Proximity Data Centres has unveiled the IX Birmingham, the first regional internet exchange at the centre of the West Midlands.

Located at Proximity’s Birmingham Edge 8 site, IX Birmingham means that customers in city and surrounding area no longer need to route their data via exchanges in London and Manchester, offering higher-speed, lower latency connectivity options.

Raj Mack, Birmingham City Council’s Head of Digital City and Innovation said, “I have long pushed for the establishment of an Internet Exchange in Birmingham, recognising that it is a key component of the digital infrastructure that our businesses need to create and accelerate new products and services. The IX Birmingham will greatly enhance the capability of the city as a leading international digital city and its reputation as Digital Birmingham.”

Tobias Hooten, Managing Director of Iconic Networks, a founding member of IX Birmingham added, “The arrival of IX Birmingham is not only good news for businesses based in the city and wider region, it also allows local altnets and ISPs to benefit from lower cost data transit when backhauling rapidly growing data volumes. We are delighted to be a founder member and look forward to being a part of stimulating the local digital economy.”

Proximity has outlined a plan to roll out a network of regional internet exchanges within its data centres across the UK and Europe. The company currently provides 10 edge data centres across the UK in the North, North West, Midlands, Thames Valley, South West and South Wales.

“We selected Birmingham as our first Edge IX location as the region’s digital community has remained underserved when it comes to the lowest latency solutions possible for sending or receiving data,” said  John Hall, Managing Director-Colocation, Proximity Data Centres. “We are looking forward to delivering similar benefits to other regions of the UK and Europe during this year and in 2024.”