SGIX and Internet Exchanges — Where Networks Meet

The internet is a network of networks. Those networks need a place to meet and exchange traffic. That place is called an Internet Exchange Point (IXP).

Singapore has two major IXPs: SGIX (Singapore Internet Exchange) and Equinix Internet Exchange Singapore. SGIX is the larger of the two by participant count, and it plays a pivotal role in keeping Singapore’s internet fast and cheap.

What an IXP Does

Without an IXP, if a Singtel user wanted to visit a StarHub-hosted website, the traffic would have to:

Leave Singtel’s network
Travel to a Tier 1 transit provider in Hong Kong or Tokyo
Come back to StarHub in Singapore

That’s absurd — two packets in the same city taking an international round trip.

With an IXP, both networks connect to a shared switch in a Singapore data centre. Traffic goes directly from one to the other — it never leaves the country.

Latency drops from 100ms+ (via Hong Kong) to under 2ms. And neither ISP pays transit fees for this traffic.

SGIX by the Numbers

Founded in 2010 by IMDA (the Singapore regulator) as a not-for-profit, member-owned exchange:

180+ peers (ISPs, content providers, CDNs, gaming companies)
10+ data centre locations across Singapore
Neutral and open — any network can join
Not-for-profit — operates on cost recovery, not margin

Why Singapore Needed Its Own IXP

Before SGIX, Singapore ISPs routed local traffic through international exchanges because peering directly was expensive and complex. The IMDA recognized this was hurting Singapore’s ambition to be a digital hub.

SGIX was designed to: - Lower costs — ISPs pay less transit fees - Reduce latency — local traffic stays local - Attract content — Netflix, Google, and others set up local caches - Increase resilience — cable outages don’t affect local traffic

What This Means for You

When you visit a popular website as a Singtel user, SGIX silently handles the exchange:

YouTube — Google peers at SGIX. Traffic stays in Singapore.
Netflix — Open Connect appliance peers via IXP. Local delivery.
WhatsApp / Instagram — Meta peers at SGIX.

This is why your latency is 4ms. SGIX is invisible to you, but it’s the reason your local internet feels snappy regardless of which ISP you’re on.

The Simba difference: Simba is also at SGIX, so local content peering is just as fast. Their disadvantage isn’t local — it’s international transit, where they rely on paid upstream connections instead of their own infrastructure.