Telia Carrier boosts its network capacity in Phoenix area

Telia Carrier has upgraded its network capacity in its Phoenix Metro data center, and expanded its partnership with phoenixNAP. 

With the upgrade, phoenixNAP can provide its customers scalable, multi-terabit capacity and connectivity. That additional capacity will be used for services such as high-speed IP transit, cloud connections, Ethernet and IP exchange or (IPX) services for operators, content providers and enterprises.

Over the past several years, Phoenix has become a hot spot for U.S. data center operators due to its low power costs, attractive tax rates and the growing number of companies in the area. PhoenixNap is one of the leaders in its market based on capacity deployed for hybrid colocation and hyperscale companies.

"Our continued partnership with phoenixNAP and investment in the Phoenix market is a testament to our customer-driven approach adding additional diversity and capacity as we expand our global IP backbone,” said Stephen Hartman, head of sales, Americas at Telia Carrier, in a statement. “The demand for IP and other big bandwidth services throughout Phoenix is growing at an incredible rate as more businesses and data center operators enter the market and leverage hybrid cloud ecosystems."

Hyperscale cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft Azure in particular, have a seemingly insatiable appetite for more data center capacity. Global data center construction is robust this year as the leading cloud and colocation providers will add an estimated 14 million-square-feet of capacity in 2019, according to a report by IHS Markit.

In addition, another 4.5 million square-foot of capacity is already in the works for the first half of next year. IHS Markit is currently tracking 135 new data center building and expansion projects that are slated to finish this year.

RELATED: Telia Carrier bolsters its U.S. network with new DWDM fiber route

In October, Telia Carrier added a new DWDM route between its existing infrastructure in Ashburn, Virginia and Atlanta in order to better serve its data center customers. In addition to serving Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the new route also offers another path out of Northern Virginia for the hyperscale cloud providers.

Telia Carrier's global internet backbone, AS1299, is the currently the world's largest, according to Dyn Research's global backbone rankings. All told, Telia Carrier's backbone accounts for nearly 60% of global internet routes.

Over the past 25 years, Telia Carrier has grown its global fiber network organically without acquisitions. Telia Carrier recently announced the first real-time transmission of 600 Gbps wavelengths in a live production network and it was the first network to successfully transmit 1 Tb/s in super channels on its U.S. network.

Telia Carrier's global network serves more than 300 points of presence (PoPs) across 35 countries using its 65,000 km of optical fiber.