coastal connectivity hubs like Lisbon, Barcelona, and Marseilles, offers an excellent alternative for optimized subsea connectivity to the west, south, and east. North American data traffic can thus reach the continental Europe via the shortest path, reducing latency considerably, with secondary submarine connectivity following a pathway further north into Europe. A robust set of international terrestrial cables connect Southern Europe to the rest of Europe, ensuring the availability of redundant routes here as well. But this is only one piece of the puzzle.

What’s needed is a multi-layered approach to solving the connectivity conundrum. One such layer is satellite connectivity, specifically Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks, which can be used to increase redundancy in global networks. With lower latency than traditional satellite networks, LEO constellations are well-suited to handle time-sensitive communications or transactions between remote locations, bypassing traditional terrestrial routes and the hazards they are exposed to. With current advances enabling satellite to mobile phone connectivity, this can also solve some last-mile challenges in areas where the rollout of fiber is not feasible. But more than that, LEO satellite connectivity offers a redundant backbone in space for critical use cases, an opportunity that not only enterprises but also governments are exploring. LEO satellites can already provide speeds that rival most terrestrial connections — Starlink Maritime offers 350Mbps as standard, OneWeb’s LEO network has a total usable capacity of more than 1.1 Tbps, and Amazon’s ambitious Project Kuiper is promising dynamic bandwidth allocation that will cover some of the Earth’s most remote regions.

Yet, there are still technical challenges. LEO satellites have a shorter service life due to their comparatively low altitude and the impact of atmospheric drag. Maintaining uniform signal conditions is another challenge, with weather and power consumption adding complications, particularly when servicing indoor areas. While LEO satellites will be an essential component in the next generation of connectivity, adding redundancy and resilience for mission-critical applications, they are far from a catch-all solution.

To address international connectivity comprehensively, we need to constantly track back to the idea of a multi-layered approach – and those layers will require collaboration, partnership, and communication. By forming alliances with submarine cable operators, terrestrial connectivity providers, and neutral Internet Exchanges (IXs), businesses can take advantage of aggregated access to the infrastructure required to maintain cross-continental reach. Internet Exchanges allow different networks to connect and exchange traffic directly, bypassing third-party networks and reducing the number of “hops” required to get data from A to B. Neutral IXs, quickly becoming the standard, aren’t bound to any single data center or carrier, opening up more connectivity pathways for even greater redundancy. A recent study revealed that IX deployments in the US had surged by more than 600 percent in the past decade, and more than 80 percent of all IXs in the region are now data center and carrier neutral.

The Strategic Imperative of Interconnection

Connectivity is about more than cables and data centers; it’s about orchestration. Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) architecture and remote peering via IXs are already being used to maintain secure, low-latency connections between countries and across continents. With direct access to regional IXs, enterprises can achieve direct end-to-end connectivity that overcomes the limitations of traditional IP transit, enhancing performance, strengthening security, and reducing the number of hops needed to send or receive data.

This strategic approach to interconnection will become increasingly important as AI evolves. Advanced AI models require low-latency connections to process data from multiple sources and deliver insights or services in real-time. To meet these needs, providers are beginning to explore the concept of an “AI Exchange,” a dedicated interconnection model that could provide the performance required to handle AI workloads more efficiently. With an AI Exchange in place, businesses would have direct access to high-speed, reliable connections that support the data-intensive requirements of AI and AI modeling.

What Now?

Economies were once built on production; now it could be argued that they’re built on connectivity. The challenges to overcoming the international connectivity divide aren’t singular or static. They span physical vulnerabilities, regulatory pressures, the escalating costs of managing and powering global networks, and how the flow of data is orchestrated. Overcoming these challenges and closing the divide demands a layered and strategic approach, one that combines robust terrestrial cable and mobile networks, advanced LEO satellite constellations, the efficient running of data centers, and dynamic interconnection models with built in redundancy to ensure that digital pathways are as efficient as possible.

Progress will depend on embracing redundancy and resilience, while forging collaborations across connectivity providers, data center operators, and neutral IXs. These partnerships can create a stable foundation for the global data economy, supporting innovation and future-proofing businesses against the inevitable uncertainties that still lie ahead. The solutions are within reach. The real question now is how quickly the industry can come together to implement them.