Nikolai Metlyuk, CEO of the Piter-IX traffic exchange point, has noted a paradox in the network market. The annual data growth of 1.2 Tbit/s is half composed of foreign traffic, which now goes through a "patchwork quilt" of VPN services. For an infrastructure company, this is not profit, but a headache: the port price for the operator is the same, but the cost of delivering a bit from abroad is tied to the currency and TSPU hardware filters, Kommersant writes.
Currently, the peak load on the network has reached 5.5 Tbit/s with 630 connected autonomous systems. By 2027, Piter-IX intends to reach the 10 Tbit/s mark, focusing on regional caching servers and direct connections with Russian CDNs. This is an attempt to surgically reduce dependence on expensive foreign routes in conditions where foreign platforms are cutting off access from Russian IPs, and the regulator is mirroring the blocking of external services.
The iron bottom line is simple: traffic growth no longer translates into margin growth. Maintaining channels for foreign currency when settling in rubles hits the economics of providers, forcing them to pass the costs on to the end user. The goal of 1000 connected AS looks like a logical bet on consolidating local content to minimize friction against the boundaries of the digital perimeter.
