The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is offering customers more telecommunications alternatives, such as via the internet, in a bid to make trading, clearing and viewing data on the exchange more cost-effective and accessible.

Traditionally, clients wanting access to CME systems had to install a dedicated phone line from the exchange. CME and AT&T, a US telecommunications provider, manage this circuit. It is expensive, as some clients need multiple lines, and cumbersome, with bandwidth capacity limited to 1.5 megabytes per line.