Keith Mitchell, Executive Chairman, LINX

Just over 5 years ago, the Internet was a very different place. The web was in its infancy - the bulk of Internet traffic was e-mail and software downloads, the few web sites were mainly academic, and your browser was something called "mosaic". Most people had never heard of the Internet.

In the UK, the cheapest Internet access you could get was "a-tenner-a- month". We had at most 50 service providers, and only 5 of these connected to the rest of the world. Globally, Internet Exchange Points were a novelty you could count on your fingers - MAE-East and CIX-West in the US were commercial, Amsterdam and Stockholm in Europe were at research sites.

Back then, the idea of Internet Service Providers co-operating to share infrastructure to mutual benefit was a slightly novel one, but one with clear gains if it could be made to work right. So a small group of people decided that it would be good for the UK to have an Exchange Point too, and that the LINX should be formed to connect our 5 domestic ISPs together to enable efficient exchange of Internet traffic in the UK. We made two decisions back then which would turn out to be key later on:

The first traffic flowed across the LINX on the 8th November 1994, less than two months after conception. And we would not have done it without the support and investment of the UK's original co-location provider. No contracts, lawyers or paperwork, we just got the kit together and made it work. Like I said, the Internet was a different place back then !-). I am pleased to say however, that the spirit of co-operation between diverse competitors that are its foundation is still very much alive at the LINX.

Today, the Internet has changed quite a lot since our beginnings - nearly 1 person in 5 in the UK having access from nearly 300 providers, many for free. The LINX ships as much as 2 and a half Gigabits of traffic during each busy second, more than 250 times its original total capacity ! The Web is everywhere, and whatever their ultimate extent, the direct economic and social impacts of this phenomenon are highly visible and with us to stay.

And by having the luck to make some right decisions at the right times, we now have the largest Internet Exchange in Europe - the most members, the most traffic, the most co-location sites, the most staff, 2M EUR turnover. We are now indisputably one of the top 5 Internet Exchanges out of several hundred across the world, and have pioneered innovations such as Gigabit ethernet which even the big US exchanges are only now following.

One of the most important innovations we have pioneered is to diversify the LINX to multiple sites. We were the first to link two sites using gigabit ethernet over dark fibre 18 months ago, and in the first half of this year with the support of partners such as InterXion we have purchased our own dark fibre ring, and will soon increase our exchange's network from 3 to 7 sites, another world first. Our early decision to be independent of any one co-location provider means we now enable efficient exchange of Internet traffic in the UK not merely between ISPs, but between co-lo providers too.

We are fortunate in the UK to have one of the best-developed and most successful e-commerce industries in the world. While Britain's track record as a trading nation and creator of intellectual property are major causes of this, there are two other factors:

From a regulatory point of view, there has been a generally enlightened approach from both the current and previous UK governments, and in many ways early de-regulation of telecomms has led Europe and benefited UK industry (and the treasury :-) enormously. It is good to see the government's support of e-business through the the appointment of both an e-Minister & e-Envoy.

But, actions are as at least as important as stated intentions and their spin, and there is significant danger in two sets of impending legislation, on communications interception and on unsolicited e-mail, which in their current form threaten to place a disproportionate burden on Internet providers and their customers and to make the UK a much less attractive place to do e-business. Internet providers know well that consumers appreciate neither "snooping" nor "spamming".

But, the Internet is about more than politics - I am fundamentally an engineer, and what I know best about is infrastructure. So why is infrastructure so important, and why are co-location providers like InterXion such important contributors of infrastructure ?

I think one key lesson I have learned over the past decade is about coping successfully with rapid growth, and behind this are 4 principles important to any e-business today:

All are key elements of any technology-based service business - and quite critical for telecommunications infrastructure-based ones. Despite InterXion's comparative youth, I have been pleased to see all these principles upheld in our dealings with them to date.

Although the LINX is not-for-profit, we now have the largest Internet Exchange Point, at the convergence of all these international data highways, not just in Europe, but anywhere outside the US. We can legitimately claim to have the role and importance of the "Heathrow Airport of the Internet", and like any port, trade in and around it is booming. Nor do I need to remind a roomful of airport users of the importance of providing a quality, reliable and uncongested service.

The LINX's leading-edge gigabit switch technology ensures the fastest possible connections across the UK Internet backbone. This will become increasingly important as consumers' expectations are fired up by the much faster ADSL access nearly with us.

InterXion's state-of-the art facilities provide secure space for telecomms carriers, Internet Service Providers and web hosting, ASP and e-commerce providers, in an controlled environment with protected power and a diverse choice of telecomms services.

For e-commerce, it is an exciting and challenging time. It is clear that the current e-boom is part genuine underlying change in how to do business, and part overstated hype, and a lot of fortunes are still to be made or lost in exactly where that boundary lies. It is clear to me that the winners are going to be the players who provide the quality infrastructure that others can build their successes upon. The combination of both high-growth dotcom and secure real estate investment that is the business of InterXion and our other co-location partners is an attractive one indeed.

As I stated at the beginning, the thriving efficient competitive market that is today's Internet is built upon the solid foundation of a proven model for co-operation that extracts maximum value for everyone's investment. We are proud to work with InterXion as our newest partner in providing the infrastructure that underlies this healthy commerce and co-operation.