It's true. The localization of content, applications, and compute in local hubs like São Paulo—paired with submarine cable delays, network buildout logistics, and the simple fact that bandwidth demand can't keep doubling—has slowed bandwidth demand in Latin America.
Apr 3, 2025
One Patent to Rule Them All? Demystifying China’s “Terrifying” Cable-Cutting Tech
My family has probably watched Lord of the Rings a dozen times or more1. We can (and sometimes will) quote entire passages from the films.
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are a geographically distributed network of servers (caches) that work together to deliver content by moving it closer to the end-users.
Back in early 2019, after months of speculation linking Telefonica to a sale of its Central American operations, the Spanish telecom giant agreed to offload all five of its units in the region.
By the end of 2019, the Madrid-based group had unveiled a five-point turnaround strategy to overhaul its business.
Mar 24, 2025
The Lay of the Land (of Local Zones)
In early 2022, AWS announced a new element to its cloud network infrastructure: the local zone.
With increased focus on moving cloud services closer to end-users, the local zone provides low-latency access to applications running closer to customers.
Google offers a similar service with its dedicated interconnect service, an option to connect to a low-latency colocation facility that provides latencies of less than 5 milliseconds between the workloads in a specified region and the on-ramp location.
OVH launched the same local zone service in the first quarter of 2024, and Microsoft joined in as well with their extended zone service launched in the summer of 2024.
Here's how these services differ—and how many have launched.
We're pumped to have Dennis Thankachan, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear, back on TeleGeography Explains the Internet.
Last time Dennis joined us on the show, we dug into Lightyear's approach to creating a digital telecom lifecycle automation platform for enterprise networks.
This time, we discuss their State of Connectivity Report, which dovetails nicely with many of the issues we research here at TeleGeography. (Perhaps this read is a perfect companion to our State of the Network? A match made in heaven, etc.)
When discussing submarine cable bandwidth, it’s crucial to distinguish between lit capacity and potential capacity.
These terms are not interchangeable, and the difference between them explains a key aspect of the submarine cable market.
Mar 13, 2025
A Significant Slowdown in Cloud Region Deployment
In 2024, 13 new cloud regions were launched globally. This marks a significant slowdown in the deployment of new cloud regions.
There hasn't been a year with fewer than 20 new regions since 2017. As you may recall, 26 regions launched in 2023, 24 in 2022, 27 in 2021, and 25 in 2020. At the peak in 2019, 41 regions came online.
Mar 12, 2025
Data Centers 101: Technical Terms You Should Know
From cross connects to PUE, the data center industry is packed with technical jargon.
Today, we’re breaking down 13 key colocation terms. Whether you're new to the field or just need a refresher, this simple glossary can help.
Mar 6, 2025
The Rise of Fiber
Fiber broadband is now by far the most common means of fixed broadband connectivity worldwide, although the picture varies from region to region.
