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Re: Clue on Europe

  • From: Alex Bligh
  • Date: Tue Mar 08 05:11:43 2005 

--On 07 March 2005 19:34 -0800 Ashe Canvar <[email protected]> wrote:


My research leads me to believe that London and Amsterdam have the
most dense connectivity. Is this true ?

I'd say London has the most dense connectivity because just about every
transatlantic circuit goes through London. However, this factor may
not be relevant if you are trying to set up an "outpost from the US",
because you perhaps don't much care about connectivity to the US.

Frankfurt has good connectivity too (probably less good than
Ams & Lon), but staff in London and Amsterdam speak English (yes,
the guys from NL speak English just about as well as the English)
which is probably an advantage unless you are German speaking.

There used to be some pan-European networks that unbelievably had no
node or no interconnection in London (EBONE fell into this camp for
a long while).

There is probably more choice of decent colo in London than in AMS or
Frankfurt. At least in the UK, intrabuilding local loop charges in the Isle
of Dogs should be the cost of putting in a wire, and then maintaining a
wiring plan. Interbuilding local loop costs should be fine so long as you
don't buy from BT (unless you buy LES circuits - 100Mb/s ethernet on dark
fiber, which are reasonably priced). If it's not like that, go elsewhere
(Telehouse has some bizarre policies on this).

People you might want to talk to in London:
* Redbus (HEX has had power problems and is completely packed anyway,
 but Meridian Gate which is their newer facility is fine AFAIK).
* Telecity (make sure you get HEX not Bonnington house - different power
 from above). Helpful and price competitive.
* XchangePoint - will do you relatively cheap inter building interconnect,
 peering, will help you find decent colo, and have helped out quite a
 few people from the US who've had similar requirements. Don't know if
 things have changed after their recent acquisition.

Disclaimer: I used to have connections with 2 of the above but haven't
for >1 yr now. There are plenty of others, too.

Alex