Camellia Communications will be among the Internet Service Providers across the River Region that will benefit from the Montgomery Internet Exchange (MIE), which is the first Internet exchange in Alabama and the fourth in the Southeast.

The MIE was announced at a news conference last week at the RSA Dexter Avenue Building in Montgomery and is causing quite a stir around the River Region and across the state. The Montgomery Cyber Connection has the potential to fuel economic development, research and innovation for the entire state.

“Being the first Internet exchange for Alabama and we are excited to be a part of it,” said Evelyn Causey, CFO for Camellia Communications.

Montgomery Internet Exchange will speed content to those in the River Region by storing it closer to home rather than pulling it from exchanges in other part of the country.

“An Internet exchange is a point where Internet Service Providers and Content Providers exchange traffic,” Causey said.  “For example, Amazon can install a local server at the Montgomery Internet Exchange and Camellia Communication customers will be served from that local Amazon server.  This keeps Internet traffic from having to go all the way to Atlanta to find their server, which makes for faster response times.

“Camellia Communications became a part of the new Montgomery Internet Exchange project for the future benefits it holds for our customers. As more and more content providers locate in the Montgomery Internet Exchange, more of our customers will experience faster response times or what appears to the customer as Internet speeds.”

Causey said the new Internet exchange could also have an impact on economic development in the area.

“The Montgomery Internet Exchange could also provide economic development for Montgomery and the surrounding areas by attracting new technology companies to the area to build data centers, service centers, etc,” Causey said. “It is a win-win for us, as we continue to look for more ways to better serve our customers every day.”

Additionally the MIE will benefit from a partnership with Akamai Technologies.

Akamai, which is a global leader of content delivery network services, will store servers at the RSA Datacenter in Montgomery.

According to the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, Akamai chose to locate in Montgomery because of the global significance of the new Cyber College at Air University and because of local public and private partnerships in support of the military.

Along with Camellia Communications, Akamai, Troy Cable, Packet Clearing House and Wide Open West are the first members of the new exchange.