5 Examples of Point Of Presence

John Spacey, updated on January 14, 2023

A point of presence, or PoP, is network and computing equipment that is deployed to extend a telecom network to an area. This term typically implies equipment that is deployed in a competitor's facility in exchange for fees. In many cases, telecom regulations may require large carriers to allow competitors to set up a point of presence. The following are illustrative examples.

Meet Me Room

A meet me room is a location in a data center or telecom facility where telecom providers connect their networks together.

Colocation

A telecom company rents space in a colocation data center to offer geographically distributed services. For example, customers may want servers distributed to the east and west coast of the US. In some cases, colocation is designed to provide high speed access to strategic infrastructure and services such as a stock exchange.

International Telecom

A telecom provider in Hong Kong sells dedicated network connections between Hong Kong and Singapore. They set up a point of presence in Singapore to connect to customers and network links they have leased between the two countries.

Local Telecom

A phone company rents a point of presence facility to provide long distance phone service to customers in a particular city.

Wifi

Wifi access points deployed at strategic locations such as airports can be considered a point of presence.

Overview: Point Of Presence
Type	Telecom Data Centers Networking
Definition (1)	Remote equipment that is used to extend a network.
Definition (2)	Network and computing equipment installed in another firm's facility that is used to connect to clients, infrastructure and networks in order to extend network services.
Related Concepts	Last Mile Networking Telecom Colocation