Metropolitan Area Exchange

At an MAE, a number of Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, link up to exchange data – usually via an Ethernet network – without that data having to pass across an Internet backbone. Before UK ISPs linked their systems at the LINX in London, e-mail from one to another might be routed via the USA. America's first two MAEs were set up on opposite coasts and known as MAE East and MAE West.