Covid-19 led to a broader recognition of the importance of digital transformation and brought to the fore the necessity for improved connectivity and investment in IT infrastructure development. In June 2021, European Heads of State put together an impressive stimulus package with a total budget of €750 billion to combat the economic downturn stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Twenty per cent of this amount was earmarked for digital investments, providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accelerate the digital transformation of our society, with fibre and 5G infrastructure investments identified as one flagship area. Indeed, between 2020 and 2021, the share of the total EU 28 households covered by fibre (FTTP) increased by 7% (compared to an annual average of 4% during the five previous years). During the same period, 5G deployment was multiplied by more than four.

Submarine cables are the backbone of the internet. 98% of international internet traffic flows undersea through circa 430 active submarine cables around the world, which together span over 1.35 million kilometres, transmitting data at 1.6 kms per second. So any new submarine cable project is strategic for the future development of data centre facilities. Close to 190 submarine cables are landing in Europe and linking the continent to the Middle East, Africa, APAC and the American continent. This represents approximately 450,000 km of cables. Sixteen more submarine cables are planned in the next three years. This will add slightly more than 100,000 km of cables, representing more than a quarter of the existing length of cables. France, Norway, Greece, the UK, Ireland, and Italy will likely be the direct beneficiaries of these new cables.

Similarly to terrestrial networks, submarine cables do not provide the shortest path between two continents. They follow designed routes that avoid major fishing areas, anchoring zones, sensitive environmental areas and earthquake-prone locations. Hence, the latency on submarine cables varies considerably. As shown in figure three, the intra-Europe latency can vary by almost 38 milliseconds, whilst the latency of transatlantic cables can vary by nearly 32 milliseconds. Companies all want to lower the latency of long-haul data transmission. Reducing the delay by as little as a few milliseconds can impact the profitability of trading operations. Online search companies, including Google and Bing, have indicated that increased latency leads to decreased click-throughs and search result views. Amazon has claimed that every 100 milliseconds of latency reduces their sales by 1%.

_{Read the articles within Spotlight: European Data Centres below.}