BNSI Launches the Charlottesville Community-Based Network eXchange

March 26, 1999 - Charlottesville, Va
Contact: Colin M. Learmonth

At a meeting held at Keswick Hall, Broadband Network Services Incorporated (BNSI) announced its plan to launch a community-based data communications network exchange for the Greater Charlottesville Area.

Citing the fact nearly all Internet traffic originating in Charlottesville is transferred to Northern Virginia or to other national interexchange points, BNSI CEO Gerard P. Learmonth Sr. focused attention on how wasteful and inefficient this is, especially when the destination is within Charlottesville. The exchange of information between individuals, schools, or businesses in this community may actually travel from coast to coast only to be delivered down the block.

Learmonth explained to the audience of local community leaders that the problem stems from the fact that local Internet access providers are connected to different "backbones," typically national carriers such as AT&T, SprintLink, or UUNET. These backbone providers only exchange information between their networks at the national interexchange points. Consequently, information sent between individuals within a community like Charlottesville often travels a long and unnecessary path from sender to receiver.

For information like e-mail messages, this does not create a serious problem. But, for the delivery of today’s multimedia applications such as audio or video, unnecessary delays in transit take a serious toll on quality. The solution to this problem is to capture locally destined information and route it immediately to the receiver without it leaving the community. This is what the Community-Based Network eXchange (CBNX) is designed to do. BNSI has all the necessary hardware in place to begin operating the CBNX today. The benefits of the CBNX for Charlottesville will be realized immediately as local enterprises establish connections into the CBNX.

Colin Learmonth, President and Chief Operating Officer of BNSI, noted that while BNSI would operate the CBNX, all local enterprises are invited to participate. Local carriers including Sprint, Hyperion, and CFW could provide the necessary data transport for enterprises. Local ISPs and cable modem providers could provide access for individuals from their homes or offices. Citing Metcalfe’s Law, named for Bob Metcalfe the inventor of Ethernet, Learmonth asserted that "the value of the CBNX to the community would increase exponentially as more enterprises and individuals are connected."

With a CBNX serving the community, the delivery of new and advanced multimedia applications such as distance learning, videoconferencing, real-time medical imaging, and workgroup collaboration directly to the desktop or to the home will be feasible because delays inherent with the Internet would be eliminated. Charlottesville would become a model for the "wired" community of the future and as such, would become a magnet for economic development.

About BNSI
Broadband Network Services Incorporated (BNSI) offers advanced data communications services to enterprises and individuals in Central Virginia. BNSI offers inter-organizational connectivity, Internet access, VPN's, Server co-location, Web Site hosting, and collaborative applications. www.bnsi.net