- Sprint Canada /CNCS
- Group Telecom
- Shaw Big Pipe
- WilTel (Williams)
EP Connect
- AT&T
- 360networks
- AboveNet (MFN)
- Ameritech (SBC)
- Dominion Telecom
- Fidelity
- Level 3 Communications
- Looking Glass Networks
- OnFiber Communications
- Qwest Communications
- T Systems
- Vartec Telecom
- Verio
- WitTel (Williams)
- WorldCom
- XO Communications
Ethernet Service Providers
- Is the Ethernet service in use in this metro area today?
- Is the Ethernet service native Layer 2?
- Is the Ethernet service Layer 2 over public Layer 3 IP?
- Is the Ethernet service a flat rate price and zero-mile within the metro footprint?
- Is the Ethernet service metro as well as long haul?
| Provider | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T | Yes | Yes* | Yes** | No | Yes |
| 360networks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AboveNet | Yes^ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cogent Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Global Crossing | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Level 3 Communications | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Looking Glass Networks | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes*** |
| MCI | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes |
| OnFiber Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Teleglobe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Time Warner Telecom | Yes | Yes | Yes^^ | Yes | Yes |
| T-Systems | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vartec | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes |
| XO Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yipes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Provider | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AboveNet | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cogent Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Looking Glass Networks | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes* |
| Level 3 Communications | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| OnFiber Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Time Warner Telecom | Yes | Yes | Yes** | Yes | Yes |
| XO Communications | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yipes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VoIP Service Providers
- Does the provider have an IP based local direct inward dialing service offering accessible via the carrier hotel?
- Does the provider have a flat rate pricing plan for domestic call termination?
- Does the provider have an international call termination offering?
- Does the provider offer a hosted IP PBX service?
- Does the provider accept Layer 2 Category 5 cross connects at the carrier hotel?
| Provider | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 360networks | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Broadwing | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes* |
| Global Crossing | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Level 3 Communications | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| NetLogic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| T-Systems | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| XO | No^ | No^^ | No | No | Yes^^^ |
| Provider | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadwing | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes* |
| Global Crossing | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Level 3 Communications | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Telstra | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| The Voice Peering Fabric | Yes** | Yes** | Yes** | Yes** | Yes** |
| XO | No^ | No^^ | No | No | Yes^^^ |
