Market Connectivity Rating, H1 2026

Which cities are essentially the most related, 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 related and fastest-growing cities with our Market Connectivity Rating—an interactive instrument in our Knowledge Heart Analysis Service. The Market Connectivity Rating tracks 45 completely different information factors for each metropolis, together with:

• Knowledge 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 essentially the most related and quickest rising cities for H1 2026.

Most related 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 related cities, 2026 vs. 2025

In contrast with the earlier 12 months’s record of most related cities on this 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 primarily based on the long run development rating—additionally measured on a scale of 1-100—of the highest 200 most related 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 record has a number of surprises.

Columbus, Ohio

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

Dallas, TX 

One other newcomer on the quickest rising cities record is Dallas, TX, coming in at quantity 10. Dallas scores extremely in information classes for pricing, laws and governance, information facilities, native entry, and cloud infrastructure. The Dallas metro presently 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 record. 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 talk about under, Market Connectivity Scores are multifaceted and calculated in keeping with 9 classes of information, 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 loads of growth in the previous couple of years. Now, Malaysia is going through constraints that different markets have already seen, curbing additional near-term growth. Malaysia has, the truth is, introduced that it’s now not approving non-AI information heart growth as a result of energy and water constraints, and this has contributed to Kuala Lumpur rating within the decrease fifth of our prime 200 fast-growth markets for deliberate energy growth.

The place you will get this information

These rankings of the ten most related and quickest rising cities are fueled by TeleGeography’s Knowledge Heart Analysis Service—essentially the most complete supply of intelligence on information heart infrastructure and ecosystems. With the Knowledge Heart Analysis Service, you possibly can:

• Entry our Market Connectivity Rating, a strong instrument that measures present and potential information heart dimension for 3,000 cities worldwide
• Discover an interactive map depicting practically 6,400 energetic information facilities
• Uncover the place to entry completely different networks, web exchanges, or cloud suppliers
• View information heart website profiles, together with operator contact particulars, megawatt capability, flooring house, and very important particulars in regards to the website ecosystem
• Get knowledgeable evaluation of worldwide information heart market tendencies compiled from over 1,000 website surveys and supplemental analysis
• Entry present and historic colocation pricing information for prime international markets.
  

How the Market Connectivity Rating works

In short: the MCS is a instrument to check and summarize market growth which could 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 under. At any time, you might hit the “change weights” button, which helps you to alter how vital 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, exhibiting a very powerful markets on your state of affairs.

Knowledge classes

The MCS analyzes 9 broad classes of information, seven of that are derived instantly from TeleGeography datasets. Curiously, these indicators pull not solely from the Knowledge Heart Analysis Service, however different TeleGeography merchandise as properly. Right here, we’ll present a quick abstract of every class, its supply, and the way it impacts Market Connectivity Scores:

Knowledge facilities

This information group tells us how a market fares in relation to 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 Knowledge Heart Analysis Service, the general information heart rating is derived from combination market capability in place, numbers of web sites, and websites in deployment.

One of many sub-categories right here is “Knowledge Facilities Deliberate.” The scoring right here particularly tracks new information heart websites which might be actively in deployment. It would not embody expansions to present services or land financial institution purchases; simply the place new buildings are below building and as a result of launch inside the subsequent few years.

Web exchanges

Web Trade (IX) presence and exercise is a superb indicator of communications market well being, and one we analysis within the Knowledge Heart Analysis Service. Scores for ASNs related 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 larger native competitiveness. One different measure on this class is the share of ASNs which might be worldwide. This supplies an early indication of whether or not worldwide carriers see the market as a helpful place to deploy.

Pricing

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

Cloud infrastructure

This rating class pulls from various information units in our Cloud and WAN Infrastructure Service. It tells us the extent to which cloud functions could be delivered regionally. Clients entry cloud companies by way of onramps, which then give them devoted entry to platforms saved both in huge cloud zone information heart constellations or in smaller native cloud zones with extra restricted choices. We monitor all of those right here. We additionally embody CDNs on this record—the caches that permit content material to be delivered regionally.

Inside this broader information group, we monitor 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 instantly related cities are pulled from our IP Networks analysis. These are nice indicators of how properly a given market is built-in into international networks. In some circumstances, this measure enforces, together with information heart growth, the rising or persevering with significance of a market. In different circumstances, it could remind us {that a} market nonetheless has significance as a community hub regardless of slower development in information heart rollouts.

Subsequent, present and deliberate submarine cables are tracked in our Transport Networks analysis. The variety of energetic and deliberate subsea cables additional implement a market’s place on wider intra-regional or intercontinental phases. 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 are able to see how strong the competitors is for entry to the surface world—each for native carriers and for enterprises.

Native entry

This network-specific information group exhibits us how large the fastened broadband market is and the way a lot of the cell 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 now’s connectivity markets, no commodity is extra valuable than energy. Most of the world’s most important 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 cut back dependence on fossil fuels and enhance utilization of unpolluted energy, which is much more scarce. This information group within the MCS makes use of information from the World Power Monitor to rank cities by their present and deliberate availability of unpolluted energy.

Geography & demographics

This class supplies bigger macro indicators for every metropolis that point out relative potential for communications market growth. Many of the particular person measures right here come instantly from TeleGeography, except World 5000 Database information, which exhibits 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 supplies a way of how risky or reliable an area working surroundings could also be by measuring rule of legislation, regulation, stability, and freedom of voice.