The National New-type Internet Exchange Point (NNIX), located in Xiaoshan district, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was officially launched on June 30, a milestone event for the development of the province's internet infrastructure. 

The NNIX is China's first pilot center for new-type internet exchange. According to Yu Jianjun, director of the internet security department at Zhejiang Communications Administration, the NNIX is not only a centralized exchange platform for separate networks of telecom operators, as other exchange centers usually are, but also connects with a wide range of companies specializing in internet, cloud computing, content delivery, and data services.

The NNIX, comparable to a "transport hub" on the information highway, has improved both the quality and the efficiency of the connection between various companies, said Ye Chaoyang, general manager of NNIX.

At present, the exchange point has completed its connection with the country's three major telecom operators, namely China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, as well as three internet companies, totaling a bandwidth of 422 gigabytes.

The NNIX is working on connecting with Alibaba and Wasu, two industrial leaders, and another 40 enterprises have already applied to join.

Zhejiang province started to work on opening the country's first new-type internet exchange center as early as 2015 and finally won approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2019. The first-phase project of the NNIX, backed by Zhejiang authorities, was completed in May this year.

"The national-level key internet infrastructure will lay a solid foundation for the development of Zhejiang's digital economy and boost the province's internet innovation and entrepreneurship," said an official from the Economy and Information Technology Department of Zhejiang.