Companies join to open first regional Internet exchange

It’s called YRIX. Those four simple letters represent a monumental effort to bring an Internet exchange to the area.

The Yellowstone Regional Internet Exchange began routing e-mails, carrying videoconferences, ferrying messages and enabling Internet searches the beginning of December, with a grand opening Dec. 16. It is the first Internet exchange in the greater Yellowstone region.

by Leanne H. Frost Western Business News

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OneEighty Communications, headquartered in Billings; iConnect Montana, based in Helena; Vision Net, headquartered in Great Falls; and Visionary Communications, located in Gillette, Wyo., pooled their knowledge, energy, time, equipment and resources to make the exchange a reality.

What it means to the average Internet user is higher quality. What it means to Internet providers is lower costs. OneEighty Communications president Chris Dimock believes it will also bring greater economic development to the region.

"Generally, an Internet exchange is a point where multiple networks converge in a manner that enables Internet traffic from a variety of sources (e.g., educational institutions, governmental agencies, private businesses, Internet Service Providers, etc.) to be ‘handed off’ locally via a mechanism known as ‘peering.’ Peering results in more efficient and therefore less costly use of telecommunications networks and can significantly improve the performance of a wide variety of Internet-based voice, data and video applications," the company said.

Basically what the exchange does is reduce the distance a message has to travel between a sender and receiver who are both in the region. For example, an Internet message sent from Cody, Wyo., to Helena previously was routed to Billings, to Denver, to Seattle, and then to Helena. Now, it will simply travel from Cody to Billings to Helena.

Dimock said the improvements will be most apparent in videoconferencing and voice message transmission, such as across IP telephones. Communications will be improved because of the reduced lag time caused by the decreased distance the message has to travel.

By traveling a longer distance and across more telecommunications networks, the process also cost more than it will now.

Dimock said OneEighty expects to recover its portion of the costs needed to establish the exchange within four to five months after the exchange is working.

The core routing and switching equipment used by YRIX fits in a case that is slightly taller and thinner than a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer. It is housed in iConnect Montana’s facility in the Granite Tower in Billings. The site is considered "neutral" because it is a "fiber hotel," a place where companies can co-locate their equipment. iConnect Montana is operated by the Montana Independent Telecommunications System (MITS), consisting of five rural telecom operators dedicated to developing communications solutions in rural Montana.

YRIX is a non-profit corporation. Those who would use its services are Internet Service Providers (ISPs), broadband providers, hosting services and other related organizations.

Dimock pointed out that YRIX’s goal is to augment, not compete, with local ISPs and other businesses.

In the future, YRIX could offer wholesale Internet bandwidth and redundant routes for emergency service restoration to ISPs. However, those options are currently just under consideration, and a decision is not expected until the middle of the year.

The idea is to start small and expand. Right now, the exchange routes messages from users in Montana and Wyoming. In the future, Dimock said the exchange could handle Internet messages from other surrounding states, possibly even hooking up with larger exchanges in cities such as Seattle or Palo Alto, Calif., and handling more traffic.

However, that could be years into the future. In the meantime, having the exchange helps economic development because it gives potential businesses a good impression of the area and shows that the Yellowstone Region is committed to technology, he said. "It shows we know that infrastructure is more than roads and sewers," said Dimock.

Even if a company may not need the services the exchange provides, it speaks well of a community, he said.(br>
Both senators Burns and Baucus, as well as Congressman Rehberg, praised the creation of the exchange.

For more information on YRIX, go to http://www.yrix.org.

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