Mar 19, 2024

Towards an Interconnection Index: Ranking the World’s Greatest Hubs

At TeleGeography, we’ve been working on a project called the Interconnection Index. This tool is designed to answer some questions that we’ve found very difficult to answer and quantify in the past.

What is the next emerging hub in a specific region? How do various hubs compare to each other? Where should I expand in a certain country besides the largest city?

It would be quite challenging to create a one-size-fits-all model that can answer all of these questions appropriately. But we’re still going to try!

We’re going to address this problem with data, and—because we’re geography geeks—maps.

Mar 15, 2024

Beyond the Red Sea Blues: West Africa Faces Fresh Cable Faults

As if three cable faults in the Red Sea weren’t enough of a headache, a series of West African cables were damaged on March 14.

The precise location and cause of all of these faults are not known at this time, but let’s look at what we do know.

Mar 14, 2024

Explaining the Internet Through the Lifecycle of a YouTube Video

Last week, we wrapped up a five-part podcast special that literally explains how the internet works.

This series describes precisely how data moves around the world, covering the basics of internettransport networksdata centers, the cloud, and WAN along the way.

At the end of each episode, I thought it would be fun to relate what we talked about to a real world example: the lifecycle of a YouTube video.

To paint the full picture, I've compiled each piece of the story here. Keep reading to find out how a video goes from one camera to millions of screens around the world.

Mar 13, 2024

Red Sea Roundup: Five Articles Worth Reading

This month, we’ve seen countless headlines swirling about Houthi attacks and submarine cable faults in the Red Sea.

With so much press activity, it can be tough to distinguish fact from rumor. To help you cut through the noise, here are some resources that our team recommends reading/watching.

Mar 12, 2024

The Data Center Market Blazes a New Trail

When it comes to the nature of exploration, there are typically a number of underlying forces at play, some positive and some negative.

The “pioneering spirit” could be inspired by the excitement of new opportunities, or by the pressure of existing difficulties.

The data center market happens to be dealing with both of those sentiments right now, with several factors driving it to new places.

Mar 7, 2024

What is a WAN?

Welcome back to TeleGeography Explains the Internet. We've reached the finale of our five-part series that makes good on our name, literally explaining the ins and outs of the interwebs.

Over the past five weeks, we've endeavored to explain precisely how data moves around the world, covering the basics of internet, transport networks, data centers, and the cloud along the way.

Today we answer the lingering question: What is a WAN?

Mar 5, 2024

What We Know (And Don't) About Multiple Cable Faults in the Red Sea

We recently wrote about how Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are causing headaches for the undersea cable industry.

Since then, the industry has suffered three cable faults in the region.

Feb 29, 2024

What is the Cloud?

Welcome back to our five-part podcast special that seeks to demystify the internet. 

Our last episode focused on data centers, but we didn’t get into what happens on the rows and rows of servers you would find in those facilities.

So today we're explaining the cloud.

Feb 26, 2024

Introducing the 2024 Africa Telecommunications Map

If you liked last week's Submarine Cable Map reveal, you'll be stoked to hear that we've got another new map up our sleeve.

Meet the 2024 Africa Telecommunications Map.

Feb 23, 2024

Flashback Friday: Submarine Cable Repair in the 1980s

If you've read over our Submarine Cable Frequently Asked Questions, you know that cable faults are common. On average, there are over 100 each year.

Of course, as a society heavily dependent on these cables, we've gotten quite good at repairing them.

But what was the repair process like a few decades ago? How were we fixing cables back in the era of the Walkman?

Time for a trip down memory lane.