Can’t believe I forgot about this! I watched this story with great interest in the wayback. This started in 2003 and was publicly outed in 2006:
"the NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing “peering links,” or major connections to other telecom providers. The largest of the links delivered 2.5 gigabits of data — the equivalent of one-quarter of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s text — per second,"
Google "Room 641A" for more information.