“Collocation”

“Collocation Multiple service providers sharing a single facility for housing physical network equipment are said to be collocated. In deregulated telecommunications markets, competing service providers often need to share (indeed, may be required by law to share) a number of physical facilities, such as a central office building and long distance trunks. Typically, established incumbent service providers are required to share their existing facilities with newer competitive service providers. The fact of collocation may limit the amount of space available to a service provider in each facility, making it desirable for the service provider to fit a large amount of equipment in a comparatively small space.”