Network management Toolkit

UK woos overseas ISPs in push for a better Web

Tags:
Overseas,
Foreign,
Vanessa Evans,
London Internet Exchange

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 21 Nov 2003 17:35 GMT

An initiative launched this week to encourage foreign Internet service providers into Britain's high-speed network community could mean UK Web users getting improved email and browsing services.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles almost all of the UK's Internet traffic, is looking to attract more overseas members by making it easier for them to exchange data with British ISPs.

On Friday, it revealed plans for a new scheme called "LINX from Anywhere". It will allow an ISP that is based overseas to establish a virtual presence in London by setting up a dedicated point-to-point Ethernet connection with the network of an existing UK-based LINX member.

This gives the overseas ISP a physical presence in Britain from which it can connect to other LINX members. An ISP can link to any other ISP across the Web by any one of countless routes, but by establishing a link directly to and from one of the major interchange points, such as LINX, they can achieve much better performance.

"More than 90 percent of the Internet traffic exchanged between ISPs in the UK passes through LINX and more than 50 percent of the world's Internet routes are directly accessible from the exchange," explained Vanessa Evans, LINX sales and marketing manager, on Friday.

"Membership at LINX offers real benefits to ISPs seeking to cut the costs and improve reliability of transit into the UK, and from there to the rest of the world," Evans added.

LINX, which is owned by ISPs and Web content providers, expects that its new initiative will be particularly popular with ISPs based in the US and Asia.

"They have potentially high expenses in establishing a physical presence at LINX because of the costs involved in deploying staff to install hardware -- and subsequently to manage and maintain it. With LINX from Anywhere they can connect to LINX from any point on the globe where participating LINX members have a presence," the organisation explained.