NorthPoint enlists Equinix to speed DSL

SAN FRANCISCO - Digital subscriber line (DSL) specialist NorthPoint Communications is trying to make DSL more attractive by speeding links between customers and the Web-based services they seek.

NorthPoint will establish hub sites within facilities run by Equinix, where other service providers also house their gear. Collocating like this allows fast, direct connections among Equinix customers' networks rather than slower, direct wide-area links to each other.

That in turn gives NorthPoint customers faster access to certain Internet content as well as services provided by application service providers (ASP), according to Michael Malaga, president of NorthPoint.

Today, NorthPoint's customers can buy a high-speed DSL connection to an ISP. But once customers start pulling information off the Internet, the actual speed may be considerably slower because of Internet bottlenecks. For example, a 1.5M bit/sec DSL connection drawing data from a server connected to the Internet at 256K bit/sec will be limited to the speed of the server connection.

Equinix is setting up a network of secure buildings where content providers such as large e-business sites and ASPs can lease space for their servers. When end users seek content from Equinix customers, the content is delivered from the nearest Equinix site. For many end users, that will eliminate time-consuming trips across the Internet that can slow down content delivery.

With that bottleneck gone, customers are more likely to want a high-speed Internet link such as DSL because the overall link from the content to customers will be faster, Malaga says.

NorthPoint will install gear within Equinix sites, known as Internet business exchanges (IBX), so Northpoint customers will be able to directly access certain other service providers.

For example, if a customer wanted to link to an ASP that had a server in an IBX, Northpoint would be able to link up with that ASP directly within the IBX. By meeting at a common site, they eliminate the need to set up a WAN link directly to the ASP.

NorthPoint will be able to link its customers to multiple content providers within an IBX. So if customers want to buy content from multiple providers, they could do so over the same DSL link.

NorthPoint is also making a reported $5 million investment in Equinix to help it establish its IBX sites, Malaga says.

Other companies investing in Equinix include America Online, Cisco, Dell Computer, E*Trade, Microsoft, Reuters, Benchmark Capital and The Carlyle Group.

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