Large-scale data centres training AI are being built where power is both sustainable and available, rather than just renewable.
The critical factor is access to committed power capacity, ensuring that AI workloads can scale efficiently without being constrained by intermittent energy sources. Meanwhile, edge sites delivering applications that require near real-time processing are emerging closer to end-users, reinforcing the need for ultra-low-latency connectivity across distributed infrastructures.
At the same time, data sovereignty regulations are further shaping where data is stored and processed. Countries and regions, particularly in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, are tightening laws to keep data within national borders for compliance, security, and privacy reasons. Hyperscalers and telecom operators must navigate these legal complexities while ensuring that data flows seamlessly across an increasingly fragmented regulatory environment.
These changes aren’t just reshaping global data geographies, they are forcing the industry to rethink traditional point-to-point connectivity models, shifting towards a more distributed and dynamic architecture.
The great spread
Firstly, emerging markets in Africa and Asia are no longer just content consumers - they’re content creators. Factors such as affordable internet access and the rise of social media platforms have fuelled a surge in locally produced content, from short-form videos to music, gaming, and streaming services. This digital transformation has led to a notable increase in data generation, which in turn is driving demand for new digital corridors to be created to improve connectivity with emerging markets.
At the same time, geopolitical events in the Middle East are gradually shifting data traffic away from the region through the introduction of alternative terrestrial routes. Currently, 90% of data traffic between Europe and Asia passes through the Red Sea, making route diversity a top industry priority.
Natural geographical bottlenecks in the region further heighten this risk; where cables converge in close proximity, the likelihood of multiple cables being damaged by a single event, such as a dragging ship anchor, rises significantly. The rise of alternative pathways, such as the East to Med Corridor (EMC) route and the Trans Europe Asia System (TEAS), underscores a growing push for diversified connectivity.
Finally, the significant rise in data traffic, driven by ongoing technological advancements, is also reshaping the global data landscape. According to recent research by Goldman Sachs, AI is expected to drive a 165% increase in data centre power demand by 2030, a projection that is already influencing site selection strategies.
As AI training workloads push hyperscale cloud providers and data centres towards locations with committed power (often far from traditional hubs) and edge sites emerge to support low latency applications such as autonomous vehicles, networks are having to evolve to bridge these distributed infrastructures. It’s important to note too that efficient AI training across multiple data centres heavily depends on minimising latency. High latency can lead to inefficiencies and synchronisation issues during distributed training processes. Therefore, it's crucial for even large data centres to be interconnected through reliable, high-speed networks to ensure optimal performance.
Ultimately, this shift is driving the industry’s focus on high-capacity backbone networks and low-latency connectivity to support an increasingly dispersed data ecosystem.
So, what’s next?
With an understanding of the global trends that are shaping our data geographies, we can look forward to how the telco industry can adapt.
First things first, the industry must expand and upgrade its digital infrastructure, and there are several ways to achieve this. Strategic investments in and around critical data hubs are key to connecting emerging and established digital economies.
For example, investment in locations such as Genoa or Marseille is establishing key passageways linking Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to Europe's major hubs, whilst North America’s east coast continues to be a target for increasing trans-Atlantic flows. New partnerships and industry cross-collaboration can also play a crucial role in unlocking new terrestrial fibre optic routes, providing diversity to the traditional Red Sea Corridor used by submarine cables.
Networks must also be built for scalability, capable of handling growing data traffic while remaining resilient and reliable. To achieve this, operators should look to adopt advanced technologies such as automation, AI-driven network management, and software-defined networking (SDN) to optimise performance, streamline operations, and enable networks to adapt to shifting traffic patterns in real time.
The emergence of 400G and 800G optical networking technologies is further enhancing network capacity and efficiency, ensuring that infrastructure can meet the increasing demands of AI and machine learning workloads. By investing in adaptable, next-generation solutions, the industry can not only support the continuous evolution of digital services but also improve network reliability and efficiency.
Lastly, the industry must place greater emphasis on cable resilience. As the volume of data traffic increases, robust infrastructure will be key in ensuring uptime and business continuity.
A single cable outage has the potential to bring data traffic to a halt, leading to disrupted connectivity, financial loss and increased security risks. By investing in route diversity and enhancing repair capabilities, operators can build redundancy into network infrastructure and minimise the risk of costly downtime.
In summary, the evolution of global data geographies presents both challenges and opportunities for the telco industry. As emerging markets drive demand, geopolitical events reshape connectivity and AI accelerates traffic growth, the industry is already taking decisive steps to future-proof its networks. With strategic investment, innovation and collaboration, telcos can continue to work towards one, homogeneous platform that enables data to move between users in the most seamless, resilient way possible and shift the emphasis away from point-to-point connectivity.
Whilst we’ve mainly discussed how the fixed landscape must respond, the interplay between subsea cables, terrestrial fibre, and satellite networks will also be crucial in creating a more robust and resilient global connectivity ecosystem.
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