America’s First Meet-Me Street, Establishes Direct Interconnection to DE-CIX New York, Largest IX in the Northeast

Strategic infrastructure expansion through the DE-CIX Carrier Turnkey Connectivity partnership seamlessly bridges New England’s regional carrier ecosystem with DE-CIX’s leading peering fabric and allows enterprises and ISPs to connect to the IX operator seamlessly through participating fiber providers, bypassing carrier hotels and reducing costs.

DE-CIX, the world’s leading carrier and data center-neutral Internet Exchange (IX) operator, and TOWARDEX, Boston’s leading internet infrastructure provider, announce their strategic partnership to interconnect the Hub Express System, the nation’s first Meet-Me Street, to the DE-CIX Internet Exchange in New York. Through this strategic Carrier Turnkey Connectivity partnership, DE-CIX’s world-class peering fabric becomes directly accessible to Boston’s densest concentration of network operators, regional broadband providers, colocation facilities, and transatlantic cable operators.

The Hub Express System (HEX) is a revolutionary subterranean telecom corridor engineered specifically to serve as a decentralized, multi-facility “Meet-Me Street,” the first of its kind in the United States. HEX allows participants to interconnect fibers across the city without being bound to any single carrier hotel, with no monthly recurring cross-connect fees.

By leveraging the interconnection of HEX and DE-CIX, networks bypass traditional interconnect bottlenecks to reach the DE-CIX New York fabric. This enables any enterprise, data center, or service provider connected to HEX’s subterranean ecosystem to seamlessly access DE-CIX’s multi-service interconnection platform with unparalleled speed, ultra-low latency, and greatly reduced costs to connect to DE-CIX. The Turnkey Connectivity program enables carriers, data centers, and IXs to connect to the DE-CIX exchanges in North America to enhance their connectivity and business models.

For organizations not directly linked to HEX, several providers offer dark fiber and Ethernet services that connect to HEX’s underground network, making it easy for them to connect their carrier service to DE‑CIX’s DirectCLOUD and IX services without having to pay for cross-connects or take colocation in third-party carrier hotel facilities.

“Bringing the Hub Express System to DE-CIX is a huge deal for both New England and the Northeast. This is the first time that a major Tier 1 IX has been made available at a large-scale manhole system to enable network interconnections,” stated Gavin Schoch from TWDX Infrastructure, a wholly owned subsidiary of TOWARDEX. “Instead of forcing networks to backhaul traffic to rigid, centralized, and outdated carrier hotels, we are making the world’s largest Internet Exchange operator directly available in Boston’s streets. This Carrier Turnkey Connectivity partnership allows carriers to sell access to the DE-CIX ecosystem without colocation cross-connect costs being passed on to their customers, reducing sales friction and enhancing the value of their fiber assets in the Boston area.”

Using the Hub Express System to reach the DE-CIX backbone, New England networks interested in more global connectivity can not only access other large exchanges in the US but also DE-CIX’s international IXs, including those in Mexico, Brazil, Europe, and throughout the world.

“We are honored to have been invited to participate in the HEX ecosystem and to welcome TOWARDEX, with its open-access manhole infrastructure, to the DE-CIX New York ecosystem. For networks in Boston, New York represents the lowest latency location to reach clouds, content, and networks not available locally,” commented Ed d’Agostino, Vice President, DE-CIX North America. “As a DE-CIX Carrier Turnkey Connectivity partner, connecting to a Tier 1 market becomes easy to implement and offers cost savings. The TOWARDEX partnership removes the cross-connect fees on both the Boston and New York sides and provides low-cost transport between the cities, significantly reducing costs compared to the traditional model and creating a win-win situation for all involved. Combining the strengths of two innovative infrastructure players, this partnership enables us to enhance access to networks and the quality of connectivity in New England.”

DE-CIX New York, which handled more than 5 exabytes of total data throughput in 2025, is the largest exchange in the Northeast and is ranked #3 in North America. The platform covers an area spanning Long Island to the East and Piscataway and Edison to the South and West. It connects over 260 networks from across the city, with an infrastructure that spans 40+ data centers. DE-CIX New York is connected to all other DE-CIX locations in North America, enabling remote peering and access to a vibrant ecosystem of networks not present in other local exchanges. The DE-CIX Internet and Cloud Exchanges in New York, Dallas, Chicago, Richmond, Houston, and Phoenix, the dedicated Cloud Exchange in Seattle, and the distributed IX DE-CIX Mexico together form the largest carrier and data center neutral interconnection ecosystem in North America. Further, DE-CIX New York is directly connected to DE-CIX’s locations in South America (e.g. DE-CIX Sao Paulo) and Europe – (e.g. DE-CIX Frankfurt, the largest IX in Europe) – and beyond.