Understanding Internet Infrastructure and IXPs

Abstract

This case study examines the social, political, and economic dynamics behind the creation of Mexico’s first Internet Exchange Point (IXP), highlighting the broader implications for digital sovereignty, market competition, and infrastructural inequality. Until 2014, Mexico was the largest OECD country without a local IXP, forcing internet traffic to route through commercial nodes in the United States. Despite new telecommunications reforms and regulatory mandates to increase competition, the dominant provider, Telmex, resisted meaningful participation, circumventing legal requirements to avoid peering with smaller ISPs. While the IXP was eventually established, it remains underutilized and financially fragile, illustrating how powerful incumbents can shape or obstruct infrastructure governance. Smaller ISPs face high costs and low incentives to join, as Telmex’s control over transit services remains economically preferable. This case offers a critical lens on how global internet infrastructure is unevenly distributed and politically contested. It invites reflection on infrastructural justice, the geopolitics of data flow, and the challenges of enforcing equitable internet access in markets with entrenched monopolies.