Networks

Feb 6, 2025

The Podcast Goes Dark! (Dark Fiber, That is)

We haven't been getting enough fiber here at TeleGeography Explains the Internet, but we're about to change that.

Nutritional jokes aside, this week, we welcome Todd Chapman, a veteran in fiber development, to the hot seat. Todd walks us through the ins and outs of Layer 0 of the physical infrastructure underlying data transmission. Some classic explaining of the internet. 

In this episode, you'll get a walkthrough of the process that takes a fiber project from manufacturing to lit service—get ready to learn a thing or two about different types of fiber and their uses. We also get some good explanations of the dark fiber market and an overview of when enterprises might be interested in leasing dark fiber instead of lit service.

Here's a glimpse at what we discussed. Scroll to the bottom to listen to the whole discussion in its fiber-rich glory.

Feb 5, 2025

An Interconnectivity Expert's Take on Emerging Hubs, AI, and Network Resilience in 2025

Digital Infrastructure Industry Expert Maya Glick has two decades in the digital infrastructure and telecommunications game.

Feb 3, 2025

Is It Sabotage? Unraveling the Mystery of Undersea Cable Breaks

Lately, I've been thinking about the movie director Alfred Hitchcock. One of his first big hits was a 1936 film called Sabotage.

Jan 22, 2025

The Impact of AI on Submarine Cable Networks [Presentation Download]

Last week, Research Director Alan Mauldin joined Ciena’s Brian Lavallée for a live webinar exploring the technical and strategic drivers transforming the AI landscape.

Jan 6, 2025

The Fastest-Growing Cities for Data Center Connectivity (As of Q1 2025)

In November, we unveiled our new Market Connectivity Score (MCS) and dropped our first public rankings of the top ten most connected and fastest-growing cities in the world.

Because we update the MCS quarterly, it's time to see how those rankings have changed.

Dec 26, 2024

2024: A Telecom Year in Review

Happy holidays, TeleGeography Explains the Internet listeners.

We hope you're savoring the brief week between Christmas and New Year's when the world takes a moment to pause and reflect. School is out, schedules are topsy-turvy, and cookies are acceptable for breakfast. Perhaps like some of us, you've lost track of movies watched and presents wrapped.

If you're looking to take a break between the winter gatherings, grab some headphones. We've got you covered for an hour or so.

Dec 12, 2024

More Cables, More Redundancy, and Better Performance in Africa and the Middle East

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking at Cairo ICT about colocation and connectivity trends.

I covered global bandwidth first, followed by a rundown on bandwidth in the Middle East and Africa.

Next up, data centers and interconnection hubs, with a discussion on where the hubs are, what makes a hub, and how hubs grow. Finally, I talked about end-user demand, which is very important with the growth of internet and demand.

You can catch a video of this presentation and download my slides below.

Dec 5, 2024

Internet Sourcing, as Explained by an Internet Aggregator

For TeleGeography Explains the Internet to truly explain the internet, sometimes we have to get into where your internet comes from. Internet sourcing for those in the know.

Nov 21, 2024

What To Know About Submarine Cable Breaks

Earlier this week, operators of two communications cables—C-Lion 1 and BCS East-West Interlink—reported faults in the Baltic Sea.

Local internet service seems largely unaffected, but a swirl of sabotage allegations have emerged in the global press.

Without making a ruling on any ongoing investigations, let’s look at the facts.

Nov 13, 2024

Data Centers: That’s a Lot of Power!

The data center market is in the midst of an unprecedented shift that started—publicly at least—five years ago with the announced moratoria on new development in Singapore and Frankfurt. Those regulatory interventions highlighted the challenges the industry faces in securing sufficient power.

Since then, it turned out that data centers would need much more power than had been realized—just at a time when regulators and community organizations were growing increasingly critical of the sector's existing demand.

Our Data Center Research Service estimates that, as of 2024, colocation operators in the top ten data center markets by MW consume about 13 gigawatts (GW) of power.

That's enough power to generate electricity for roughly 10 million homes—or, in this case, only about 1,000 commercial data centers!