The TMX Group Ltd. (TSX:X) will be launching its new cross-border microwave connection to the major U.S equity markets in May.
The company’s infrastructure division, known as TMX Atrium, announced last week that it is planning to launch a microwave network from its co-location facility in Markham, Ont. to the co-location facilities of various U.S. marketplaces in May. The initial U.S. locations will include the NYSE, NASDAQ, and the BATS/Direct Edge facilities in New Jersey.
The exchange launched plans for a new cross-border microwave network last August when it acquired New York-based Strike Technologies Services, LLC; which included an existing microwave link between Chicago and New Jersey data centres. At the time, it signaled that it planned to build a microwave route between its primary data centre in Markham and the U.S. facilities in New Jersey, which is currently served by a fibre-based network.
See: TMX to acquire microwave business of Strike Technologies
The TMX also issued a notice to confirm that telecom providers that connect to its co-location facility will continue to have physical cabled connections, regardless of whether trading firms are using wireless connections. While it anticipates greater use of wireless technologies in Canada to facilitate connections to marketplaces, the notice indicates that its procedures, “will not change regardless of the technologies utilized by market participants” to reach the facility. That means that telecom providers “must enter the building via physical cable connections”, regardless of whether they offer physical and/or wireless services.