EXA Infrastructure extends global managed fibre network

After a series of partnerships and extensions of its core transatlantic routes, critical backbone and digital platform provider EXA Infrastructure has announced the launch of its managed fibre network (MFN) service to address market demands for increased connectivity and shorter service delivery times.

With more than 20 years of experience in building resilient networks, EXA Infrastructure provides critical modern infrastructure and engineering expertise to serve as the backbone for digital and economic growth. This includes networks for governments and enterprises, hyperscale infrastructure for global businesses, and ultra-low latency, high bandwidth networks for financial, gaming and broadcast services.

The company owns 155,000km of fibre network across 37 countries, including six transatlantic cables, and claims the lowest latency link between Europe and North America, EXA Express. More than 65,000km of the network is 400G enabled, offering further scalability and ensuring ultra-low latency and high bandwidth connectivity across continents.

Following the October 2023 introduction of the Havfrue and Dunant subsea cables, connecting to its European backbone, in January 2024, EXA announced its sixth transatlantic subsea cable route in the form of Amitié, linking the strategic hubs of Boston in the US, Slough in the UK and Bordeaux in France, where onward connectivity can be provided to anywhere on EXA’s owned network.

The dedicated MFN offering is said to be driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, content transmission and big data that mean networks need to scale to meet growing demands quickly. It’s designed to provide the benefit of dark fibre and equipment ownership, including what is claimed to be the highest levels of scalability at the lowest unit economics, without incurring the associated administration, technical and operational resourcing costs of in-house delivery.

In addition, EXA Infrastructure said the launch represents a turn-key solution that outsources the design, installation and maintenance of fibre networks for customers who do not possess these capabilities in-house or in-region, enabling companies to fill network gaps, connect datacentres and cable landing stations, and rapidly scale into markets quickly. The service is currently available in 29 European countries, plus the US and Canada.

“EXA Infrastructure has managed networks for our customers for years, so this is our bread and butter,” said Steve Roberts, vice-president of strategic investments and product management at EXA Infrastructure. “Our extensive network, combined with extensive experience in managing different variations of subsea services for customers, means that our engineers and NOC staff are well poised to deliver best-in-breed service across our MFN customers. We are thrilled to launch our MFN offering today and look forward to continuing to support our customers to meet the never-ending demand for connectivity.”

As it was launching the MFN, EXA also announced the extension of its DWDM backbone into Finland. The new footprint will connect Helsinki to Stockholm, enhancing the company’s coverage in the Nordics and extending its direct presence to 37 countries across Europe and North America.

This strategic expansion aims to provide broader service offerings to EXA’s existing customer base – including 400G and Spectrum – while fostering competition in the local market. The company said the growth was being driven, in part, by the deployment of AI technologies, as Finland boasts the largest concentration of deployed datacentre capacity in the Nordics, nearing 240MW, with the majority located in Helsinki.