Meet Me in Philly
October 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 October 2003 issue. To download the complete series as one consolidated PDF (2.7 MB), click here.
For carriers interconnecting in Philadelphia, the story is “let freedom ring.” This market is an unassumingly large one with natural advantages for carriers wanting to collocate here. The market sits squarely atop a major North-South fiber route. Philadelphia also is a signal regeneration point for many networks and also is a strong enterprise and retail sales market, so there’s opportunity to pick up some traffic there.
In this market two sites are frequently thought about when network operators are looking for interconnections. They are Meridian Telesis at 3701 Market St. and 401 North Broad St. But the two sites provide quite a contrast. Meridian Telesis is a data center operator and 401 North Broad St. is the largest carrier hotel in the city.
Perhaps oddly, 401 North Broad St. has no “meet me room,” so all carrier-to-carrier, in-building connections must be completed using conduit. Obviously, the business case for a return on a collocation investment therefore becomes much more difficult for any single carrier to make, compared to a site with meet-me facilities. However, there is a neutral collocation facility within the building that serves the function on a de facto basis. Over the years, the Switch and Data facilities inside the building have become the largest central point of interconnection in the building.
Comparing Meridian Telesis and Switch and Data should help network operators get a better understanding of the access offerings available in Philadelphia. At a high level, Switch and Data is more of a carrier-to-carrier interconnection point where large network providers exchange backbone fiber connections, as well as accomplish IP peering.
Meridian Telesis, on the other hand, has a stronger focus on the enterprise market and is more of a traditional data center than a core interconnection point, although it does have further physical site diversity for added disaster recovery benefits for core networks.
Switch and Data’s location within 401 North Broad St. puts it right in the most fiber-dense property in the city, which is beneficial for carriers. Meridian’s location is the only data center located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ). Qualified businesses within a KOZ are eligible for various forms of tax relief including – among other things – sales tax obligations, which can be very beneficial for enterprise customers.
For more information on Meridian Telesis, contact David M. Taffet, president, at 215.689.4000 ext. 4025.
For more information on Switch and Data, contact Jim Weller, vice president of business development, at (410) 827-9383, jweller@swi tchanddata.com.
