UK Altnet, toob, has marked a significant milestone at the London Internet Exchange (LINX) by becoming the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) to take a 400G port at the IXP for their peering services and more.
toob has experienced considerable growth recently as they gear up to their 5th anniversary. Beginning their build in Southampton, UK, and expanding across Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire both on their own network and in partnership with CityFibre.
“We are thrilled to pioneer the adoption of 400G technology at LINX, reaffirming our dedication to delivering unmatched broadband connectivity in the UK,” said Sean Teggart, Technology Director, toob. “This strategic upgrade not only enhances our network’s capacity but also increases toob’s reliability and prepares us to support the future needs of our customers.”
LINX is one of the World’s largest Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and has been providing peering services and more since 1994. They will be celebrating their 30th anniversary later this year and in those 30 years, have built up a global member base of over 950 networks.
The introduction of 400G ports came in towards the end of 2021 due to customer demand and there are now 12 and counting at the LINX interconnection platforms in London. LINX enlisted technical supplier Nokia to deliver this additional service and so far at LINX’s UK platforms, it’s mainly global content delivery networks or global carriers who more traditionally have a demand for this solution.
Connected to LON1, LINX’s primary network in London, toob is no stranger to recent milestones, having tipped the 50,000 connected customers mark earlier this year. At LINX, toob meet and peer with fellow ISPs and also local and global content networks via a single cross connect, to then deliver a high quality connectivity experience to their end users.
Jennifer Holmes, CCO for LINX commented; “We are really excited to be supporting and celebrating toob during their upgrade to 400G, the first UK ISP to take this step. This reflects the continued growth and demand of online services, good connectivity and the Internet as a whole in the UK.”
