point of presence (PoP)

Point of Presence (PoP) refers to the locations where dial-up nodes for telephone connections and online services are available, as in an exchange.

A Point of Presence can be an exchange, the access point from an Internet Service Provider( ISP), or the point of connection between the wide area carrier and the local carrier.

At a Point of Presence, all connections for data and voice traffic from the various exchanges are brought together. Here they are prepared for adaptation to the respective transmission media and their data rates and for routing, switched to the local and long-distance exchanges and handed over to other providers.