The hub is designed to improve access and reduce connectivity costs to ICE's electronic energy trading platform for current and prospective ICE market participants in the region.

Six trading and technology firms that are co-located within Equinix's Chicago center have connected to the ICE platform via the new hub, enabling hundreds of their traders and customers to access ICE's markets.

The ICE global network strategy includes plans to open additional regional connection hubs in London in February, Singapore in April and New York in May. In 2005, ICE launched its European hub outside of London. Approximately 20 customers utilize the regional connection hub to access ICE's energy futures and over-the-counter (OTC) markets from within the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

"We are very pleased to be among the first to connect to ICE's new Chicago hub from our U.S. data center in the same facility," said Hamish Purdey, President of FFastFill Inc., the U.S. unit of London-based FFastFill plc. "ICE's energy markets have captured a great deal of attention in the Chicago market, and the continued build-out of their connectivity infrastructure demonstrates that both ICE and FFastFill share in a commitment to serving the electronic trading community with superior technology and cost-efficient solutions." FFastFill is the leading provider of application services to the global derivatives community.

"To continue to grow our electronic energy markets, we are taking an aggressive approach to technology enhancements and expanded connectivity options to meet the needs of participants around the globe," said Chuck Vice, ICE's President and Chief Operating Officer. "Chicago is an important market for us, and we are gratified by the early response to the new hub."

ICE's Chicago hub offers customers the ability to connect directly to ICE via data circuits ordered through their preferred local telecommunication vendors or via cross-connected Ethernet circuits within the state-of-the-art Equinix facility. Customers can determine the bandwidth size for their connections, as well as the number and type of circuits they require to meet their specific data needs.

Equinix, Inc. is the leading provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange service. Equinix's Chicago facility, which is recognized as a leading connectivity point for the financial trading industry, features an aggregation of leading financial trading companies all operating within the same center. It also provides a redundant and secure infrastructure, with interlocking "mantrap" doors, multiple layers of biometric hand-geometry scanners controlling access, hundreds of surveillance cameras and 24-hour security officers. The power operations of the center include a high- performance back-up system that guarantees uninterrupted power even in the event of utility power disruption.