Hutchison Global Communications (HGC) and Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) have launched a new internet exchange in Hong Kong.
The AMS-IX Hong Kong, touted as the first in the region between an Asian carrier and a Europe-based exchange, will serve as a neutral and independent peering platform for private and public services to ISPs, content providers and telecom carriers throughout Asia Pacific.
Under the partnership, HGC will be an exclusive worldwide sales and marketing arm for the new AMS-IX Hong Kong for two years.
Through AMS-IX Hong Kong service, users in Asia can connect to more than 470 international networks. The new service also enables internet, mobile, telecoms and content providers already connected with AMS-IX Amsterdam to have direct access to Asian networks.
Andrew Kwok, HGC’s president of international service says the exchange will be located in one of the company’s data centers in Hong Kong, and the service will be charged based on bandwidth. The carrier-grade internet peering will be supported by HGC’s fiber network, data centers, and international network, allowing customers to connect with the platform via dedicated ports with speeds of 1Gbps to multiple 1G, Kwok explains.
The firms also plan to introduce a mobile data exchange service to Asia in future - a service which AMS-IX has been offering in Europe since 2001. “In recent years, we’ve seen more and more [international traffic] coming from mobile,” Kwok notes.
AMX-IX chief Job Witteman, says the company now has 25 global GPRS roaming exchange (GRX) providers, and would consider providing a similar offering in Asia as a secondary service.
AMX-IX is the industry’s largest internet exchange with more than 470 Interconnected IP networks and a traffic peak of over 1.5 terabits per second. The firm also hosts the first mobile peering point worldwide, the GRX and the mobile data exchange and the first interconnection of IPX networks.