Hexg's Blog

Preface#

I never thought that there would really be friends paying attention to this topic. In 2020, I wrote an article on Zhihu titled Various Routes from Domestic to International (Complete Guide to VPS International Routes). At that time, I just wanted to jot down some insights from my research on international routing and share them on Zhihu. I didn't expect to find so many like-minded readers, which left me, a small and unknown figure on Zhihu, quite surprised.

Unfortunately, that year, I was unable to find the time to finish that article. By 2021, I had gained more knowledge and discussed with more friends related to the profession. Looking back, I found that the article I had written was too hasty and no longer suitable for further updates. Therefore, I decided to start a new chapter, putting as much of the latest firsthand information into the article as possible, hoping that readers would enjoy this style and that it could provide some modest help, which was my original intention for writing.

This article mainly discusses IPv4 networks; IPv6 networks are another story~ I plan to separately discuss a few important routes after organizing this article. I will directly test the VPS connected to those routes to maximize the visualization of route quality for readers.

This article is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, and excerpts can be freely used for non-commercial sharing.

Author#

This article was co-authored by samleong123, Wu Ming, and sjlleo. Special thanks to Zhu Zhu and Mushroom Kinoko for their corrections.

Update Log#

1. 2022/01/28 Added information related to NTT and IIJ in Japan.
2. 2022/02/05 Improved information related to IIJ in Japan and added information about SoftBank.
3. 2022/02/06 Removed hard-to-verify Japanese ISP information; updated information on Hong Kong ISPs; added information on South Korea, including KT-9929 and LG-9929.
4. 2022/02/18 Corrected typos, added KR region ISPs (detours), and improved SK and LG information.
5. 2022/03/10 Added MY region ISPs.
6. 2022/04/09 Modified MY - TMNet information.
7. 2022/05/06 Supplemented details on European and American ISPs and corrected some details on Hong Kong/European and American ISPs.
8. 2022/05/16 Supplemented TATA's interconnection with China Unicom in Hong Kong and Singapore.
9. 2022/05/23 Added simple DTAG information and interconnection status.

TODO#

1. Improve the interconnection information of major ISPs in Japan.
2. Improve the interconnection information of major ISPs in South Korea.
3. Add interconnection information of major ISPs in North America (big gap).
5. Add interconnection information of major ISPs in Europe (big gap).
6. Improve interconnection information of ISPs in various countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Introduction to Major Backbone Networks in China#

Currently, there are three major ISPs in China: China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile. China Telecom has two major backbone networks—163 and CN2; China Unicom has two major backbone networks—169 and A network; China Mobile has only one backbone network, CMNET. In total, there are five major backbone networks, each with its own independent international exit and direct Peering or Transit with foreign ISPs.

Additionally, there are two smaller backbone networks used for research and education purposes: CERNET (Education Network, mainly for universities) and CSTNET (Science and Technology Network). These two backbone networks also have their own independent international exits, but their overall scale is much smaller than that of China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, thus limiting the outbound bandwidth they can carry.

China Telecom's 163 backbone network Autonomous System Number AS4134

China Telecom's CN2 backbone network Autonomous System Number AS4809

China Unicom's 169 backbone network Autonomous System Number AS4837

China Unicom's A network backbone network Autonomous System Number AS9929

China Mobile's CMNET domestic backbone network Autonomous System Number AS9808

China Mobile's CMI overseas backbone network Autonomous System Number AS58453

CERNET backbone network Autonomous System Number AS4538

CSTNET backbone network Autonomous System Number AS7497

It is important to note that CMNET does not have direct interconnection with foreign ISPs but relies on its overseas backbone network CMI for interconnection.

Clearly, if we only understand this much, readers will still struggle to comprehend many subsequent contents, so we need to know more detailed information about these backbone networks. Let's take a look one by one.

The following AS BGP interconnection diagrams are sourced from bgp.he.net , copyright belongs to Hurricane Electric.

Friends who are already familiar with this may skip the introduction below.

AS4134 CHINANET China Telecom 163 Backbone Network#

Broadband service scope: regular home broadband, commercial broadband, government and enterprise broadband.

Dedicated overseas acceleration service: 163 boutique network package (Shanghai area).

Known exits: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.

The largest backbone network in the country, enjoying the largest international exit. If readers are using general China Telecom broadband or commercial broadband to access overseas websites, if the other party's ISP has not purchased China Telecom's CN2 Transit, then it will go through this backbone network.

AS4809 CNCN (CN2) China Telecom's Second-Generation Backbone Network#

Broadband service scope: home gaming and overseas acceleration broadband, commercial cross-border optimized broadband, government and enterprise broadband.

Dedicated overseas acceleration service: CN2 international boutique network package (covering almost the entire country).

Known exits: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Urumqi.

Technologically advanced, generally, there are multiple Policies to reach an ISP, providing high flexibility, thus offering stable and fast international interconnection services. Generally, those with high demands for overseas chatting and gaming will use this network. Currently, this network is one of the best backbone networks in China for providing the best rates and experiences during peak international network periods.

AS4837 China Unicom Backbone 中国联通骨干网#

Broadband service scope: home broadband, commercial broadband, government and enterprise broadband.

Overseas acceleration service: not clearly defined, or currently not launched.

Known exits: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.

If you are a Unicom user, unless the other party's ISP has purchased China Telecom's CN2 Transit/Unicom's CU Premium, it will go through the 169 backbone network. This network currently has less congestion when going abroad compared to China Telecom's 163, but overall speed and latency reliability are not as good as CN2. Due to its affordable price, it is generally the first choice for many gaming enthusiasts (international server players) and those in need of regular foreign teacher courses.

Typically, we players also tend to consider Unicom broadband more, as the currently best international network is generally Unicom's 169 backbone network.

AS9929 CHINA UNICOM Industrial Internet Backbone 中国联通工业互联骨干网#

Broadband service scope: commercial broadband, government and enterprise broadband.

Overseas acceleration service: this network specializes in overseas acceleration services.

Known exits: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.

This network was originally the backbone network of China Netcom, later merged with Unicom and renamed Unicom A network. Unicom uses this backbone network for international interconnection acceleration services, which are expensive and mainly used by multinational companies. This network no longer offers home broadband services.

AS9808 China Mobile Backbone Network#

Broadband service scope: home broadband, commercial broadband, government and enterprise broadband.

Overseas acceleration service: not clearly defined, or may be high QoS commercial broadband/data center broadband.

Known exits: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.

AS9808 is the domestic backbone network of China Mobile, which does not have direct Peering with international ISPs, so all outbound traffic is interconnected through AS58453 (CMI).

AS58453, also known as CMI, is the international backbone network of China Mobile, initially built only in Hong Kong and connected to HKIX, and later gradually expanded globally.

The current backbone network of China Mobile no longer has international exit advantages, and is slightly better than China Telecom's 163 among the three networks. Only high QoS broadband can experience the initial fun of China Mobile from 17 years ago.

AS4538 CERNET China Education and Research Network 中国教育研究网络#

Broadband service scope: campus networks of major universities and some large domestic cloud service providers.

Known exits: Tsinghua University, Beijing.

This network does not serve home broadband, commercial broadband, or government and enterprise broadband. Generally, only university students and professors frequently come into contact with this network.

Unfortunately, although the school I attend has access to the education network, the student broadband at the school uses the CN2 government and enterprise network, so I have limited ability to assess the actual exit levels of this network. I await relevant informed individuals to fill in the gaps.

Interconnection Details Between Domestic ISPs and International ISPs#

Asia-Pacific Region#

Hong Kong, China#

Common ISPs: CMI, CUG, NTT, PCCW, Telia, Telstra, CHT, HKBN, HKT, WTT, HGC, GTT, TaTa, HE, Cogentco, SingTel.

Common IX: HKIX, EIEHKG (Equinix Internet Exchange Hong Kong).

Common Downstream: Cloudflare, Amazon, Azure, Google, CDN77, Cera Network.

The ranking of ISP connection quality in this region (for reference only, as some routes may have different qualities depending on different aggregation layers):

AS4134: CUG > CMI > Telstra > Others (For 163, only CMI, CUG, and CN2 can avoid strict QoS throttling; other ISPs directly connected to 163 generally experience consistent throttling during peak times, making further comparisons meaningless).

AS4837: CUG > CMI > PCCW > CHT > HKBN/WTT > HKT > Others.

AS58453: CMI > CUG > SingTel > HKIX > NTT > HKBN/WTT > Others.

I believe for many users in southern regions, when needing to access some global websites, the nearest CDN network is in Hong Kong (with the lowest latency). Hong Kong data centers have always been a battleground for many server hosting providers targeting the Asia-Pacific region, leading to a large number of IDC vendors. Unfortunately, although there are many mixed-quality providers, very few can offer affordable prices with direct connections to mainland China. The high prices of direct connections have deterred most vendors.

As of now, only large domestic companies like Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud dare to provide low-cost lightweight cloud services directly connected to mainland China, slashing prices from thousands to double digits. However, due to extremely high demand, they have to severely oversell bandwidth—resulting in significant latency fluctuations and random packet loss, which leads to a poor experience for visitors to websites hosted on Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud in Hong Kong.

CMI - China Mobile's Own International Backbone Network

Since CMI also sells Hong Kong resources, some downstream providers choose to purchase CMI Transit directly to obtain a high QoS experience. This way, domestic users can access these downstream providers entirely through China Mobile's backbone network, achieving a high cost-performance and high-quality access experience.

Domestic connection quality: very high, as long as the downstream provider has sufficient CMI Transit bandwidth, peak bandwidth is basically guaranteed by China Mobile. Regardless of whether it is China Telecom, China Unicom, or China Mobile (of course, for China Mobile users accessing, the priority is the highest). Although it is cost-effective, the traffic unit price is still much higher than that of American and European Transit due to being in Hong Kong.

CUG - China Unicom's Own International Backbone Network

• Thanks to friend @Mushroom Kinoko for the reminder; this has been corrected.

Like China Mobile's CMI, Unicom also sells Hong Kong resources (Autonomous System Number AS10099), and many downstream providers also choose to connect to CUG resources, which provides a good quality guarantee for Unicom users.

Domestic connection quality: very high, as long as the downstream provider has sufficient CUG Transit bandwidth, peak bandwidth is basically guaranteed by China Unicom. Regardless of whether it is China Telecom, China Unicom, or China Mobile (of course, for Unicom users accessing, the priority is the highest).

NTT (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4809, AS58453

In Hong Kong, only China Telecom CN2 and China Mobile can connect directly, with China Telecom CN2 purchasing NTT Transit. Other networks like China Telecom 163 and China Unicom 169 will detour through Japan and the United States, as detailed in NTT (Japan) and NTT (USA).

Connection quality: It should be noted that CN2 is not always reliable, especially in Hong Kong. CN2 to Hong Kong NTT is unreliable, sometimes experiencing severe latency fluctuations. If high stability is required, it is not recommended for CN2 users to use networks connecting to Hong Kong NTT.

If China Mobile does not purchase their commercial high QoS broadband, connecting directly to NTT during peak times will be throttled, with significant increases in packet loss and latency, and speeds generally unable to exceed 10 Mbps. For high QoS China Mobile users, the situation is also not optimistic; during peak times, due to significant congestion at the aggregation layers in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the maximum speed often cannot exceed 200 Mbps.

Special CM2 boutique network large customers are exceptions; these customers have purchased China Mobile's international acceleration services, and China Mobile prioritizes guaranteeing the bandwidth of these VIP paying customers, with QoS levels only second to the necessary control traffic of China Mobile's internal network services, making it the highest among all operational broadband. Therefore, unless the PoP is congested, they will strive to guarantee the contracted speed under the Peering with CMI and major ISPs, even with networks like NTT and Cogent that usually have high traffic.

PCCW (Hong Kong)/HKT

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS9929, AS58453

We often have many opportunities to interact with PCCW, which also has a network responsible for international optimization called PCCWG (G=Global). The vendors we usually encounter generally connect to PCCW (not including the G network). In fact, the effectiveness of PCCW is often exaggerated; even if the route can connect directly, the overall connection effect is merely average.

Whether China Telecom 163 (AS4134) connects directly to Hong Kong PCCW depends on whether the local telecom network has its own AS number, such as Beijing Telecom's AS4847 metropolitan area network, Shanghai Telecom's AS4812 metropolitan area network, etc. Generally, if the local network has its own metropolitan area AS number for jurisdiction, unless the vendor has special optimizations, it usually does not connect directly to Hong Kong PCCW; otherwise, if it is directly on AS4134, it generally connects directly. The connection from the telecom network to PCCW generally only reaches two aggregation layers in Beijing and Guangzhou, while the Shanghai aggregation layer is unreachable, resulting in high packet loss during peak times and unsatisfactory speeds.

Unicom 169 (AS4837) may detour through the United States to reach Hong Kong PCCW, for the same reasons as mentioned for China Telecom, which will not be repeated. In direct connection scenarios, Unicom's performance to PCCW is far better than that of China Telecom, remaining in a usable state.

Unicom A network (AS9929) has the best network quality among all these networks connecting to PCCW, with the lowest latency fluctuations. However, the price of 9929 is many times more expensive than CN2, making it generally inaccessible without significant financial resources...

China Mobile's CMI (AS58453), if there is no vendor optimization, will randomly route traffic to the United States, Japan, or Hong Kong to achieve traffic balance. From the user's perspective, this leads to fluctuating latency and very unstable connections, making it not recommended for China Mobile users.

At the same time, HKT belongs to PCCW, and all international exits go through PCCW/PCCWG. HKT can connect to PCCWG and Germany directly, so it is also referred to as a gaming god line. However, ordinary HKT home broadband/static connections vary by segment; Unicom 169 may detour through Korean KT or connect directly; Unicom 9929 interconnects with HKT through PCCW.

Telstra Global (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS4538, AS9929, AS58453.

This network is familiar to users of education networks, as Pacnet is part of Telstra, which has taken on the primary export responsibilities for the education network in the Asia-Pacific region.

Telstra is one of the few ISPs that can connect directly to Hong Kong from all three networks, making it very friendly to us. Even China Telecom 163 can connect directly to Telstra in Hong Kong, achieving peak speeds that are among the best in the China Telecom 163 network. I have always highly recommended Telstra, so I keep promoting it here. Additionally, Telstra is a cost-effective solution for low latency from China Telecom 163 to the Asia-Pacific region (especially India, Australia, and Singapore).

Traceroute to India Telstra Global

Unicom's 169 network to Telstra is also not bad; the direct connection bandwidth in Hong Kong is large, and during peak times, according to nearly a year of SmokePing data, it is very stable. If you want to get a VPS in Singapore, choosing a Telstra route is also a good option~ (VPS with Telstra routes in Hong Kong are rare).

AS9929 has Peering with Telstra Global, and peak speeds are very impressive.

The interconnection between Hong Kong Telstra and China Mobile's CMI is relatively poor... Overall interconnection bandwidth is significantly inferior compared to NTT and HKIX, which also sets the stage for a sharp increase in latency during peak times (once the interconnection bandwidth is saturated, packets need to queue, causing latency to rise immediately). Smaller bandwidth can affect the stability of the route; if a DDOS attack fills the PoP, latency and packet loss can make the network instantly unavailable.

Therefore, before deciding to use a Telstra route server, it is best for China Mobile users to think carefully.

CHT (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

CHT, or Chunghwa Telecom, is the largest ISP in Taiwan, with two major backbone networks (CHW "HINET" and TWGATE). The Hinet we usually refer to is the CHW network, and the relationship between CHW and TWGATE can be likened to that between China Telecom 163 and CN2.

Unfortunately, starting a few days ago, the performance of the connection from China Telecom 163 backbone network to CHW network has plummeted, with both low and peak download speeds being dismal. Therefore, unless you have business needs, I do not recommend hosting personal websites on CHW, as the high cost cannot match its latency and speed, making it a poor choice in terms of cost-performance ratio.

In contrast to the poor performance of China Telecom 163, Unicom 169 performs much better, with similar latency but lower packet loss and higher peak speeds. However, given the high prices of hosting in this region, if you are a Unicom user, CHW may not be the best choice either.

Do not have too high expectations for China Mobile's CMI; its performance varies greatly between low and peak times, often performing poorly during peak times. The aforementioned Telstra still has some speed, while this one often cannot produce any speed at all, making it not recommended.

HKBN/WTT

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

HKBN mainly serves Hong Kong broadband, so it is discussed together. Currently, there are no other cases in the Asia-Pacific region connecting to them. Generally, it is only used for streaming media unlocking purposes.

All three networks can connect directly to HKBN. However, there is no information indicating that HKBN has a strong international backbone network, and these two companies do not have any special features, so I will keep it brief.

HE (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS58453 (Through HKIX), AS9929 (via HKIX).

China Mobile can connect directly to HE Hong Kong through HKIX, but this operation requires IDC to adjust the routing table; otherwise, China Mobile's default connection to HE Hong Kong will detour through the United States.

Unicom 9929 can also connect directly to HE Hong Kong through HKIX. Previously, it connected through CUG's HKIX, but now it connects through Unicom 9929's own interconnection with HKIX.

One of the three major detour networks, so for China Telecom, Unicom 169, and the education network, they will detour through the United States. For details, see HE (USA).

TaTa (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4837, AS9929.

China Telecom 163 originally had Peering with Tata in Hong Kong, but now it basically does not use it, and the specific reasons are unknown. Unicom connects directly to Tata in Hong Kong, and in most cases, the return route detours through the United States. Anhui Unicom commercial broadband to Hong Kong GCP/Taiwan GCP (standard IP) returns via Tata directly. This route occurs very rarely, and Unicom 4837 has a bandwidth of about 600 Mbps Peering with Hong Kong Tata.

With special optimization, Unicom 9929 can achieve direct connection through Peering with Tata and CUG. However, non-optimized routes will detour through the United States even if they have Peering with CUG. It is indeed the top detour network...

Cogentco (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: none.

One of the three major detour networks. Cogentco has no domestic ISPs that can connect directly in Hong Kong. China Telecom, Unicom 9929, China Mobile, and the education network will detour through the United States, while Unicom 169 will detour through Singapore. For details, see Cogentco (USA) and Cogentco (Singapore).

GTT (Hong Kong)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: none.

GTT has no domestic ISPs that can connect directly in Hong Kong. All three networks will detour through the United States; see GTT (USA).

Macau, China#

Common ISPs: China Telecom (Macau Branch), CTM, MTel.

China Telecom (Macau)

China Telecom operates its own branch in Macau, with all domestic networks able to connect directly, using AS4134 or AS4809 (GIA).

CTM

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134*, AS4837*, AS58453.

* Not all IPs connect directly; non-mainland optimized international networks do not connect directly.

CTM is the earliest established telecom company in Macau, providing internet services in the region, and is still the largest ISP locally.

CTM has long been interconnected with China Telecom 163 and Unicom 169, with reliable network quality. However, CTM's data center hosting services are divided into two categories: one is domestic optimization, providing domestic direct connection routes, and the other is cheaper international routes, which do not provide domestic direct connections. Currently, the more affordable VPS in Macau on the market are international routes and are not optimized for the mainland.

China Mobile later expanded into Macau's mobile internet business and built a PoP in Macau, but the Macau PoP only connects to the Hong Kong PoP. Therefore, if China Mobile users need to access Macau CTM, they must first go through Hong Kong, resulting in higher latency (about an additional 6 ms).

MTel

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS58453.

MTel was established in 2011 and is the newest telecom company operating in Macau. MTel has already interconnected with China Telecom 163, but due to its small capacity, the interconnection effect is poor—interconnection between Macau MTel and China Telecom 163 often becomes saturated, leading to significant latency fluctuations. During peak hours, the speed is also unsatisfactory due to the overall interconnection bandwidth size.

Unicom detours through Japan NTT, mainly depending on the performance of Unicom to Japan NTT, while China Mobile uses its own Macau PoP, mainly depending on whether CMI performs well.

Taiwan, China#

Common ISPs: HiNet, TFN (Taiwan Fixed Network), SeedNet, TaNet (Taiwan Academic Network), HomePlus (Chung Hwa Broadband).

Common IX: TWIX.

HINET

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS58453, AS4837.

Among them, AS4134 and AS4837 have noticeably higher latency than AS58453. Guangzhou Mobile latency is about 40 ms, Wuhan Telecom home broadband environment latency is about 50 ms to 60 ms, Beijing Telecom commercial broadband is about 70 ms, Shanghai Unicom commercial broadband latency is about 170 ms, and Changsha Unicom commercial broadband latency is about 140 ms.

HiNet is a brand of Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and is the largest broadband provider in Taiwan. Currently, the mainstream streaming media unlocking in Taiwan uses HiNet dynamic IP (home broadband) and static IP (commercial broadband, IDC). HiNet has the largest telecom backbone network in Taiwan and is the ISP with the largest outbound traffic to mainland China. CHT also has a TWGate network focused on international interconnection, which is equivalent to China Telecom's CN2.

TFN

Taiwan Fixed Network.

SeedNet

TaNet

HomePlus

Japan#

Common ISPs: NTT, IIJ, KDDI, BBTEC, Telstra, PCCW, BGP.NET.

Common IX: JPIX, BBIX, EIEHND (Equinix Internet Exchange Tokyo).

Common Downstream: Cloudflare, Amazon, Azure, Google, M427, xTom.

The broadband business in Japan is highly competitive, forcing ISP providers to offer lower prices to attract customers, but often to no avail—the user reputation tends to be worse. For example, the ISP service provider BBTEC, co-founded with Alibaba, seems like a good choice, but during peak evening hours, the network congestion leads to a poor experience. Imagine if sending a message takes forever; it can be incredibly frustrating.

Not only home broadband but also commercial broadband and even server data centers have high costs for accessing an ISP line. Moreover, many Japanese IDCs only provide services to residents of Japan, leading to many agency services, the most famous being server agency services from Sakura Data Center. Often, only these IDCs that are open to locals can provide native IPs (which can unlock many local streaming media, games, and websites, making it very meaningful), so even if they have to pay high agency fees, many people with needs will still go to purchase.

NTT

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS9929, AS58423.

As NTT's home base, almost all broadband service providers in Japan have traces of NTT. Because NTT's backbone network covers almost all areas that can be covered in Japan.

Regarding NTT in Japan, I want to mention a lot in this article, but due to space limitations, I will keep it brief - -...

NTT has interconnected with domestic ISPs early on. After 2000, NTT interconnected with the then China Netcom, setting up interconnection exits in Shanghai and Beijing, and building NTT PoP nodes in both cities (a few foreign ISPs have set up PoPs in China).

It is worth mentioning that this is currently the channel with very low and stable latency for direct connections from China to Japan NTT. CN2 cannot compete with it. According to actual measurements, the speed of NTT-9929 basically depends on the bandwidth speed of the user connecting to 9929.

The expansion between China Telecom 163 and Japan NTT has been much more active. Telecom has also set up a PoP in Tokyo, Japan, to facilitate rapid interconnection with local Japanese ISPs. Sounds great, right? However, this does not prevent daily explosions between China Telecom 163 and Japan NTT (most of which are caused by massive DDOS traffic).

In most cases, the 163-Tokyo NTT and 163-Singapore NTT lines are the worst quality among all interconnection lines of the 163 network, without exception.

According to monitoring records from the past month, the average latency from Shanghai Telecom to Tokyo NTT (measured over half an hour) fluctuates between 48 and 295 ms, with peak one-hour average packet loss rates reaching up to 40%, and peak one-minute average packet loss rates reaching an astonishing 99% in extreme cases. This means that during peak times, even detouring through the United States provides a better experience than direct connections.

Unicom's 169 network had two routes to Japan NTT in the early days: one from Beijing to Osaka and the other from Shanghai to Tokyo. Although Unicom 169 has generally been regarded by users as having high-quality international exits, these two NTT routes are not as good as readers might think.

The Beijing Unicom 169 - Japan Osaka NTT line was actually built by China Netcom. After Unicom acquired China Netcom, it allocated the PoP of China Netcom to itself. To this day, we can find historical evidence in the rDNS of the NTT PoP IP in Beijing:

129.250.8.26(xe-0.cnc-g.osakjp02.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net)
Here, CNC stands for the former China NetCom, and osakjp refers to Osaka, Japan. xe indicates that the backbone network routing uses routers developed by Juniper, with each line having a 10 Gbps port.

However, now that Unicom is continuously expanding its international market, it has also set up PoPs in Tokyo and Osaka, but currently, the return route towards Beijing still goes through NTT's Beijing PoP, while the direct route to Shanghai uses Unicom's own PoP in Japan.

After recent expansions and optimizations, the northern Unicom 169 towards Japan NTT has also seen significant improvements (currently temporarily stopping the Beijing-Osaka route, now going through Shanghai), with latency significantly reduced. Although the outbound route detours a bit more, the latency has decreased a lot, which is still acceptable.

As a latecomer, China Mobile initially relied on Hong Kong CMI to access Japan NTT, and only in the past two years has it opened a PoP in Tokyo, Japan, and used the new NCP submarine cable to connect directly without detours through Hong Kong.

However, currently, China Mobile to Japan NTT does not use NCP but continues to detour through Hong Kong CMI. It is estimated that in the near future, after direct connections are established, there will be a better latency experience.

IIJ

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58423.

The interconnection between China Telecom 163 and IIJ is achieved through Telecom's PoP in Tokyo, allowing easy access to the PoP node through the three major aggregation layers in China. The quality of the interconnection network is far better than that with NTT. IIJ is one of the best routes for China Telecom 163 users to visit Japanese websites, currently surpassing SoftBank. Without considering peak packet loss and latency fluctuations, it is a cost-effective choice.

The interconnection method between China Unicom 169 and IIJ is almost the same as that of Telecom, but overall, it is better than the quality of the interconnection between 163 and IIJ. The IDC providing IIJ access is relatively affordable, so if you are unwilling to accept SoftBank's high prices, you might as well try IIJ. Additionally, the education network accesses IIJ through Unicom 169 backbone network.

Currently, China Mobile's interconnection with IIJ has been completed through Tokyo Mobile's PoP, so China Mobile to Japan IIJ no longer detours through Hong Kong but connects directly through the NCP submarine cable to Tokyo's PoP and then interconnects with IIJ. The reference latency from Shanghai Mobile to Tokyo IIJ is 45 ms (in practice, it can achieve 32 ms).

In summary, IIJ is relatively friendly to us in Japan and is also one of the more affordable ISPs compared to the other three. If there are no niche demands, using a VPS through IIJ is a worry-free choice.

BBTEC

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS9929, AS58423.

BBTEC (SoftBank) is an ISP that has only recently caught our attention, with PoPs in Shanghai and interconnections with China Telecom 163 and Unicom 169/9929. This route has long been regarded as one of the best routes from Unicom to Japan.

I want to add that 9929 did not have direct Peering with SoftBank in the early days but used 4837 (Unicom 169) as a bridge. Recently, in routing tests, we can clearly see that SoftBank and 9929 have achieved interconnection at the Shanghai PoP, but the BGP ToolKit does not show any form of interconnection between the two, indicating that it is likely a Private Peer.

The latency from China Telecom 163 to SoftBank is indeed lower than to NTT, but it also does not achieve much speed. Initially, it had the lowest latency among the four major Japanese ISPs, but due to the increase in users, latency has gradually become worse than IIJ.

The latency from Unicom 169 to SoftBank is relatively unstable, depending on whether the outbound route goes through Shanghai or Beijing. Typically, BBTEC's return route goes through its Shanghai POP and interconnects with Unicom. Although the advantages of Unicom and SoftBank interconnection are not as strong as before, it is still one of the best routes from Unicom to Japan.

The latency from Unicom 9929 to SoftBank is stable, and the interconnection speed also depends on the bandwidth speed of the user connecting to 9929.

Now, China Mobile has established a PoP in Tokyo, Japan, so from the return route perspective, except for Guangzhou Mobile, which still goes through Hong Kong CMI, the rest are directly Peering in Japan and are carried back to the mainland by China Mobile's own backbone network. Currently, the outbound route still detours entirely through Hong Kong CMI, which also leads to increased latency for northern China Mobile users. Overall, SoftBank is not friendly to northern China Mobile.

KDDI

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS9929.

Once a legendary route, it is expensive, with the only advantage being low load and general latency fluctuations around 40 ms. The single-thread speed of Unicom 9929 can only reach around 100 Mbps.

Singapore#

Common ISPs: NTT, Singtel, Telstra, StarHub, MyRepublic, PCCW(G), Cogentco, HE, Tata, CMI, CUG, BGP.NET, SG.GS.

Common IX: SGIX, EIESG (Equinix Internet Exchange Singapore).

Downstream: OVH, Cloudflare, Google, Amazon.

NTT (Singapore)

Directly connectable domestic backbone networks: AS4134, AS58453.

As you can see, NTT is everywhere in the Asia-Pacific region~ Therefore, we generally regard NTT as the benchmark for ISPs in the Asia-Pacific region, which has become an accepted standard.

In Singapore, NTT also has a massive backbone resource, easily connecting to all local ISPs in Singapore. NTT also owns/uses multiple submarine cables from Singapore to Japan, allowing it to use Singapore as a springboard to connect to Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, and other countries. We will also discuss the local network situation in these regions later.

China Telecom 163 officially established interconnection with NTT in Singapore in 2020, meaning that from now on, Singapore NTT does not need to detour through Japan to interconnect with the 163 backbone network. However, the situation has worsened because the interconnection bandwidth between China Telecom 163 and NTT in Singapore is very small, resulting in almost all-day congestion, with abnormally high latency and significant packet loss. Therefore, it is highly discouraged to use 163 to connect to NTT in Singapore.

China Mobile's CMI has its own PoP in Singapore and can interconnect with NTT locally. Due to the large interconnection bandwidth, there have been no reports of congestion so far, and the mainstream channel for China Mobile users to access resources in Singapore is through the Singapore PoP.

Unicom 9929 and Unicom 169 currently cannot connect directly to NTT in Singapore; please refer to NTT in Japan.

SingTel (Singapore Telecom)

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4837, AS9929, AS58453.

Update: With the high cost-performance advantage of China Mobile's CMI Transit in the Asia-Pacific region being discovered, we can also see a large number of VPS in Hong Kong/Singapore using CMI appearing in the market. This is currently the most cost-effective large bandwidth Asia-Pacific VPS. However, the peak traffic of CMI has reached its capacity limit. If it cannot be significantly expanded, the latency and packet loss during peak hours have shown a significant upward trend.

To alleviate the pressure on its international backbone network, China Mobile has started charging higher Transit fees to third-party ISPs. Some third-party providers have adopted one-way routing methods to save costs. For SingTel, the traffic from mainland China to Singapore is much larger than that from Singapore to mainland China, and the congested part is mainly this traffic from Singapore to mainland China. Therefore, SingTel has disconnected the direct connection from China Mobile in Singapore and switched to the more general NTT. However, currently, China Mobile has implemented strict speed-limiting policies for its own network CMI and NTT, resulting in poor performance in terms of latency, packet loss, and speed.

Unicom's 169 network demonstrates "stability" to the fullest, with its support for the Asia-Pacific region absolutely commendable. In Singapore, Unicom and SingTel have direct Peering, so overall latency is almost the same as that of China Mobile. As long as the return route does not detour, using SingTel is also great. Currently, Unicom is also the only domestic ISP with direct two-way connections to SingTel in Singapore.

However, for China Telecom 163, due to the lack of Transit/Peering between the 163 network and SingTel worldwide, data will first be sent to the west coast of the United States via Tata/Telia before reaching SingTel in Singapore. However, the interconnection between China Telecom 163 and the west coast has long been saturated (in fact, not just 163, CN2 is also saturated), so the speed is very poor. Coupled with strict dynamic QoS policies, latency and packet loss worsen the situation.

It should be noted that SingTel is the largest ISP in Singapore, and in terms of international interconnection outside the mainland, SingTel still has considerable advantages. If you are in Singapore, choosing SingTel is still the best choice.

Telstra Global (Singapore)

Directly connectable backbone networks: What more do you need when it can connect directly to Hong Kong!

Since most VPS connected to Telstra are in Japan, Australia, and Singapore, and Telstra's main Peering with domestic ISPs is in HKG (Hong Kong), the speeds are certainly similar~

StarHub

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

StarHub is a major local operator providing broadband services. Due to its large scale, it is often used for unlocking new streaming media.

Since all three networks have Peering with StarHub in Singapore, does this mean that StarHub's performance to mainland China is excellent? The actual routing performance is not as good as readers might imagine. The outbound route from China Telecom 163 is direct, but the return route detours; Unicom 169's return route is direct, but the outbound route detours through Japan NTT.

Only China Mobile performs slightly better than the first two, interconnecting through Singapore EIE and StarHub. The advantage of this over the previous two is that interconnecting at the IX center is very convenient for connecting to all networks within the IX, but the capacity may be limited, making it prone to congestion during peak times.

MyRepublic

MyRepublic is also a major local operator, usually used for unlocking new streaming media. However, MyRepublic has no interconnection with any of the three major domestic ISPs, so it is best to use China Mobile CMI or CN2 as a transit.

China Telecom 163 and China Unicom 169 networks go through NTT, while China Mobile goes through Singapore EIE to StarHub and then to MyRepublic.

Cogentco

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4837.

Recently, China Unicom 169 has opened a new Peering with Cogentco in Singapore, giving new life to many Asia-Pacific Cogent single-stack broadband/servers. Through Unicom's 169 network, it can achieve a latency of 46 ms from Guangzhou Unicom to Singapore Cogentco.

Tata

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4387, AS9929 (connected via AS10099).

Tata has Peering with Unicom in Singapore and can connect directly to the Guangzhou entrance via AS4837. Currently, it is known that the lines going from Singapore Tata to Unicom are almost all machines around Mumbai, such as Linode, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc.

Malaysia#

Common ISPs: TMNet (unifi), TIMEdotCom (TIME MY), EBB.MY (Extreme Broadband), Allo Technology (City Broadband), Maxis Communications Bhd, Celcom Axiata Berhad, PCCW(G), HE, Tata, CMI.

Common IX: MYIX (The Malaysia Internet Exchange), JBIX (Johor Bahru Internet Exchange (JBIX)).

Downstream: Cloudflare, OVH, MSCHosting (Exabytes), U Mobile, DiGi Telecommunications (Telenor), MYREN (Malaysian Research & Education Network).

Almost all ISPs in Malaysia are friendly to China Mobile, with some connecting to CMI after a detour through Equinix SG, while others connect to NTT Singapore and then to NTT HK before reaching CMI HK.

TMNet (unifi)

TMNet (unifi), ASN 4788, is one of the top ISPs in Malaysia, almost monopolizing nearly 70% of the fixed broadband market in Malaysia, commonly used for unlocking Malaysian streaming media.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134 China Telecom.

China Unicom will connect to HE.Net after routing through Singapore, then detour to the United States HE.Net before connecting to mainland China.

China Telecom connects through TM to reach China Telecom Japan before connecting to mainland China.

CN2 routes through Singtel SG before jumping into Guangzhou.

China Mobile first goes to Equinix SG, then to CMI, and then to AS9808.

The interconnection with TIMEdotCom (TIME MY) is poor, often experiencing over 100 ms during peak hours.

The international network quality occasionally fluctuates.

It has Peering with OVH Singapore.

TIMEdotCom (TIME MY)

TIMEdotCom (TIME MY), ASN 9930, is the second-largest ISP in Malaysia after TMNet (unifi), providing home broadband packages that outperform TMNet (unifi) in both speed and price. A dual-way 500 Mbps home broadband with a public IP only costs around 210+ RMB, which is quite cheap in Malaysia. Currently, there are no TIMEdotCom VPS available on the market, but it can be used to unlock Malaysian streaming media.

Directly connectable backbone networks:

• IPV4: N/A

AS9808 will go through:

1. NTT SG - NTT HK - CMI HK - 9808.
2. HE.NET KL - HE.NET SG - Equinix SG - CMI Guangzhou - 9808.

The situation with the 163 backbone network and TMNet (unifi) is similar, as it will forward to Tata:
Tata SG - Tata JP - Tata US - 163 backbone network.

CN2 will go through HGC HK to connect to mainland CN2.

AS4837 will go through Singtel.

• IPV6: AS4134.

It is still uncertain how much capacity TIME has purchased from China Telecom.

However, through routing,

it can be seen that it jumps directly from the Malaysian TIME backbone to China Telecom's Singapore PoP, then directly to the mainland Telecom backbone.

AS4837: The outbound route goes through NTT SG - NTT Japan - mainland China.
The return route appears to detour through the United States, with latency reaching 200 ms or more.

Other ISPs are basically on par:

1. Maxis on AS4837 also uses Singtel.
2. Digi/U Mobile relies on AS4788 as the upstream, so the routes are basically consistent with AS4788.
3. Allo Technology's largest upstream is Cogent, and it also connects to TMNet, so some routes may go through TMNet. The largest upstream for IPV6 is HE.Net.
4. EBB.MY mainly relies on HE.Net as the upstream; it is not favorable for Mobile/Unicom/Telecom but can connect directly to CN2.

Summary:

Malaysian ISPs are generally friendly to China Mobile, and very few ISPs (like Maxis/TIMEdotCom) connect to China Unicom via direct Singtel connections, but with latency over 90+, there is a possibility of returning through Japan.
Currently, the market only has TMNet (unifi) VPS, and no similar VPS from TIMEdotCom/Maxis has been seen.

South Korea#

Common ISPs: KT, SKT, LG (detouring ISPs: NTT, PCCW, Telstra Global detour through Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, so not tested).

Common IX: KINX.

Common Downstream: Moack, Oracle, Cloudflare, Amazon, Azure.

South Korea has a developed local network, and in addition to the three major ISPs, there are also regional ISPs. The main submarine cables from mainland China to South Korea are TPE, APG, APCN-2, and NCP.

The international routing is mediocre, but relying on CDNs is sufficient. However, the bandwidth and routing to mainland China are unsatisfactory, with frequent congestion and daily blocking at direct and detour aggregation layers, resulting in significant packet loss and fluctuations (though not as exaggerated as 163-NTT).

At the same time, internet management in South Korea is relatively strict, making purchases more troublesome.

KT

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS9929, AS58453.

KT (Korea Telecom) is the largest telecom operator in South Korea, ranking first in market share.

Currently, the interconnection between China Telecom 163/CN2 and South Korea's KT is achieved through the APG submarine cable, as the APG submarine cable only lands in Shanghai. Therefore, routes to South Korea's KT currently go through the Shanghai exit. It should be noted that both China Telecom 163 and CN2 have limited interconnection bandwidth with South Korea's KT, and it is common for the aggregation layer to be congested before Peering.

The speed from China Telecom 163 to South Korea's KT can reach 100-200 Mbps in single-threaded scenarios when the Peering is not congested. However, during peak hours, the speed is severely limited due to the dual factors of aggregation layer and Peering bandwidth. Although CN2 does not have to worry too much about aggregation layer congestion, the current Peering bandwidth remains a major factor limiting speed and latency stability.

Unicom 9929 also interconnects with KT, similarly going through the Shanghai exit. During peak times, there is almost no packet loss, and the latency is extremely low, with the minimum latency approaching the Shanghai-Korea IPLC. Unfortunately, it often experiences fluctuations, although the amplitude does not exceed 5 ms. The speed is also similar to that of Japanese ISPs to 9929, with the speed from KT to 9929 depending on the bandwidth speed of the user connecting to 9929. Recently, it seems that capacity has been expanded/updated, significantly reducing fluctuations.

According to tests, the speed from KT to Guangzhou Mobile (120.197/183.240 segment) is very unstable during peak times, with the return route detouring through Hong Kong.

SK Telecom

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS58453.

SKT may be more well-known than KT in some respects. SK Telecom is the largest mobile network operator in South Korea. In fact, the network service is provided by SKT's subsidiary company, SK Broadband, as can be seen from the ASN information.

The answer for SK - 163 is simple: it connects directly through the Shanghai exit but will experience congestion, including 163+...
SK - CN2 is very stable, with Peering, and generally has no packet loss at any time, but it appears to detour through Hong Kong, with unstable speeds.
SK - CU169 (Shanghai) latency will fluctuate during peak times, and the speed is also erratic, but with unilateral acceleration, it is still usable.
CMI and SK Broadband have Peering in Hong Kong, allowing China Mobile to connect directly to it through Hong Kong to CMI, but the speed to Guangdong Mobile is unstable.

LG

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS9929.

LG is the third-largest ISP in South Korea, now known as LG Uplus, formerly called "Integrated LG Telecom." The history of LG's telecom development is essentially a history of acquisitions...
LG Uplus was formed by the merger of three LG subsidiaries: LG DACOM, LG Powercom, and LG Telecom. Among them, LG DACOM and LG Powercom were also acquired. The original LG Powercom was responsible for operating civilian networks, acquired from Korea Electric Power; LG DACOM was responsible for international communication services, which is why LG's international routing often features DACOM.

DACOM stands for Data Communication, initiated by the Korean government, with LG and Samsung jointly investing in its construction, but it has independent operating rights as an ISP . Later, due to LG's additional investment, it increased its shareholding, and LG completely took over DACOM. LG Telecom, on the other hand, was independently invested and built by LG.

LG connects directly to Unicom 169 (Shanghai) through the Shanghai exit, and with unilateral acceleration, the speed during peak times is good. However, the ICMP packet loss rate is particularly high.

LG connects directly to Unicom 9929, also through the Shanghai exit. Interestingly, although the latency is low, the speed is very unstable, with sudden spikes in latency occurring intermittently; however, during normal times, it is very stable, with almost no fluctuations, though the speed remains unsatisfactory.

Vietnam#

Common ISPs: VNPT, FPT.

VNPT

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

As the largest telecom ISP in Vietnam, VNPT has the largest backbone network and international exit in the country, but very few people use Vietnamese broadband for streaming media unlocking services.

Although China Telecom 163 interconnects with VNPT (Guangzhou exit, Ho Chi Minh City PoP), the network quality of VNPT itself is not very reliable, leading to a lack of speed during peak times being the norm. Recently, VNPT has also changed the return route of the direct connection with 163 to a detour (routing to Hong Kong and then switching to PCCW, but PCCW to Telecom now defaults to detouring through the United States), making the interconnection between China Telecom 163 and VNPT largely one-sided.

China Unicom 169 also interconnects with VNPT through the Ho Chi Minh City PoP, but like China Telecom 163, it is also a one-sided interconnection, with the return route detouring through PCCW.

China Mobile CMI interconnects with VNPT in Hong Kong, which is a routine operation. If you are interested, you can check how ISPs in Hong Kong interconnect with China Mobile.

FPT

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

If VNPT is not very friendly to the three major domestic ISPs, then FPT should be a very friendly ISP to the Vietnam region.

China Telecom's outbound route 163 will use Unicom's network to interconnect with FPT, with the return route going through Hong Kong CTG back to the mainland, but the bandwidth is small and often congested. When it is not congested, the speed is very fast, and we look forward to future expansions.

Since FPT connects to CUG, the route from Unicom 169 to Vietnam FPT goes through AS4837->AS10099->FPT. Although CUG is reliable, it is still limited by the capacity of FPT's access bandwidth, which often experiences congestion during peak hours. This can only wait for FPT to expand.

China Mobile CMI and VNPT are the same, with routine interconnections that also experience significant congestion during peak hours.

I will continue to add information about Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, and other countries later.

Europe/North America Region#

The network situation in Europe/North America differs significantly from that in the Asia-Pacific region. Most medium and small ISPs in Europe rely on IX interconnections or a mixed network access model through data center hosting.
Although the prices of commercial networks are cheaper than those in Asia, it is rare for Chinese users to encounter high-quality Regional T1 or high-quality T1 ISPs in return routing.

For example, in Europe, Orange (formerly France Télécom, AS Rank 11), Vodafone (headquartered in the UK, AS Rank 12), Deutsche Telekom (Germany Telecom AS Rank 24), and in North America, ATT (AS Rank 20), Verizon (AS Rank 21), Sprint (AS Rank 26). As a side note, BT (British Telecom) is instead a Regional T1, with an AS Rank lower than that of China Telecom.

Germany, Europe#

DTAG

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS9929.

Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany's largest ISP, is T1 level. Its mobile operator T-mobile is more well-known than DTAG.

DTAG has Peering with both AS4134 and AS4837. It is also an upstream provider for AS9929. However, the latency starts at 200+.

Regular home broadband from China Telecom 163 will be forcibly throttled, while 163plus can guarantee relatively stable latency and relatively low packet loss.

Unicom 169 depends on whether the aggregation layer is congested. In a non-congested state, it can guarantee network quality. However, this is limited to Unicom in northern regions (like Henan/Shandong).
Unicom in southern regions (like Shanghai) will be mercilessly routed through the United States, forwarded by DTAG to Level3.

AS9929 continues to perform stably, even with lower latency than AS4134 and AS4837, but the speed is very limited, almost consistently at 80 Mbps.

Cogent Communications

Cogentco has been described too clearly in the details on Traceroute, leading some to believe that the more hops, the worse the performance, making them think Cogentco is not good. Although it is indeed not very good...

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS9929, AS58453.

Cogentco is the true main interconnection force for Unicom 9929... Almost all European and American routes to 9929 will be declared by Cogentco. This leads to situations in Europe where the return route does not go through DTAG but runs through Cogentco.
Moreover, Unicom 9929's NOC generally does not actively adjust European and American routes. The speed is quite unpredictable, with single-threaded speeds fluctuating around 50 Mbps, while multi-threaded speeds can nearly reach full capacity.

Los Angeles & San Jose, USA#

Los Angeles and San Jose are important PoP centers facing the Asia-Pacific region in the western United States, with many submarine cables connecting from these two points. The interconnection between China and the United States occupies a large portion of outbound traffic and is also the main route for China Telecom 163 to go abroad.

HE

HE, short for Hurricane Electric, currently has the largest IPv6 backbone network in the world based on the number of Peers, with an Autonomous System Number of AS6939. HE also provides free IPv6 Tunnels to facilitate IPv4-only users to access IPv6 networks without barriers.

HE's development philosophy has always been to peer with more ISPs worldwide. Although it has gained a lot of local interconnections, due to its insufficient early investment in Asia-Pacific backbone networks, it has led to small Peering bandwidth with some ISPs and limited bandwidth transmission rates in transoceanic scenarios. HE has been working hard to expand, but there is still a significant gap.

The low-cost VPS products in the Asia-Pacific region (Hong Kong, Singapore) almost uniformly choose HE as their only internet access, and the bandwidth accessed is not large, averaging 1 Gbps. However, even ISPs like HE, the BGP Transit in the Asia-Pacific region is quite expensive. These vendors must oversell bandwidth significantly to make a profit at ultra-low VPS prices, which leads to a very poor user experience for low-end user groups. Many times, the slow speed of these VPS accessing external networks is not due to HE but because the IDC did not purchase enough bandwidth.

As an ISP with numerous Peers, HE has direct interconnections with all three major domestic ISPs under IPv6, making it a major Peering ISP for cross-border IPv6 networks in China, playing a very important role in promoting global IPv6 interconnection.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

China Telecom 163 and HE have a 10-20G interconnection in Los Angeles, with few significant latency fluctuations, but speed limitations are quite severe.

Unicom 169's interconnection with HE in Los Angeles is often regarded as a cost-effective choice among cheap interconnections. Compared to Unicom 169's interconnection with GTT, the quality of interconnection with HE is much better, and many users are trying to choose the more affordable option.

CMI's interconnection with the western United States has always been poor, lacking good connectivity. Coupled with the fact that the interconnection between HE and CMI is often congested, this route is not recommended for China Mobile to try.

GTT

GTT, formerly known as Global Telecom and Technology, has been working in the cross-border telecom business since its establishment in 1998.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS58453.

Unicom 169 relies heavily on GTT's interconnection in the western United States, leading to latency that is much higher than normal western U.S. latency, and the speed is not optimistic.

However, the interconnection between China Telecom 163 and GTT is surprisingly good. According to SmokePing results, the interconnection between China Telecom 163 and GTT experiences almost no packet loss throughout the day, completely limited by whether the aggregation layer is smooth. This means that as long as high QoS China Telecom broadband is used, good speeds can be achieved.

Telia

Telia is Sweden's largest telephone and telecommunications company, formerly known as the Swedish Telegraph Agency and Finnish Telecommunications. It is now renamed Arelion, but its routing name remains Telia.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS4837, AS58453.

Telia has interconnections with China Telecom 163 in both the United States and Europe. Overall, it is a fairly standard route.

Cogent Communications

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4837, AS9929, AS58453.

The situation is similar to that in Europe.

China Telecom 163 relies heavily on Cogentco's interconnection in the western United States, with a high probability of congestion.

Verizon

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS9929.

The interconnection between Unicom 9929 and Verizon is difficult to describe. The latency is not optimal, and single-thread speeds are also not optimal. During peak times, single-thread speeds fluctuate between 50-70 Mbps. However, multi-thread speeds can reach full capacity, which is quite unpredictable. Sometimes, other North American ISPs need to forward to Unicom 9929 via Verizon, and the speed of the forwarded traffic is difficult to guarantee.

Level 3

ATT

NTT

Tata Communication

Vodafone

PCCW

Comcast

Africa Region#

Kenya#

Common ISP: LiquidTelecom.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809, AS58423.

LiquidTelecom has established an African international exchange center in Kenya and signed a cooperation agreement with China Telecom. Currently, China Telecom has a PoP in Kenya and is connected to both 163 and CN2 networks, with Peering with LiquidTelecom.

LiquidTelecom is also the largest ISP in northern Africa, boasting a 100GE backbone network, which can be considered very strong. The route from China Telecom 163 to this PoP needs to first transfer at the 163 PoP in Singapore before heading to Africa. With its own backbone network and PoPs worldwide, this is why China Telecom is increasingly recognized as a Tier 1 provider.

Although it sounds impressive, in reality, the direct connection from the 163 network to Kenya is poor, but this is not due to LiquidTelecom. The main reason is the congestion at the aggregation layer of Telecom's 163 network.

For both China Unicom and China Mobile, there is no direct connection with LiquidTelecom, so they both detour.

South Africa#

In South Africa, there are three major IXs: JINX, CINX, DINX (Johannesburg Internet Exchange, Cape Town Internet Exchange, Durban Internet Exchange). Here, we mainly discuss JINX, as the others are basically unrelated to our three major ISPs.

It can be seen that China Telecom has put effort into the African region, as JINX also has a PoP for Telecom and connects to AS4134 and AS4809. This network may be familiar to many, as Misaka's servers in Johannesburg, South Africa, are connected to JINX and interconnect with Telecom CN2.

To be honest, since Unicom and Mobile have not considered expanding into Africa, this region has basically nothing to do with them...

Middle East Region#

United Arab Emirates#

Common ISP: du.ae.

Directly connectable backbone networks: AS4134, AS4809.

du.ae is a major telecom ISP in the region, with a backbone network covering the entire country. In Dubai, UAE, Telecom has a PoP and is connected to both Telecom 163 and CN2.

Telecom still connects to the UAE via Singapore's PoP. According to Ucloud's one-month TCPPing data for the UAE region, the 163 network is more stable than LiquidTelecom in South Africa, and CN2 can achieve low latency of 132 ms.

Secret#

I spent two months writing over 10,000 words, but I found that there are still many regions that I have not had time to cover. I will continue to update later~ Although I have subjectively reached conclusions about many places, relying solely on personal feelings without data support (latency fluctuations, packet loss rates, peak bandwidth averages) is too unrigorous to write directly. I will wait until I have tested everything and then gradually fill in the gaps.

If you like this article, feel free to give it a thumbs up; it might motivate me to continue updating! I will do my best to research ISP information that is not available online and present it to everyone~

If there are any inaccuracies, please point them out, and I will correct them as soon as possible. Thank you very much!