MAE-West
MAE-West was an Internet exchange point located on the west coast of the US in San Jose, California and Los Angeles, California. Its name officially stands for "Metropolitan Area Exchange, West", although some note the similarity to the name of the actress Mae West.
Its San Jose facility was housed in the Market Post Tower. Built in 1985, Market Post Tower, also known as the Gold Building, is a 15-story building located at 55 South Market at the corner Post Street in downtown San Jose, California.
According to its website, “MAE West is interconnected with the Ames Internet Exchange, operated by NASA at the Ames Research Center. This connection is currently two OC3c circuits directly between the FDDI switches at each end.”
In the 1990s, MAE-West was operated by MCI Worldcom and was the second-busiest exchange point on the internet, handling, by some estimates, as much as 40% of the nation's Internet traffic.
MAE is a registered trademark of Verizon for internet exchange services.
