EXA Infrastructure: High-Capacity Digital Infrastructure & Fiber
EXA Infrastructure provides high-capacity fiber connectivity and subsea cable solutions across Europe and North America for hyperscalers, carriers, and enterprises.
Overview
EXA Infrastructure is a leading global digital infrastructure provider, headquartered in London, that specializes in high-capacity terrestrial and subsea fiber-optic connectivity. Formed in late 2021 following the acquisition of GTT Communications' infrastructure assets by I Squared Capital, the company has quickly established itself as the largest dedicated infrastructure platform connecting Europe and North America.
The company’s core business revolves around providing the "backbone" of the internet. Their extensive network includes over 151,000 kilometers of fiber, 500+ Points of Presence (PoPs), and 13 Tier 3 data centers. EXA serves a sophisticated client base consisting of hyperscalers (such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft), global carriers, government agencies, and large enterprises in data-intensive sectors like finance, media, and research.
Historically, the assets within EXA’s portfolio represent decades of strategic investment, including the integration of legacy networks from Interoute, Hibernia Networks, and KPN International. Today, EXA focuses on three primary pillars:
- Connectivity Services: Wavelengths, Ethernet, and SD-WAN solutions.
- Dark Fiber: Providing dedicated, unlit fiber strands for maximum customer control.
- Colocation: Secure, high-power-density data center space at key network intersections.
Operating in a market driven by the exponential growth of data consumption, EXA’s strategy is centered on continuous network expansion and the deployment of next-generation optical technology to support the evolving needs of the global digital economy.
Positioning
EXA Infrastructure positions itself as the "backbone of the digital economy," emphasizing its role as the essential, invisible layer that enables global digital transformation. Their market positioning is centered on three key pillars: Scale, Speed, and Specialization.
In a competitive landscape dominated by traditional Tier 1 carriers (such as Lumen, Orange, or Deutsche Telekom), EXA differentiates its brand by highlighting its lack of "legacy baggage." While traditional telcos are often encumbered by aging retail operations and complex consumer services, EXA positions itself as a streamlined, infrastructure-focused alternative. Their messaging targets the "builders of the internet"—the architects and engineers at hyperscalers and wholesale carriers—who value technical specifications, route diversity, and low latency over broad service bundles.
Key elements of their positioning strategy include:
- The Transatlantic Leader: Leveraging the lowest-latency subsea routes to claim dominance in the North America-to-Europe corridor.
- The AI-Ready Network: Positioning their high-bandwidth 400G/800G capabilities as the necessary infrastructure for the AI revolution.
- Regional Depth, Global Reach: Emphasizing deep terrestrial penetration within Europe combined with critical intercontinental gateways.
By focusing on being a "specialist provider," EXA successfully distances itself from the "commodity" perception of telecommunications, instead framing its assets as high-value, strategic investments for its customers' long-term growth.
Differentiation
The EXA Infrastructure product suite is defined by its massive scale and strategic geographic footprint, encompassing over 151,000 kilometers of fiber across 34 countries. A primary differentiator is their ownership of critical subsea assets, including the GTT Express (formerly Hibernia Express), which provides the lowest-latency route between New York and London. This technical advantage is a cornerstone for financial services and high-frequency trading firms.
Key product innovations and advantages include:
- Diverse Routing: EXA offers unique, high-diversity routes that bypass traditional congested hubs, providing greater resilience for mission-critical traffic.
- Ultra-High Capacity: Their network is engineered to support 400G and 800G wavelengths, catering specifically to the data-heavy requirements of AI model training and hyperscale cloud synchronization.
- Subsea Leadership: With ownership of multiple transatlantic and Mediterranean cables, EXA provides seamless end-to-end connectivity between North America, Europe, and increasingly into the Middle East via their "Trans-Adriatic Pipeline" routes.
- Dark Fiber Availability: Unlike many incumbents who prefer selling managed services, EXA remains a major provider of dark fiber, allowing customers to deploy their own equipment and control their own optical layers.
Their focus on "Infrastructure-as-a-Service" at the physical layer ensures that their products are optimized for performance, scalability, and security, rather than being bundled with unnecessary software-layer add-ons.
Ideal Customer Profile
The ideal customer for EXA Infrastructure is a large-scale enterprise, service provider, or hyperscaler with significant data transport needs across the Atlantic or within Europe.
- Industry: Financial services (HFT), Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Telecommunications Carriers, and Government/Research institutions.
- Size: Mid-to-large enterprises with a multi-national footprint or high-bandwidth localized requirements.
- Technical Maturity: High. Customers typically have dedicated network engineering teams and manage their own autonomous systems (AS) or complex Layer 2/3 environments.
- Budget: Significant. While competitive, EXA is a premium infrastructure provider; customers prioritize performance, reliability, and low latency over "budget-first" commodity internet.
Best Fit
EXA Infrastructure is the premier choice for organizations requiring high-capacity, low-latency connectivity across the transatlantic and European corridors. It excels in:
- Transatlantic Data Transfer: Companies needing the lowest possible latency between North America and Europe via the EXA Express cable.
- European Pan-Continental Expansion: Businesses requiring deep reach into Central and Eastern Europe, including emerging markets and landing stations.
- Hyperscale & Wholesale Capacity: Organizations moving massive volumes of data that require dark fiber or high-bandwidth wavelengths (100G/400G).
- Data Center Interconnectivity: Enterprises with a distributed footprint across major European carrier-neutral facilities seeking a single backbone provider.
Offerings
EXA Infrastructure categorizes its offerings into three primary tiers:
- Dark Fiber: The "raw" asset. Customers get dedicated strands of fiber and provide their own lighting equipment. Best for organizations requiring maximum control and virtually unlimited scalability.
- Wavelengths (Optical): Managed high-capacity circuits (10G to 400G). EXA provides the equipment and guarantees the bandwidth. Ideal for data center interconnect (DCI) and high-capacity backhaul.
- Ethernet & Cloud Connect: Layer 2 managed services for simpler connectivity between offices or into major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google).
- Specialized Routes: Products like EXA Express (ultra-low latency transatlantic) and EXA Rise (diverse entry points for critical sites) target specific performance niches.
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Introduction
Welcome to the Comprehensive Buying Guide for EXA Infrastructure. As the largest dedicated terrestrial and subsea fiber network linking Europe and North America, EXA Infrastructure has become a critical backbone for the global digital economy. This guide is designed to help IT leaders, network architects, and procurement professionals evaluate EXA’s massive footprint—spanning over 125,000 kilometers and 34 countries—against their organizational needs.
In this guide, you will learn about EXA's specialized focus on ultra-low latency routes, its extensive dark fiber holdings, and its high-capacity wavelength services. We will break down the technical requirements, implementation timelines, and the specific business scenarios where EXA outperforms traditional Tier-1 carriers. Whether you are scaling a hyperscale data center, supporting high-frequency trading, or securing a pan-European enterprise network, this resource provides the objective insights necessary for an informed investment.
Key Features
EXA Infrastructure focuses on high-performance connectivity with four core capability areas:
1. Ultra-Low Latency (ULL) Routes
- EXA Express: The fastest subsea cable route between New York and London, specifically designed for financial services and high-frequency trading.
- Strategic Routing: Minimized hop counts and optimized terrestrial paths across Europe to reduce millisecond delays.
2. High-Capacity Transport Services
- Wavelengths: Dedicated 10G, 100G, and 400G optical channels providing secure, transparent bandwidth without the overhead of shared public internet.
- Ethernet Services: Flexible Layer 2 VPN solutions (E-Line, E-LAN) for seamless office and data center bridging.
3. Dark Fiber Assets
- Total Control: Lease or Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) options for raw fiber strands, allowing organizations to deploy their own DWDM equipment.
- Network Density: Deep metro fiber in major European hubs and unique long-haul routes through Central/Eastern Europe.
4. Subsea & Landing Station Leadership
- Diverse Subsea Portfolio: Ownership and capacity on multiple transatlantic cables (GTT Express, Hibernia, etc.) ensuring physical path diversity.
- Landing Station Access: Direct connectivity to critical gateway points, reducing the risk of inland backhaul congestion.
Use Cases
- Financial Services (HFT): A global investment bank uses the EXA Express route to gain a 1-2 millisecond advantage on trades between the NYSE and the London Stock Exchange, directly impacting profitability.
- Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): A major streaming provider leases Dark Fiber across Southern Europe to build out their own edge caching nodes, reducing buffering for millions of end-users.
- Research & Education: A pan-European research collective utilizes 100G Wavelengths to transfer massive genomic datasets between universities in Germany, Italy, and the UK.
- Wholesale Carriers: A regional ISP in Eastern Europe uses EXA as its primary IP Transit and Backhaul provider to connect its local subscribers to the global internet backbone in Frankfurt.
Pricing Models
EXA Infrastructure typically utilizes a contract-based pricing model tailored to the specific asset type:
- Monthly Recurring Charges (MRC): Standard for Wavelength and Ethernet services. Driven by bandwidth (10G vs 100G), route distance, and SLA levels.
- Non-Recurring Charges (NRC): One-time installation fees covering cross-connects, equipment staging, and engineering labor.
- IRU (Indefeasible Right of Use): A common model for Dark Fiber where a large upfront payment grants use of the fiber for 10–20 years, supplemented by annual Maintenance & Operations (M&O) fees.
- Variable Factors: Pricing is heavily influenced by "on-net" vs "off-net" status. Connecting to a building already serviced by EXA is significantly more cost-effective than requesting a "special build."
Technical Requirements
- Interface Requirements: Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) must support standard optical handoffs (e.g., 100GBASE-LR4 or 400GBASE-FR4).
- Power & Space: If leasing Dark Fiber, the customer must provide their own DWDM transponders and rack space/power at EXA PoPs.
- Protocol Support: For Layer 2 services, support for 802.1Q (VLAN tagging) or 802.1ad (QinQ) may be required.
- Latency Budgeting: Customers must define their Maximum Tolerable Latency (MTL) to ensure the selected route meets application requirements.
- Cross-Connects: Authorization (LOA/CFA) for the data center provider to link EXA's patch panel to the customer's rack.
Business Requirements
To successfully engage with EXA Infrastructure, organizations should meet the following prerequisites:
- Capacity Planning: A clear 12-36 month forecast of bandwidth requirements to choose between leased waves or dark fiber.
- Technical Expertise: Internal network engineering staff capable of managing Layer 1 (Fiber), Layer 2 (Ethernet), or Layer 3 (IP) handoffs.
- Infrastructure Readiness: Presence in, or a plan to connect to, major carrier-neutral data centers where EXA has Points of Presence (PoPs).
- Procurement Lead Times: Awareness that physical infrastructure deployment (especially dark fiber or new circuits) requires longer lead times than virtualized cloud services.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Buy-in from CFO and CTO levels regarding the shift from OpEx-heavy burstable bandwidth to CapEx-efficient long-term infrastructure investments.
Implementation Timeline
The timeline for EXA Infrastructure services varies significantly by product type:
- Phase 1: Discovery & Design (2–4 Weeks): Technical requirements gathering, route diversity planning, and finalization of Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Phase 2: Contracting & Site Survey (2–3 Weeks): Legal review and physical site surveys at the A-end and Z-end locations.
- Phase 3: Provisioning & Cross-Connects (2–8 Weeks):
- Wavelengths/Ethernet: Typically 30–45 days if the PoP is "on-net."
- Dark Fiber: Can take 60–90+ days if new lateral construction or complex splicing is required.
- Phase 4: Testing & Handover (1 Week): RFC 2544 or BERT testing to ensure circuit performance meets latency and jitter specifications.
- Phase 5: Go-Live: Official acceptance and start of the billing cycle.
Support Options
EXA provides enterprise-grade support tailored for mission-critical infrastructure:
- 24/7/365 NOC: Multilingual Network Operations Centers located in Europe, providing proactive monitoring and rapid fault isolation.
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Comprehensive guarantees on Availability (Uptime), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), and Latency/Jitter performance.
- Account Management: Dedicated account managers and sales engineers for large-scale enterprise and wholesale accounts.
- Customer Portal: A centralized platform for ticket management, circuit performance visibility, and billing.
- Professional Services: Engineering consultancy for custom network design, diverse pathing analysis, and complex migrations.
Integration Requirements
EXA Infrastructure provides physical and logical connectivity that integrates with an enterprise's existing stack via:
- Physical Interfaces: Support for standard optical interfaces (LC/UPC, LC/APC) and speeds ranging from 1G to 400G.
- API Access: For wholesale customers, EXA offers API integration for automated quoting, ordering, and real-time circuit monitoring.
- SDN Capabilities: Integration with Software Defined Networking (SDN) platforms for flexible bandwidth adjustment on certain routes.
- Data Center Ecosystems: Pre-built integration with major providers like Equinix, Digital Realty, and Interxion, simplifying the "last mile" cross-connect process.
- Monitoring Protocols: Support for SNMP and other standard telemetry for integration into Network Management Systems (NMS) like SolarWinds or PRTG.
Security & Compliance
Security at EXA Infrastructure is focused on physical layer integrity and operational standards:
- Physical Security: Hardened landing stations and PoPs with 24/7 CCTV, biometric access, and redundant power/cooling.
- Route Diversity: Ability to provision geographically diverse paths (e.g., North/South routes) to ensure 99.999% availability and protection against fiber cuts.
- Compliance: EXA maintains industry-standard certifications including ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) and ISO 9001 (Quality Management).
- Data Privacy: As a carrier, EXA provides transparent transport, meaning they do not inspect or store customer data packets, facilitating GDPR compliance for the end-user.
- Encryption: Support for wire-speed optical encryption at the DWDM layer for customers with high-security requirements.
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