Hub Express System
The democratization of interconnection in Boston.
Infrastructure meets interconnection.
TOWARDEX is reimagining how utilities can work with data centers to create a digital platform for tomorrow’s internet infrastructure. We created the Hub Express System (HEX), the first truly open-access underground utility for Boston’s data center networks.
America's First Interconnection Utility
Built to preserve the freedom and openness of Boston’s internet infrastructure, we’re the nation’s first large-scale “Meet-Me Street” network, where competitive data centers, hyperscalers, and ISPs openly interconnect their networks without incurring cross connect costs.
Interconnection untethered.
By taking the concept of “carrier neutrality” out to the streets, HEX decouples the real estate from essential ingredients required for building a connectivity ecosystem. With HEX, the carrier-neutral facility has gone mobile and is now on the road, quite literally speaking.
Disrupt the status quo: open access everything.
When we construct a HEX connection into the data center, we build multiple conduits and open them up for ISPs and network providers to rent. When HEX comes into your property, suddenly dozens of providers are also coming with it, in just one single construction.
Our conduits are openly available to all licensed providers at a low affordable fee of $1.54 per foot/year. We don’t charge exorbitant up-front fees for providers to gain access to a conduit.
“This is an incredibly creative and highly impactful network infrastructure development.”
Hunter Newby, Newby Ventures
Precast Concrete Powers Internet Interconnection.
An immaculate network of secure and watertight cable vaults facilitates interconnections between our member networks. We leverage precast construction to develop durable and scalable underground network facilities.
Fiber Optic Exchange: A community of interconnected data centers.
The Fiber Optic Exchange is a manhole-to-manhole transport service that HEX system users can join as a member. Through the Fiber Optic Exchange, members participate in an open dark fiber network to request inter-party cross connects between various manholes across the HEX network without having to install any new physical cables of their own. There are no recurring cross connect fees in the HEX system.
A neutral custodian for a free marketplace of ideas and connectivity.
The HEX system is a regulated utility for public convenience, operating in the public rights-of-way. We have the duty to provide access under the law on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis. Unlike unregulated Meet-Me Rooms run by private property owners or legacy carrier hotels, we cannot discriminate pricing or deny access to a competitor.
HEX Specifications
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135 innerducts
- Supports 1.05” OD cable per innerduct
- Capability to place up to 3456 strand fiber optic cable per license
- Mainline transmission and CLS interconnector providing access into Boston’s critical data centers in the Inner Belt district.
- Offers low cost and rapid deployment for customers, minimizing high capital costs of network construction.
- A leader in Dig Once projects for telecom infrastructure—as a largescale, multi-tenant open access utility system, HEX offers minimal disruption to the public infrastructure for repeated fiber installations by multiple providers.
HEX Services
For local exchange carriers:
Visit TWDX Infrastructure to obtain As-Builts, conduit system policies, permitting rules and regulations, and to request a license.
For hyperscalers, non-LEC networks, international carriers and subsea cable operators:
Learn about our Turn-Key Network Infrastructure solutions.
For data centers, property owners and their tenants:
Learn about our Interconnected Data Center Solutions.
Ready to join Boston's interconnection revolution?
Get in touch with us.