BellSouth Opens Network To Boost Internet Connectivity ServicesBellSouth Opens Network To Boost Internet Connectivity Services

BellSouth Tuesday opened its Multimedia Internet Exchange in southern Florida, creating what it calls the most intelligent, optically switched Internet access point of its kind.

For redundancy and maximum customer flexibility, the Multimedia Internet Exchange (MIX) consists of four network access points in South Florida--two in Miami, one in Fort Lauderdale, and one in Boca Raton. The four points are networked together using state-of-the-art intelligent optical-switching technology from Cisco Systems and Sycamore Networks, BellSouth executives say.

In its core, the network uses Dense Wave Division Multiplexing optical transport gear, plus optical switching, to carry Internet data at speeds ranging from 45 Mbps to 10 Gbps. In addition to speed, the optical equipment used in the network lets BellSouth quickly provision services on the network and allocate more bandwidth to customers in near real time, company officials say.

BellSouth built MIX to optimize and enhance Internet connectivity services available to hosting companies, application services providers, and Internet co-location providers, says Susan Campbell, president of BellSouth Internet Exchange Inc., the BellSouth unit responsible for building and running MIX.

Among other benefits, says Juan Fernandez, senior telecommunications analyst at Gartner, "the opening of [MIX] is going to allow the next wave of development of the Internet in Latin America," because MIX is near the cable landings for major underseas fiber-optic cables carrying Internet traffic to and from Central and South America and the United States.