Universal Access Co-Locates With IXEurope

[London, ENGLAND] Internet infrastructure services provider
Universal Access
announced an agreement Wednesday with datacenter operator
IXEurope for the
co-location of facilities in the U.K.

The deal will allow Universal Access to place its Universal
Transport Exchange (UTX) interconnection facilities at IXEurope’s
datacenters in London and Heathrow Airport. The move is seen
by UA management as a key building block in its global
expansion strategy.

Eventually, Universal Access hopes to offer end-to-end network
connectivity solutions not only in Europe but also in Asia and
Latin America. It says its plan is to “stitch together fragmented,
high-capacity networks,” creating a seamless broadband
infrastructure for use by ISPs, ASPs and TSPs (respectively,
Internet, Application and Telecommunications service providers).

Patrick Shutt, chairman, president and chief executive of Universal
Access, spoke of Europe’s rapidly expanding Internet economy, and
said there was a need for service providers to extend their networks
very speedily.

“By building our interconnection facilities in IXEurope’s neutral
co-location superhubs, we are expanding our access to a wide variety
of networks and helping create end-to-end, global network ubiquity,”
said Shutt.

In the U.K., IXEurope is also host to the London Internet Exchange
which supports no less than 140 separate ISPs. It is already building
a datacenter in Paris, scheduled to open in November this year, and
has plans to open a further 20 centers around Europe by the end of 2002.

Guy Willner, chief executive of IXEurope, commented that service
providers have requirements ranging from IT and physical space to
personnel and facilities management — and that his company could
fulfill all of them “within a couple of days.”

“We see Universal Access as providers of a strong value-added
proposition for any of our customers needing managed end-to-end
connectivity solutions,” said Willner.

IXEurope operates a “carrier neutral” environment which gives
companies the freedom to select which carrier to use.