Trading Desk News Briefs
Posted: 2/2002
Trading Desk
News Briefs
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Arbinet-thexchange, an online marketplace where carriers anonymously buy and sell minutes around the world, activated a switch last fall in Los Angeles.
The New York-based exchange, also has switches in the Big Apple and London. Participants can connect to any of the three switches, known as exchange delivery points, to trade minutes with 135 members around the world. The switch in Los Angeles will help Asia carriers with network infrastructure on the West Coast access the exchange and more readily participate in the trading market.
The company had planned to activate the switch in 2002, but moved up the timeline in response to demand and the declining cost to introduce service, said Curt Hockemeier, president and CEO of Arbinet-thexchange.
Our members needed an outsourcing solution in L.A. sooner, and the downturn in the industry meant we could get into business there for a fraction of the cost we had forecast,” he said in a prepared statement.
Arbinet-thexchange traded approximately 450 million minutes during the third quarter of 2001, according to Chris Reid, director of marketing. The company is trading about 3 billion minutes a year, he added.
The exchange will route calls based on price and quality and is equipped to route public switched telephone network and voice over IP traffic.
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Neutral exchange Band-X Ltd. announced plans last year to close operations in Brazil, France, Germany, India and the Netherlands. Band-X let go approximately 70 employees. It has 150 employees worldwide.
The company cited the current state of the telecom industry, “macroeconomic uncertainties and tighter capital markets” as reasons for scaling back. Band-X will concentrate in the countries where it has achieved progress towards reaching a profit, namely in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, the company noted in a prepared statement.
Band-X said it would focus on developing managed service products. In the meantime, it says it continues to grow in its switched minutes and IP exchange platforms. Service providers buy and sell minutes and IP transit among other broadband services through the neutral exchange.
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Fiberloops announced that it has added inventory from a 50th company to Fiberloops.com web site, which lists dark fiber and lit fiber for sale. The company currently has more than 300,000 miles of long haul fiber and 165,000 miles of metro fiber listed in its inventory.
