[nycbug-talk] Carrier Neutral Colocation Facilities, and Fiber Contractors.

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Tim A. wrote:

> Not Manhattan, everything there's underground and more expensive. Bronx
> we can do poles. I guess ConEd are the guys to talk to.
> 
> I'm talking about contracting a fiber run to a carrier neutral colo with
> either title or a long term right.
> 
> Yes, I know it's a PITA. Right of Way, Municipality Access Agreements,
> and a seriously expensive installation with maintenance to boot.
> 
> But looking over the books, if it costs less than 100k to do, it'd pay
> itself off in 2-3 years and leave us with a hell of a lot more bang for
> the buck.
Let me put it this way. It is much cheaper to bring servers to your
bandwidth than to bring bandwidth to your servers.

Can you briefly explain your requirements? How much bandwidth you need? Is
it hundreds of gigabits? How much equipment do you have?

That will determine whether it is really cost effective to build. 

And no, 100k will roughly cover trenching of a single block, certainly not
enough to cover a new build from bronx to 111 8th. That'll be in tens of 
millions of dollars.

If you are really serious about getting DF to your facility, you need to
get fiber maps from major players. If its "sufficiently near" (as in <10
blocks) to an existing route, it might be worth a try to get them to do 
some trenching to get to you. But you'll still be paying 10K+$/mo for use 
of their fiber.

Offhand, not that many carriers have dark in the bronx area. CV does, but
they probably won't sell dark, only lit services. VZB does, but also, they
no longer sell dark, only lit service. MFNX *might* have something that
goes to albany, it might be passing somewhere through bronx. Frankly, I
think its a very very long shot.

With regard to carrier neutrality - are you sure you need that? Generally, 
carrier neutral facilities are more expensive and generally more hassle to 
deal with than a facility operated by carrier (because carriers can expect 
to get some profit on miscellaneous services, and carrier-neutral facility 
will only make money on your colocation + crossconnects).

What you really want is being in a building with large number of carriers
in them ("Carrier hotel"). Note that these are usually specific buildings,
which have multiple facilities in them, some neutral, most not. In NYC,
these are the important ones, in roughly decreasing importance order:

* 111 8th: Probably the most important carrier hotel, all major players
have their own suites in the building. Unfortunately, getting between the
suites in there is complicated. You want to be in NYCC, the
building-sanctioned meet-me-room (which was recently sold to TelX), where 
almost everyone is. 

* 60 Hudson: Mostly voice-oriented. Number of carrier-neutral facilities: 
TelX, S&D and building-sanctioned MMR (operated by fibernet). You want to 
be in TelX - most carriers are there.

* 25 Broadway: Only one facility, Telehouse, which is carrier-neutral. 
There are good and bad sides about telehouse...And its beyond scope of 
this discussion. You probably don't want to be here.

* 32 AoA: There's building meetmeroom, with some selection of carriers. 
But you don't want to be here.

* 601 W 26: Nothing carrier-neutral really. You don't want to be here.

* 75 Broad: AccessIT is the only carrier-neutral, but even more ghetto 
than telehouse. You dont want to be there.

* Bunch of other third-rate buildings: Brooklyn Army Terminal, 470 
Vanderbilt, with a sparse selection of carriers. You don't want to be 
there.

Disclaimer: we operate a non-neutral facility in 55 Broad St, and we do 
have dark fiber to 60 Hudson, and 25 Broadway (soon to 111 8th).

--
Alex Pilosov    | DSL, Colocation, Hosting Services
President       | alex at pilosoft.com    877-PILOSOFT x601
Pilosoft, Inc.  | http://www.pilosoft.com