Does a bigger network mean better performance?

Not reliably. Announced address space measures how much address space a network is responsible for, not how well it reaches other networks. In our verified IP transit set the largest provider by address space appears at no public exchange points, while a provider a twentieth its size sits at 78.

Why do some large providers show no exchange point presence?

It usually reflects a different commercial model rather than a weakness. Some large networks sell direct connectivity and interconnect privately instead of at public exchanges. It is a real difference in how traffic reaches you and it is worth asking about directly.

What does network-verified mean here?

It means the provider runs its own network and we confirmed that from public routing evidence, rather than accepting a listing the provider filled in about itself. That is what makes these two numbers comparable across providers.

Research note

The biggest IP transit networks are not the best connected ones

Cogent announces 37 million addresses and appears at zero exchange points. Equinix announces a twentieth of that and sits at 78. Size and reach are not the same purchase.

By Steven Higashi · Updated 2026-08-05 · 4 min read

Cogent is one of the largest IP transit networks in our verified set by the measure hardest to fake, the address space it actually announces: 37,295,104 addresses. It appears at zero public exchange points.

Equinix announces 1,688,576 addresses, roughly a twentieth as many. It sits at 78 exchange points.

Those two facts sit next to each other in the same dataset, and together they undermine the way most buyers build a transit shortlist.

The two numbers measure different risks

Announced address space tells you how much of the internet a network is directly responsible for. It is a scale signal. It is also the number that tends to match the sales deck, which is part of why it dominates shortlists.

Exchange point presence tells you how many places that network meets other networks as an equal. It is a reach signal, and it is closer to the thing you actually feel: whether your traffic takes a short path or a long one, and what happens on the day a path fails.

A network can be enormous and reach you badly. A network can be small and reach you extremely well. Lumen sits at the top of this category with 77,181,696 addresses. That matters for some workloads. On its own it says nothing about whether Lumen meets your other providers where you need them to meet.

The networks that punch above their size

Three providers in the verified set carry far more interconnection than their scale predicts.

Equinix is the clearest case, thirteenth by address space and first by exchange points at 78. Telstra International holds 42 exchange points while ranking fifteenth by size. NT in Thailand holds 23 exchange points at seventh by address space.

None of them surface if you sort the market by size, which is how most directories present it and how most shortlists get built.

The same pattern is sharper in GPU cloud

Look at the GPU category and the effect gets more extreme. Akamai leads it on address space at 20,918,992. Gcore announces 192,512 addresses, about one percent as many, and sits at 103 exchange points.

By size Gcore looks like a minor player. By interconnection it is one of the most reachable networks in the entire directory. If you picked on scale alone you would never look at it.

How to use this when you shortlist

Ask the two questions separately, because they answer different risks, and ask the geography question third.

Ask about announced address space when you care about a provider's independence and staying power.
Ask about exchange point presence when you care about latency, route diversity and failure behaviour.
Ask where those exchange points are. Seventy-eight of them spread across regions you do not serve is a worse answer than six in the two metros you do.
Use certifications to break ties, not to build the list. Of the 25 largest IP transit providers we verified, 17 publish at least one.

In short

Address space and exchange point presence are different purchases and should be asked about separately.
The most interconnected networks are often mid-sized, so a size-sorted shortlist hides them.
Gcore announces about one percent of Akamai's address space and holds 103 exchange points.
Where the exchange points sit matters more than how many there are.

Questions

Does a bigger network mean better performance?: Not reliably. Announced address space measures how much address space a network is responsible for, not how well it reaches other networks. In our verified IP transit set the largest provider by address space appears at no public exchange points, while a provider a twentieth its size sits at 78.
Why do some large providers show no exchange point presence?: It usually reflects a different commercial model rather than a weakness. Some large networks sell direct connectivity and interconnect privately instead of at public exchanges. It is a real difference in how traffic reaches you and it is worth asking about directly.
What does network-verified mean here?: It means the provider runs its own network and we confirmed that from public routing evidence, rather than accepting a listing the provider filled in about itself. That is what makes these two numbers comparable across providers.