Port Pricing, Terms, Billing

Port terms

When you provision a port, you can select one of the following contract terms. Longer contract terms come with a discount:

  • Monthly
    Discounts: NRC (0%) MRC (0%)
  • 12 Months
    Discounts: NRC (50%) MRC (4%)
  • 24 Months
    Discounts: NRC (75%) MRC (9%)
  • 36 Months
    Discounts: NRC (100%) MRC (14%)

For example, the cost of a 1 Gbps port on monthly terms would be a $400 NRC (non-recurring cost, or one-time fee) and $250 MRC (monthly recurring cost). Whereas that same port on a 36-month contract would cost $0 NRC and $215 MRC.

For more information on prices, see our pricing page.

Extending port terms

To extend port terms (e.g. move from a 12-month contract to a 24-month contract), perform a renewal on the port. For more information, see Renew an Interface.

You can make the following term changes:

  • 12 months (available to users on a monthly or 12 month plan)
  • 24 Months (available to users on a monthly, 12-month, or 24-month plan)
  • 36 Months (available to users on all plans)

Note the following:

  • Both the original service and the upgraded service are prorated for the month in which you extend terms.
  • Extending port terms essentially cancels your previous contract and begins a new one. For example, if you are currently on a 12-month contract, and then upgrade to a 36-month contract, you are adding 36 full months to your service terms.

extend port

NOTE: Note that once you extend the terms, you cannot return to a shorter contract until your current terms expire.

Term completion and renewing port terms

What happens when your contract completes depends on your current contract length.

1-month term
Ports on a monthly plan automatically renew each month and can be deleted at any time.
12, 24, or 36-month term
Within 90 days of when your contract completes, you will begin receiving reminders. If you do not renew for another extended term, your port automatically moves to a month-to-month term once your current term completes.
At this time, you can do one of the following:
  • Remain on a month-to-month contract. You will be charged the current month-to-month price of the port.
  • Delete the port without paying an Early Termination Liability.
  • You can also renew or extend the term. You do not need to increase to a longer term. For example, if you are on a 12-month term, you can renew by extending another 12 months. For more information, see Renew an Interface.

Canceling a port before the term completes

For information on how to cancel (delete) a port, see Delete an Interface.

NOTE: Per our terms and conditions, you have 24 hours to delete a port without incurring a financial penalty. This is regardless of the contract term length you selected.

The 24-hour grace period does not apply to Colt-powered ports. For more information, see Colt-Powered Ports.

Monthly terms

When you delete a month-to-month port, your next invoice is prorated to the day. If you delete within the same month you provisioned, you must still pay the full NRC.

For example, if billing for the port begins on June 10th and you delete on June 20th, you are billed for 10 days (1/3 the MRC). You are still billed the full NRC.

12, 24, and 36-month terms

If you delete a port that is still in term, you will be required to pay the remaining balance on the contract (the Early Termination Liability or “ETL”). The ETL is prorated down to the day.

No additional fees beyond the ETL are applied.

Before you can delete an in-term port, you are shown the ETL and must acknowledge the amount.

Early termination fee

When does billing start on a port?

Billing begins 15 days after provisioning OR when a port becomes operationally up, whichever happens first.

NOTE: Billing for Colt-powered ports begins immediately, regardless of operational status. For more information, see Colt-Powered Ports.

15 days

The billing date (15 days from provisioning if the port is not yet operationally up) is listed on the port’s details page.

Billing status

Operationally up

A port is “operationally up” when it meets the following conditions:

  • The cross connect is in place.
  • It is correctly sending and receiving light and is ready to send bits.

This ensures that you will not be billed for an unusable port and that the colocation facility will also have up to 15 days to correct any problems with the optics.

You can tell whether a port is operationally up by checking the Operational Status from the side panel or the details page.

Operationally down

Operationally down

Once the cross connect is correctly installed and sending light, the port becomes fully functional and the Operational Status reads Up:

Operationally up

At this point, billing begins.

For information about troubleshooting the operational status, see Troubleshooting Interfaces.

NOTE: Once billing becomes active, it does not pause should the port go operationally down again. For information about what recourses you have in the event of an outage, review our Service Level Agreement.

Updated on 12 Apr 2023