TOWARDEX, a Boston-based network provider specializing in data center interconnections and high-bandwidth fiber optic communications, and operator of the Massachusetts Internet Exchange (MASS IX), announced the completion of a historic upgrade to underground utilities in Somerville's Inner Belt.
The upgrade more than doubles the total fiber optic capacity linking the downtown Boston area to the region's Cable Landing Station, significantly increasing connectivity for the area’s carrier neutral data centers serving enterprise businesses and broadband fiber optic providers serving the Boston metro.
With ever increasing internet traffic and rising edge deployments, demand for high-bandwidth fiber capacity is booming at an unprecedented pace. To fortify Boston's growing share of the global internet traffic linking North America to Europe, TOWARDEX embarked upon new construction of underground fiber optic utilities. Known as the Hub Express System, the system adds more than 135 new fiber optic cables to the area's underground infrastructure, vastly increasing overall capacity and competition for data center interconnections and telecommunications services.
Constructed and operated by TWDX Infrastructure, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of TOWARDEX, the Hub Express System is a "Joint Use Communications Trench", where the entire conduit system operates on an "open-leasing" model, making its rights-of-way available to all licensed telecommunications and internet service providers, on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis.
The upgraded infrastructure enables increased data capacity, speeds, and peering interconnections which not only benefits Boston businesses, but also serves as a growth catalyst for Boston’s technology corridor.
Known as the Inner Belt in Somerville, Massachusetts, the area is a booming high-tech industrial hub for biotech, R&D, and carrier-neutral data centers for the region's internet infrastructure. In addition, with connections to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)'s telecom utility services, Inner Belt offers the most direct and quickest terrestrial fiber route to link the Boston metropolitan area to the Cable Landing Station in Lynn, MA, connecting to transatlantic cables between North America and Europe.
James Jun, Chief Operating Officer of TOWARDEX
Historically in Boston, getting access to interconnection ecosystems and underground duct space for fiber optic communications has been challenging, particularly for new providers seeking to break into our market. The Hub Express System addresses this by reducing the large capital requirements to build fiber optic networks, and delivering on our vision for a fair, free and open internet infrastructure for everyone, where innovation can truly thrive.
