The Internet is not moving away from interconnection, but the way networks interconnect is changing. For decades, Internet Exchange Points have served as visible, open, and locally grounded meeting points where networks could exchange traffic, build relationships, improve performance, and strengthen regional Internet ecosystems. Today, that model remains essential, but it is increasingly accompanied, and sometimes bypassed, by other forms of interconnection: Private Network Interconnects, remote peering, Virtual Peering Providers, cloud on-ramps, CDN deployments, and hyperscaler interconnection fabrics.

This presentation explores the “Peering Disconnect”: the growing gap between the traditional understanding of peering as open, public, local, and many-to-many, and the evolving reality of traffic exchange that is increasingly private, concentrated, platform-mediated, and less visible to the wider community. The session will examine how these shifts affect IXPs, network operators, content networks, and smaller providers seeking efficient and equitable access to major traffic sources, while taking into consideration differences between connectivity developed and developing markets.

Rather than asking whether IXPs are still relevant, the presentation asks how their role is changing. Are IXPs still primarily traffic aggregation points, or are they becoming trust anchors, discovery platforms, community institutions, resilience infrastructure, and neutral convening spaces in a more complex interconnection environment? What happens when the most important traffic relationships move into private arrangements? And how should the peering community explain these changes to policymakers who may already misunderstand how Internet interconnection works?

Drawing on ideas from recent Internet infrastructure policy work, the presentation will also consider why these market and technical shifts matter for regulatory debates. Attendees will leave with a sharper understanding of how peering is evolving, what risks are emerging, and what the interconnection community can do to preserve openness, resilience, and local value.