IPC Adds Turkey, Istanbul PoP to Network

Trading telephony and network provider IPC has extended its ethernet and extranet networks in Turkey and established a new point of presence (PoP) in the country’s capital, Istanbul, to provide local financial institutions with links to key international financial markets.

Previously, IPC only offered voice connectivity in the region, but decided to roll out its Direct Connect ethernet data network and Connexus financial extranet services and build a local datacenter PoP in response to client demand for an improved data presence in Turkey.

Following the go-live in January, IPC now provides direct connectivity to key sources of liquidity in the region, notably the Turkish Derivatives Exchange (TurkDex), and is now looking to add connectivity to other venues in the region, including the Istanbul Stock Exchange, says Richard Petrie, vice president of network operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at IPC Systems.

To set up the PoP, IPC has leveraged an existing relationship with Turkish technology services company Spintek, which has supported the network provider’s voice connectivity services in the region for the past seven years. “[Compared to the] cost of opening our own point of presence... a partnership model is a more sensible approach and quicker way to bring customers on the network,” Petrie says.

The PoP will benefit financial institutions in the Turkish market that want to connect to European liquidity venues, and global data providers who run data services in the local Istanbul metropolitan area and want to connect to mainland Europe, Petrie says. “Turkey is an expanding market for us. It is generating significant interest from our business contacts... and also new customers who are trying to get into that market,” he adds.

IPC’s PoP is being fully managed by Spintek in its Istanbul datacenter, and was built with scalability to support future growth requirements, such as higher data volumes. “We tend to  ... launch points of presence on a modular basis. We start with a fairly basic foundation and add services so we can turn them on as quickly as customers demand them.”