ISPs to form local Internet exchange  
By R. Gerard A. Plaza - Editor in-Chief, Philippine IT Update 

PHILIPPINE Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now have the capacity to increase access speeds and improve packaged services with the establishment of the Philippine Internet Exchange (PhIX) to be announced this week. 

Under the new network infrastructure created to catapult Internet usage in the country, ISPs can take advantage of mere local traffic for users to easily access their services. PhIX is a local access point
established by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) where ISPs interconnect to receive larger bandwidth and access speeds to the Internet since these ISPs will just share a common hub and should centralize traffic. 

As such, ISPs need not route local traffic to host servers in other countries, hence minimizing operational costs while improving their services. As an advantage in interconnecting their services through PhIX, ISPs can bypass telecommunications carriers in the acquisition of international leased lines or additional bandwidth. 

Under the scheme, ISPs should peer network traffic for the use of other participating ISPs in PhIX to maximize bandwidth and other Internet access-related resources. Five ISPs have signified their
intention to sign a Multi-Lateral Peering Agreement (MLPA) for the initial maximization of local traffic. These ISPs include Infocom Technologies, Inc., Mosaic Communications, Inc., IPhil Communications Network, Inc., WorldTel Philippines, Inc., and Virtualink International Corp. 

When sharing this local hub, all local traffic shall be Philippine- centric, hence, speeding up local Web site access, e-mail exchanges, file transfers, and other Internet services. 

A provisional authority to install, operate, and maintain the Internet exchange/network access point was formally granted to PLDT by the National Telecommunications Commission last April 16, amidst
strong opposition from rivaling telcos which claimed the PLDT-run IX will hurt their businesses. ISPs use telco facilities for Internet gateways to the United States. 

In a report published in Philippine IT Update last November 30, 1996, six telecommunications carriers - Globe Telecom, Radio Communications Philippines, Inc., Isla Communications, Inc.,
Eastern Telecommunications Philippines, Inc., Philippine Telephone and Telegraph, Inc. and Capitol Wireless, Inc. - tried in vain to block the activation of PLDT’s PhIX, seen by the said telcos as a service that will "unfairly compete with services they are presently offering." 

Since early this month, the five mentioned ISPs have used PhIX to conveniently isolate network traffic for local use, thus delivering evident improvements in their respective internet access services. Other countries maintaining Internet exchanges include the US, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan.