At TeleGeography, we’ve been engaged on a challenge known as the Interconnection Index. This instrument is designed to reply some questions that we’ve discovered very troublesome to reply and quantify up to now.
What’s the subsequent rising hub in a selected area? How do numerous hubs evaluate to one another? The place ought to I broaden in a sure nation apart from the most important metropolis?
It could be fairly difficult to create a one-size-fits-all mannequin that may reply all of those questions appropriately. However we’re nonetheless going to strive!
We’re going to deal with this drawback with information, and—as a result of we’re geography geeks—maps.
Within the map above, each blue dot is a metropolitan space that TeleGeography tracks. There are about 8,200 of them that we’ve collected information on for one motive or one other.
And by metro space, I imply an agglomeration of cities, so Washington DC can be one metro space—we’re not counting all the person parts of Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.
Right here’s the framework for the way we’re going to attempt to deal with this.
In order that’s a theoretical instance; now let’s discuss by way of a sensible working instance.
Now for the enjoyable half: the precise mannequin outputs.
As of now, listed here are the highest 5 scoring hubs on the earth:
However that is simply top-level rating—the highest of the pyramid.
Selecting a quantity just isn’t terribly significant. London is primary, however what does that imply? Why is it primary?
When you begin breaking out why it scored so extremely, this all turns into extra attention-grabbing. A metropolis could be sturdy in some areas however weak in others. That is significantly necessary as a result of not everybody within the business has the identical wants.
An organization that’s investing in AI and desires to discover a place to coach its fashions will care about plenty of energy, doubtlessly renewable energy. Nevertheless, a CDN will wish to know the place the top customers are.
So the place does London do properly?
On the east aspect of the chart under, you’ll see telecom infrastructure standards. The west aspect extra so measures market potential.
The additional out a piece reaches, the upper the rating. As you’ll be able to see, London does significantly properly in pricing and long-distance transport, and it has very steady rules in comparison with different locations on the earth.
Let’s spice issues up by overlaying one other metro space.
As we do that for many completely different hubs, we begin seeing attention-grabbing patterns.
Beneath are the highest three hubs—as of now, this will likely change—for each area.
The smaller hubs are likely to have spikier, starlike shapes. It is because they’re excellent in a couple of areas, however not as universally sturdy.
The upper scoring hubs are extra well-rounded, actually; their shapes are rounded. It is because they do loads of issues properly. Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, London, and even São Paulo—these are areas which can be compelling for funding for lots of causes.
That’s the place issues stand proper now.
To discover which metro areas we expect might be altering the quickest within the subsequent two years, obtain my full presentation from PTC ’24.
