Market Connectivity Rating, H1 2026

Which cities are probably the most linked, and which of them are the quickest rising for web infrastructure?

Twice a 12 months, we make public our evaluation of the highest 10 most linked and fastest-growing cities with our Market Connectivity Rating—an interactive software in our Information Middle Analysis Service. The Market Connectivity Rating tracks 45 totally different information factors for each metropolis, together with:

• Information heart energy,
• Variety of ASNs peering regionally,
• Cloud onramps, and extra.

And people information factors create scores in every class for cities on a scale of 0-100. So with out additional ado, listed below are probably the most linked and quickest rising cities for H1 2026.

Most linked cities: H1 2026

1. London | 60.7
2. Frankfurt | 60.1
3. Tokyo | 58.6
4. Singapore | 54.8
5. Amsterdam | 54.6
6. Washington, DC | 52.6
7. New York | 52.5
8. Hong Kong | 51.2
9. Paris | 50.7
10. Los Angeles, CA | 47.6

Most linked cities, 2026 vs. 2025

In contrast with the earlier 12 months’s listing of most linked cities on the planet, 2026 was a remix. The highest 10 cities remained the identical, with a reshuffling of:

• London (2 to 1) and Frankfurt (1 to 2)

• Singapore (5 to 4) and Amsterdam (4 to five)

• Washington (8 to six), New York (6 to 7), and Hong Kong (7 to eight). 

Tokyo (3), Paris (9), and Los Angeles (10) held their ranks from 2025 to 2026.

Quickest rising cities: H1 2026

The fastest-growing cities rankings are based mostly on the longer term development rating—additionally measured on a scale of 1-100—of the highest 200 most linked metro areas.

1. Hong Kong | 34.3
2. Manila | 33.7
3. Columbus, Ohio | 28.1
4. Hangzhou | 27.7
5. Shenzhen | 27.6
6. Singapore | 27.1
7. Cairo | 25.0
8. Daegu | 23.4
9. Washington, DC | 23.2
10. Dallas, TX | 22.6

Quickest rising cities, 2026 vs. 2025

In contrast with the 2025 quickest rising cities rankings, the 2026 listing has a number of surprises.

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio is making its debut on this listing at quantity three, due to its excessive scores in information classes for pricing, rules and governance, information facilities, and native entry. (You possibly can learn extra about how we create these scores beneath.) A number of wholesale business information heart operators are increasing throughout the metro together with important hyperscale campus expansions. New improvement is going on throughout New Albany, Hilliard, Columbus, Lancaster, Hebron, Jersey Township, and different close by cities. A lot of this new improvement is utilizing on-site gasoline conversion and different “behind the meter” energy methods.

Dallas, TX 

One other newcomer on the quickest rising cities listing is Dallas, TX, coming in at quantity 10. Dallas scores extremely in information classes for pricing, rules and governance, information facilities, native entry, and cloud infrastructure. The Dallas metro at the moment has greater than a dozen main business information facilities within the close to pipeline.

Kuala Lumpur

One main upset is Kuala Lumpur falling from the highest 10 listing. Previously scoring in first place because the quickest rising metropolis, Kuala Lumpur’s deliberate cloud areas caught our consideration final 12 months. However as we focus on beneath, Market Connectivity Scores are multifaceted and calculated in response to 9 classes of knowledge, pulling information from a number of TeleGeography merchandise. With all of these inputs, there’s room for surprises as market developments around the globe take form.

Kuala Lumpur has skilled a whole lot of improvement in the previous few years. Now, Malaysia is dealing with constraints that different markets have already seen, curbing additional near-term improvement. Malaysia has, the truth is, introduced that it’s not approving non-AI information heart improvement as a consequence of energy and water constraints, and this has contributed to Kuala Lumpur rating within the decrease fifth of our high 200 fast-growth markets for deliberate energy improvement.

The place you will get this information

These rankings of the ten most linked and quickest rising cities are fueled by TeleGeography’s Information Middle Analysis Service—probably the most complete supply of intelligence on information heart infrastructure and ecosystems. With the Information Middle Analysis Service, you’ll be able to:

• Entry our Market Connectivity Rating, a robust software that measures present and potential information heart measurement for 3,000 cities worldwide
• Discover an interactive map depicting almost 6,400 lively information facilities
• Uncover the place to entry totally different networks, web exchanges, or cloud suppliers
• View information heart website profiles, together with operator contact particulars, megawatt capability, ground house, and very important particulars concerning the website ecosystem
• Get professional evaluation of world information heart market traits compiled from over 1,000 website surveys and supplemental analysis
• Entry present and historic colocation pricing information for high international markets.
  

How the Market Connectivity Rating works

In short: the MCS is a software to check and summarize market improvement which will be particularly tailor-made to your priorities. It calculates a rating for every market by averaging its relative sub-scores. These are drawn from the information classes described beneath. At any time, you might hit the “change weights” button, which helps you to alter how essential every class is to calculating the ultimate rating.

In any case, there is no single reply to which market is the “greatest.” Context is crucial. Do not care about web exchanges? Change their weight to zero. Want entry to cloud infrastructure? Enhance its weight to the utmost. The scores will alter accordingly, displaying crucial markets in your scenario.

Information classes

The MCS analyzes 9 broad classes of knowledge, seven of that are derived immediately from TeleGeography datasets. Apparently, these indicators pull not solely from the Information Middle Analysis Service, however different TeleGeography merchandise as effectively. Right here, we’ll present a short abstract of every class, its supply, and the way it impacts Market Connectivity Scores:

Information facilities

This information group tells us how a market fares in terms of provisioning information heart infrastructure in assist of the native communications market. It’s all about information heart capability in deployment and within the pipeline. Pulling from our in depth Information Middle Analysis Service, the general information heart rating is derived from mixture market capability in place, numbers of websites, and websites in deployment.

One of many sub-categories right here is “Information Facilities Deliberate.” The scoring right here particularly tracks new information heart websites which are actively in deployment. It does not embrace expansions to current amenities or land financial institution purchases; simply the place new buildings are below building and as a consequence of launch throughout the subsequent few years.

Web exchanges

Web Alternate (IX) presence and exercise is a good indicator of communications market well being, and one we analysis within the Information Middle Analysis Service. Scores for ASNs linked and the variety of IXs available in the market inform us what number of networks and platforms are current. These scores additionally tell us whether or not the native market is overly depending on an incumbent operator. Extra networks at extra peering areas signifies higher native competitiveness. One different measure on this class is the share of ASNs which are worldwide. This offers an early indication of whether or not worldwide carriers see the market as a priceless place to deploy.

Pricing

Pulling from our Community Pricing Database this information group provides a elementary indicator of the price of connecting in a market. Low scores point out increased prices, which enhance obstacles to market entry and exercise.

Cloud infrastructure

This rating class pulls from quite a few information units in our Cloud and WAN Infrastructure Service. It tells us the extent to which cloud purposes will be delivered regionally. Clients entry cloud providers by way of onramps, which then give them devoted entry to platforms saved both in large cloud zone information heart constellations or in smaller native cloud zones with extra restricted choices. We observe all of those right here. We additionally embrace CDNs on this listing—the caches that enable content material to be delivered regionally.

Inside this broader information group, we observe cloud areas deliberate. This indicator tracks introduced, however not but operational, cloud areas. Some have for much longer lag instances to deployment than others.

Lengthy-distance transport

A number of TeleGeography metrics are tied into this broad class. Worldwide web capability and rely of immediately linked cities are pulled from our IP Networks analysis. These are nice indicators of how effectively a given market is built-in into international networks. In some instances, this measure enforces, together with information heart improvement, the rising or persevering with significance of a market. In different instances, it might remind us {that a} market nonetheless has significance as a community hub regardless of slower development in information heart rollouts.

Subsequent, current and deliberate submarine cables are tracked in our Transport Networks analysis. The variety of lively and deliberate subsea cables additional implement a market’s place on wider intra-regional or intercontinental levels. In fact, landlocked cities don’t have any use for subsea metrics, however the final elements on this class—numbers of long-haul and WAN carriers current from our Cloud and WAN Infrastructure Service—make up the distinction. Right here we will see how sturdy the competitors is for entry to the skin world—each for native carriers and for enterprises.

Native entry

This network-specific information group reveals us how large the fastened broadband market is and the way a lot of the cellular market has broadband-level entry. Even when the peering and transport infrastructure is missing in a given location, excessive broadband utilization is a transparent indicator of want for community assist infrastructure. This information is drawn largely from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.

Energy

In right this moment’s connectivity markets, no commodity is extra treasured than energy. Lots of the world’s most crucial communication hubs are affected by a full-blown disaster in lack of electrical energy to assist information heart, cloud, and community wants. This disaster comes at a time when governments around the globe are pushing to scale back dependence on fossil fuels and enhance utilization of fresh energy, which is much more scarce. This information group within the MCS makes use of information from the International Power Monitor to rank cities by their present and deliberate availability of fresh energy.

Geography & demographics

This class offers bigger macro indicators for every metropolis that point out relative potential for communications market improvement. Many of the particular person measures right here come immediately from TeleGeography, apart from International 5000 Database information, which reveals us the variety of main firms with headquarters in a given metropolis. One of many metrics right here provides an intriguing view of how comparatively a given metropolis is pulled into the orbit of or unbiased from different hubs. The measure, “Remoteness from Different Hubs” tells us how the town’s Lengthy-Distance Transport rating compares to different cities in a 100-km radius.

Rules & governance

This closing class is derived from the World Financial institution’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. It offers a way of how risky or reliable an area working surroundings could also be by measuring rule of regulation, regulation, stability, and freedom of voice.