Wichita State University has been selected as the site for the first Internet Exchange Point in Kansas.  The facility is expected to make local and regional internet connectivity faster and more secure.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced a $5 million grant to fund construction of the facility.  It will be owned and operated by Connected Nation Internet Exchange Points (CNIXP) LLC, a joint venture between Kentucky-based nonprofit Connected Nation and carrier hotel pioneer Hunter Newby.

If the site is approved by the Kansas Board of Regents, the IXP will be located on a vacant lot owned by WSU at the northwest corner of East 21st Street North and Fountain Avenue, directly across from WSU’s Eck Stadium.

CNIXP will provide space and services for Wichita State to establish a network interconnection presence in the facility at no cost for 40 years.

IXPs, which are common in many large metropolitan areas, are internet hubs where all types of networks exchange data traffic.  The facility is expected to improve internet performance, affordability and reliability for Wichita State and its Innovation Campus, as well as the Shocker Neighborhood users.

Connected Nation chairman and CEO Tom Ferree said in a press release that the facility “will also support economic development by improving the entire regional broadband landscape — preparing Wichita, and Kansas more broadly, for the future evolution of the Internet and all that it will enable. The facility will also put Kansas ‘on the map’ for new long-haul fiber optic cable builds and will directly support the state’s new open-access fiber optic conduit system that is being built under a separate $42.5 million federal grant that was awarded to the Kansas Department of Commerce back in June. ”

WSU President Rick Muma said, “A carrier-neutral IXP located in the heart of Kansas at Wichita State will build bridges of connectivity and access to meet the ever-evolving demands of education and commerce to all Kansans.”