BICS launches remote peering to offer communications providers an affordable solution for network expansion

Brussels, Belgium, 4 March, 2014 – BICS, a global provider of wholesale carrier services, today announced the launch of its remote peering solution – an affordable way for smaller communication service providers to expand their network footprint. The BICS remote peering service follows a recent reseller agreement with AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange), one of the world’s largest internet exchanges with a total of over 1,200 connected ports.

The use of smartphones, broadband devices and other services such as video streaming, constantly increases the demand for capacity. The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) estimates that global mobile data traffic will increase nearly 11-fold between 2013 and 2018. Mobile data traffic is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 61 percent from 2013 to 2018, reaching 15.9EB (exabytes) per month by 2018[1]. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and communications providers worldwide are expanding their networks to accommodate this growing traffic.

Peering agreements, where ISPs reciprocally provide connectivity to each other’s customers, have been a popular approach among ISPs to extend the reach of their networks for a number of years. The BICS remote peering solution builds on the success of this model, offering ISPs access to exchange points across its own extensive transport infrastructure. By utilising the BICS network, ISPs can now peer without a physical presence at the peering point, offering their own customers access to larger networks without the expense of colocation, equipment and rack space.

Johan Wouters, SVP Capacity Business Management, BICS, comments: “Remote peering offers all the benefits of peering without complex set up processes or heavy capital and operational costs. Our extensive network footprint, broad portfolio of wavelength services, the Marseilles cable landing station and support teams make our remote peering solution an effective way for agile communications providers to expand their networks quickly.”

“With BICS we have added a valuable partner to our reseller ecosystem,” says Mark Cooper, Chief Commercial Officer at AMS-IX. “As BICS owns an extensive and robust network throughout the world, parties now have an increased choice of access points to choose from, making it easier for them to remotely connect to AMS-IX in Amsterdam.”