What are carrier neutral collocation facilities?
In many cities, companies are building facilities to allow the interconnection of networks between competing service providers and for the hosting of web servers, storage devices, etc. They are rapidly becoming the obvious location for terminating customer owned dark fiber. These facilities feature diesel power backup systems and the most stringent security systems. The facilities are open to carriers, web hosting firms and application service firms, internet service providers, etc. Most carrier neutral open collocation facilities feature a “meet-me” room where fiber cables can be cross-connected to any service provider within the building. With a simple change in the optical patch panel in the collocation facility the customer can quickly and easily change service providers on very short notice. Many of these concepts of carrier neutral collocation facilities were first developed with the next generation Internet programs in the United States and Canada with a concept called a GigaPOP
