The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles a key chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via 950+ members (broadband and mobile operators etc.), has today announced that alternative full fibre network provider toob has become the first ISP to take a 400G (Gbps) port at the IXP for their peering services and more.
Just for some context. Toob is a Hampshire-based operator that was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here). During 2023 the operator also secured £160m of additional funding (debt financing) from Ares Management‘s Infrastructure Debt strategy (here), which could be upsized to £300m over time to support growth.
Toob’s own FTTP broadband network is known to cover 150,000 premises (24th Aug 2023 – not all RFS) and they’re aiming to reach 300,000 premises across parts of Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex in the future. In June 2024 the provider also revealed that they’d passed 50,000 customers (here), which is more than double the 20,000 they had a year earlier.
Suffice to say that they’ve seen a fair bit of growth and as part of adapting to that they’ve taken the first 400G port at LINX, which actually introduced 400G ports towards the end of 2021 due to customer demand. LINX enlisted technical supplier Nokia to deliver this additional service. But so far at LINX’s UK platforms, it’s mainly global content delivery (CDN) networks or global carriers who have traditionally had demand for this solution.
Sean Teggart, Technology Director of toob, said:
“We are thrilled to pioneer the adoption of 400G technology at LINX, reaffirming our dedication to delivering unmatched broadband connectivity in the UK. This strategic upgrade not only enhances our network’s capacity but also increases toob’s reliability and prepares us to support the future needs of our customers.”
Jennifer Holmes, CCO for LINX, said:
“We are really excited to be supporting and celebrating toob during their upgrade to 400G, the first UK ISP to take this step. This reflects the continued growth and demand of online services, good connectivity and the Internet as a whole in the UK.”
The new 400G port appears to have been connected within LINX’s largest LON1 (London) Ethernet switching platform, which is accessible from 16 data centre locations.