A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities. It may include a meet-me-room.
In the US, this term became important during the court-ordered breakup of the Bell Telephone system. A point of presence was a location where a long-distance carrier (IXC) could terminate services and provide connections into a local telephone network (LATA).
An Internet point of presence is an access point to the Internet. It is a physical location that houses servers, routers, ATM switches and digital/analog call aggregators. It may be either part of the facilities of a telecommunications provider that the Internet service provider (ISP) rents or a location separate from the telecommunications provider. ISPs typically have multiple PoPs, sometimes numbering in the thousands. PoPs are also located at Internet exchange points and colocation centres.