IRS Designation Affirms Open-IX as a Non-Profit Professional Trade Association

CAMBRIDGE, MA, USA – November 5, 2014 – The Open-IX Association (OIX), a non-profit industry association formed to promote better standards for data center interconnection and Internet exchanges, announces it has been granted 501(c)(6) Trade Association status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The September 3, 2014 designation officially confirms Open-IX as exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code implementing the status retroactively to September 3, 2013 – its date of inception.

The IRS grants 501(c)(6) status to non-profit organizations engaged in activities that promote a common business interest and may not benefit any individual member or shareholder. The designation demonstrates that Open-IX is organized exclusively for the benefit of the Internet peering and interconnection industry, reinvesting any net income to further the overall mission of the organization.

“Obtaining 501(c)(6) status marks another major milestone in officially establishing Open-IX as a professional, non-profit trade association,” remarks Martin Hannigan, Co-Founder and Treasurer of Open-IX Association. “The designation is another step in furthering the Open-IX core mission of improving the Internet peering and massive-scale interconnection landscape across the globe. Obtaining 501(c)(6) status opens the door to additional resources and opportunities that enable the widespread propagation of Open-IX data center and Internet exchange standards, thereby benefitting the Internet industry as a whole.”

“We’d also like to extend our gratitude to the Open-IX Accounting team who supported the Association in preparing the organization and filing the application for 501(c)(6) designation,” adds Hannigan.

Open-IX is a non-profit association organized and operated by volunteers from the Internet community who aim to increase the reliability, resiliency and competitiveness of massive-scale interconnection for all. Through broad participation of interconnect and data center professionals, the Association has produced two Internet Exchange and data center consensus-based community standards and certified 21 data centers and two exchanges since its inception approximately one year ago.

The IRS letter granting Open-IX its 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status is available upon request. Open-IX’s IRS 501 (c)(6) filing can be found here.

To apply for OIX certification, email [email protected].

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About Open-IX

The Open-IX Association (OIX) is an Internet community derived effort to improve the landscape of Internet peering and interconnect in the United States. OIX encourages the development of neutral and distributed Internet exchanges in North America while promoting uniform, cost-efficient standards of performance for interconnections backed by the Internet community.  The association aims to promote common and uniform specifications for data transfer and physical connectivity and improve IX performance by developing criteria and methods of measurement to reduce the complexity that restricts interconnection in fragmented markets.  The OIX Board is comprised of volunteer representatives from the Internet community in the United States, including Paul L. Andersen; Donald S. Clark; Dan Golding; Martin Hannigan; Keith Mitchell; David Temkin; and Barry Tishgart.