Major Luxembourg-based Internet companies announced today the launch of the Luxembourg New commercial Internet Exchange Point, called LU-CIX. The creation of LU-CIX is a huge step forward for the Grand-Duchy’s Internet community as it will further develop Luxembourg as a prime e-commerce platform in Europe. LU-CIX follows the model of major international centers such as AMS-IX (Amsterdam), LINX (London) and DE-CIX (Frankfurt).

It also mirrors the spirit of openness and neutrality of these centers. LU-CIX will bring tremendous gains to consumers in Luxembourg. More than 60% of households are already using a high-speed connection which is one of the highest penetration rates worldwide. With LU-CIX as a short-cut between Internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers, surfing on the Internet will become even faster.

In recent years, Luxembourg has also positioned itself successfully as the home for multinational Internet and e-commerce players. The country has made important investments to develop national and international bandwidth connectivity and interconnect Luxembourg to the key European centers, including London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Establishing a commercial traffic exchange platform
makes the Luxembourg Internet offer even more attractive. The move allows all players, from Internet access suppliers and telecommunication operators to multimedia content creators and distributors to interconnect in a convenient and efficient way.

Thanks to LU-CIX, companies generating IP traffic and attracted to Luxembourg by the favorable economic environment, are now in a position to find all the means and tools to carry their traffic to all Internet users around the world. This Internet exchange point will permit the various Internet service providers to exchange Internet traffic between their networks, and thus directly connect the content providers and international Internet operators located in Luxembourg. It will also enable its members to benefit from a number of services related to the Internet network and the communication and information technologies.

David Zimmer, Vice-President of the ASBL, explains: “The benefits of this direct networks’ interconnection are numerous. Traffic can now be exchanged without cost, more efficiently and with a reduction in latency. The improvement of the bandwidth between the service providers is also an essential factor and the transfer of data can now be done without limit and without cost.”

Claude Demuth, CEO of LU-CIX GIE, comments, “The creation of LU-CIX is a turning point: it is the first cross-industries initiative with a common aim of developing the Internet in Luxembourg. The main objectives are to participate both nationally and internationally to the rise of the Internet, to position LU-CIX as a dynamic international actor and provide simple ways to access the world networks.”

To promote its activities LU-CIX will participate to a number of conferences, public or private meetings and fairs. LU-CIX is divided into two key entities, LU-CIX ASBL a non-profit organization which promotes this new structure as a major Internet platform, and LU-CIX GIE, an Economic Interest Group (or GIE) that will run the technical backend. “The coming months will be dedicated to setting up the administrative and technical infrastructures, promoting LU-CIX on the International scene and more especially discussing the opening of such a project to other potential partners”, says Marco Houwen, President of LU-CIX ASBL.