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MIX opens two new IXs in Rome and Caserta
MIX opens two new IXs in Rome and Caserta, confirming itself as the national Internet eXchange platform. Central-southern operators not yet connected to MIX will now be able to exchange traffic with more than 260 new networks.
Milan, May 9th, 2023 – MIX, the main public Internet exchange point in Italy, announces the opening of two new PoPs in Rome and Caserta to meet the needs of TLC operators in the central and southern parts of the country.
The two new PoPs are part of the national expansion process approved by the MIX Board of Directors. The process began in 2017 with the inauguration of the Palermo PoP, followed by the Bologna PoP in 2022. This development will facilitate and encourage the exchange of data at a local level, offering optimal solutions for connecting content and service providers that require reduced access times. It will also increase the availability of high-performance and high-speed access to technologies.
The PoPs of Rome and Caserta are configured as independent Internet Exchanges and will be hosted in third-party data centres, with high levels of reliability and large spaces to immediately host dozens of operators. With the opening of the regional IXs, MIX aims to enhance local initiatives and forge commercial alliances with data centre providers. Once local partners with high growth potential have been identified, MIX will build relationships with top market players and create lucrative conditions to invite these large players to interconnect locally. The ultimate goal is to encourage the creation of more delocalised communities of interests, all supported by the presence of the PoP at an IX.
In the new Rome PoP, alongside the local Exchange, the Milan LAN will also be made available for small and medium-sized operators. This will enable them to immediately connect to a further 260 networks present in Milan, and 380 in Caserta. MIX continues its mission of contributing to the development of a better performing, efficient Internet with more advantageous traffic costs for operators. For this reason, after the experience in the Caldera DC, favourable conditions have been agreed with the Data Centres that host the PoPs to host small TLC PoPs, typically required by smaller operators.
Cristiano Zanforlin, MIX’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We want to bring a new IX-Data Centre partnership model, widely tested with the Data Centres in northern Italy, to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by the market. The area of Caserta and Naples had been under observation for several years, since it was the last in Europe characterised by a high population density and lacking a local IX. Until now, however, there were no suitable data centre structures, in our opinion, to guarantee 360° growth, nor any plans: as soon as these conditions arose, we did not hesitate to act”
Alessandro Talotta, MIX Executive President & Chairman concludes: “By the end of the year, the Centre and South of the country will be able to count on two new data exchange points in the geographic area of Lazio and Campania, populated by about 12 million users and with an average download data consumption on par with the main European geographical areas with a high population density. The main objectives will be to improve the efficiency of data exchange and to encourage the development and use of the Internet in Italy. The country must plan the exchange nodes considering not only their economic but also their social value; it is a service for the citizen, therefore it must be transparent, efficient and available at a local level”.
