New York · network infrastructure

Two carrier buildings hold most of the state's networks. Digital Realty at 60 Hudson Street has 160 and Digital Realty at 111 8th Avenue has 130, with Equinix NY9 inside that same 8th Avenue address on 78. Telehouse runs Chelsea at 47 and the Teleport Center on Staten Island at 41, and Dataverge in Brooklyn has 19. Traffic meets in the city rather than leaving it. DE-CIX New York records 262 participants, NYIIX 192 and Equinix New York 102, while upstate exchanges in Buffalo and Albany record two each.

An IP address that reports New York reports where its operator registered the block. That registration is a document, and the machine can sit anywhere the operator's network reaches. Mobile widens the gap. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon carry subscribers through regional gateways, so a phone connected in Buffalo or Albany can present an address registered in New York City, or one registered in a neighbouring state, depending on which gateway handled the session.

Reading the origin ASN on the prefix is more reliable than reading the state field. Mobile ASNs such as 6614, 19540 and 6256 carry handset traffic, and their prefixes are registered wherever the carrier chose. A prefix announced from inside 60 Hudson Street, where 160 networks are present, belongs to a fixed operator with a fixed street address. The netname on that prefix names the operator directly, which a state field never does.