Planning for telecommunications in Germany: Telecom hotels
No TL;DR found
Abstract
MORE than fifteen years ago Hepworth claimed that geographers had “made little progress in coming to terms with the major research and policy issues raised by the diffusion of information technology in cities.” This claim still seems to be true, although research undertaken in the context of the globalization of cities and transnational companies that are active in the areas of business, finance, legal services, consulting, information technology, transportation, and higher education has suggested otherwise. Transnational companies are typically located in global cities, along with smaller companies that serve them. Transnational companies depend heavily on the telecommunications equipment that is physically housed in telecom hotels. Global cities are dependent on high levels of telecommunications infrastructure, including the presence of telecom hotels. (Telecom hotels have been defined by a number of authors. For the purposes of this study, telecom hotels are defined as “central facilities where information technology companies congregate to interconnect their networks and equipment for efficient transfer of electronic data.”) These facilities are also known as telco hotels, carrier hotels, telehouses, data centers, co-location facilities, and switching centers. In telecom hotels, tenants house equipment in spaces that are leased or owned in order to gain better access to the Internet backbone and to take advantage of economic efficiencies. Abler Kellerman