Market Connectivity Rating, H2 2026

Which cities are probably the most linked, and which of them are the quickest rising for web infrastructure? Which cities are finest poised to help AI?

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

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

And people knowledge 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 H2 2026.

Most linked cities: H2 2026

1. London | 60.2
2. Frankfurt | 59.2
3. Tokyo | 57.9
4. Amsterdam | 55.6
5. Singapore | 54.2
6. Washington, DC | 52.2
7. New York | 51.8
8. Paris | 50.5
9. Hong Kong | 50.2
10. Los Angeles, CA | 47.5

Most linked cities, H2 2026 vs. H1 2026

In contrast with the record of most linked cities on the planet for H1 2026, H2 was a remix. The highest 10 cities remained the identical, with a reshuffling of:

London (1), Frankfurt (2), Tokyo (3), Washington, DC (6), New York (7), and Los Angeles (10) held their ranks from H1 2026 to H2 2026.

Quickest rising cities: H2 2026

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

1. Manila | 32.3
2. Hong Kong | 32.2
3. Amsterdam | 29.8
4. Shenzhen | 27.9
5. Hangzhou | 27.8
6. Columbus, OH | 27.3
7. Singapore | 25.9
8. Cairo | 25.0
9. Dallas, TX | 24.5
10. Atlanta, GA | 23.7

Quickest rising cities, H2 2026 vs. H1 2026

In contrast with the H1 2026 quickest rising cities rankings, the H2 2026 record has a pair newcomers, in addition to a few cities that fell off the record. The Market Connectivity Scores are multifaceted and calculated in line with 9 classes of knowledge, pulling knowledge from a number of TeleGeography merchandise. With all of these inputs, there may be room for reshuffling as market developments all over the world take form.

Let’s check out just a few of the sturdy markets on the quickest rising cities record.

Columbus

Aside from northern Virginia, Columbus, Ohio has probably the most knowledge facilities deliberate for near-term growth of anyplace on the planet. Whereas energy is an issue in every single place, Columbus has comparatively quick access to pure gasoline for behind-the-meter energy technology, which has vastly aided the area’s ongoing growth.

Main wholesale operators like Stack, Vantage, and QTS are nonetheless increasing quickly in Columbus, together with hyperscalers like Amazon and Meta.

Singapore

Globally, no different market comes near the quantity of subsea infrastructure deliberate for Singapore, with no less than 17 deliberate cables touchdown there.

The drip of knowledge heart growth remains to be sluggish, however holders of treasured permits like DayOne, Equinix, and AirTrunk are constructing what they will on this restricted and high-demand market.

Dallas

The Dallas metropolitan market continues to capitalize on the necessity for a powerful regional hub, as heavy growth for AI-focused knowledge facilities faucets into the plentiful pure gasoline of the Permian Basin in West Texas. Equinix, DataBank, Stack and different operators proceed to construct out new websites throughout the Dallas metro space.

The place you will get this knowledge

These rankings of the ten most linked and quickest rising cities are fueled by TeleGeography’s Information Heart Analysis Service—probably the most complete supply of intelligence on knowledge heart infrastructure and ecosystems. With the Information Heart Analysis Service, you may:

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

How the Market Connectivity Rating works

Briefly: the MCS is a device to match and summarize market growth which may 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 info classes described beneath. At any time, you might hit the “change weights” button, which helps you to regulate how necessary every class is to calculating the ultimate rating.

In spite of everything, there is not any single reply to which market is the “finest.” Context is vital. Do not care about web exchanges? Change their weight to zero. Want entry to cloud infrastructure? Increase its weight to the utmost. The scores will regulate accordingly, displaying crucial markets to your state of affairs.

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 Heart Analysis Service, however different TeleGeography merchandise as nicely. Right here, we’ll present a quick abstract of every class, its supply, and the way it impacts Market Connectivity Scores:

Information facilities

This knowledge group tells us how a market fares in the case of provisioning knowledge heart infrastructure in help of the native communications market. It’s all about knowledge heart capability in deployment and within the pipeline. Pulling from our intensive Information Heart Analysis Service, the general knowledge heart rating is derived from mixture market capability in place, numbers of web sites, and websites in deployment.

One of many sub-categories right here is “Information Facilities Deliberate.” The scoring right here particularly tracks new knowledge heart websites which can be actively in deployment. It would not embrace expansions to present services or land financial institution purchases; simply the place new buildings are below development and attributable to launch inside the subsequent few years.

Web exchanges

Web Change (IX) presence and exercise is a superb indicator of communications market well being, and one we analysis within the Information Heart 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 places signifies higher native competitiveness. One different measure on this class is the proportion of ASNs which can be worldwide. This offers an early indication of whether or not worldwide carriers see the market as a useful place to deploy.

Pricing

Pulling from our Community Pricing Database this knowledge group offers a elementary indicator of the price of connecting in a market. Low scores point out larger prices, which improve limitations to market entry and exercise.

Cloud infrastructure

This rating class pulls from a lot of knowledge units in our Cloud and WAN Infrastructure Service. It tells us the extent to which cloud functions may be delivered regionally. Prospects entry cloud companies by way of onramps, which then give them devoted entry to platforms saved both in large cloud zone knowledge 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 record—the caches that enable content material to be delivered regionally.

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

Lengthy-distance transport

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

Subsequent, present 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 phases. After all, 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 are able to see how strong the competitors is for entry to the skin world—each for native carriers and for enterprises.

Native entry

This network-specific knowledge group reveals us how large the mounted 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 help infrastructure. This knowledge is drawn largely from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.

Energy

In at present’s connectivity markets, no commodity is extra treasured than energy. Most of the world’s most crucial communication hubs are affected by a full-blown disaster in lack of electrical energy to help knowledge heart, cloud, and community wants. This disaster comes at a time when governments all over the world are pushing to scale back dependence on fossil fuels and improve utilization of fresh energy, which is much more scarce. This knowledge group within the MCS makes use of knowledge 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 growth. Many of the particular person measures right here come immediately from TeleGeography, excluding International 5000 Database knowledge, which reveals us the variety of main companies with headquarters in a given metropolis. One of many metrics right here offers an intriguing view of how comparatively a given metropolis is pulled into the orbit of or impartial 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.

Laws & governance

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