Summary

  • Uniti Wholesale has added network presence at 1547 in McAllen and H5 in Chandler, supporting 100G and 400G wavelength services.
  • Access to a carrier hotel is not automatic access to every network inside it; transport capacity, exchange ports and peering arrangements remain different purchases and decisions.

A network can reach the right building without reaching the right counterparties. That distinction determines how much of Uniti Wholesale's latest expansion will become a cheaper or shorter route for customers' traffic, rather than simply another place to order a circuit.

In its September 8 announcement, Uniti identifies new presence at 1547's site at 200 S. 10th Street in McAllen, Texas, and H5's facility at 2600 W. Germann Road in Chandler, Arizona. It describes scalable 100G and 400G wavelength services. The announcement expands wholesale access; it does not establish that Uniti has built a new international fibre crossing.

The McAllen addition sits alongside an existing Uniti presence at MDC Data Centers. It also brings transport closer to the ecosystem around MCT-IX, which 1547 announced in December 2025. Uniti presents the exchange as an opportunity to keep more regional traffic from detouring through distant interconnection markets. That is an economic possibility, not a disclosed measurement of traffic already moved.

Three interfaces separate the possibility from the result. A wavelength carries traffic between agreed endpoints. An exchange port connects a network to a shared interconnection platform. Routing arrangements determine which other networks actually exchange traffic with it. Buying the first does not automatically procure the other two.

The published speeds make the distinction concrete. Uniti discusses 400G transport, while the MCT-IX product page advertises exchange ports up to 100Gbps. Those are not rival descriptions of the same port. Nor does the difference prove congestion: demand, service design and the number of ports would matter. The release does not establish that Uniti itself has become an active MCT-IX peer.

The exchange's connection policy calls for an ASN and the ability to establish BGP sessions. It encourages route-server participation but also permits direct bilateral sessions. Shared infrastructure therefore simplifies meeting other networks without removing their individual routing choices.

Physical labels need similar care. MDC lists its MCA1 Legacy site at the same street address as the 1547 access point, alongside MCA2 at a different address. Uniti does not identify its existing MDC installation precisely enough to infer two independent buildings from two supplier names. MDC's MEX-IX and 1547's MCT-IX are also separate exchanges.

Chandler strengthens access to Southwest wavelength routes. Uniti describes a path towards broader western reach, including Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, not a newly completed dedicated route between every named location. No tariff comparison, customer traffic migration or realised savings accompanies the expansion.