Building a point of presence feels like real ownership. Sometimes it is; often it’s a way to sink capital into a city before you’ve proven the demand. Here’s how to decide.
A point of presence — your own racks, routers and edge in a metro — is powerful and expensive. The question is rarely ‘can we?’ but ‘should we, here, yet?’
| Question | Lean build | Lean lease |
|---|---|---|
| Proven demand in this metro? | Yes, sustained | Not yet / testing |
| Capex available? | Yes | No / preserve cash |
| Time to market | Can wait weeks | Need it now |
| Volume | High, steady | Low / uncertain |
| Ops capability | In-house | Limited |
For most operators entering a new metro, lease first to prove the demand, then build once the volume justifies the capex. Building ahead of demand is how capital gets stranded in a city that didn’t convert. Build follows proven traffic, not hope.
This mirrors the platform decision in build vs buy vs wholesale: ownership is worth paying for once you have the scale and certainty to use it, and premature ownership is just risk. Lease the PoP, prove the metro, then own it.
Because HySky delivers over peering and edge that can be leased or owned, an operator can start leased in a new metro and migrate to an owned PoP later without re-platforming — the software doesn’t care which.
Talk to a team that runs a live operator, not just sells software.
