At this year’s Pacific Telecommunications Council conference, Zayo proudly announced a groundbreaking new expansion – a long-haul fiber route extending from a cross-border connection in El Paso, Texas to Queretaro, Mexico due to be completed by the end of 2025.
The route marks both a Zayo first and an industry first. For one, Zayo, in partnership with Fermaca, will introduce a long-haul fiber route in early 2026, marking the newest route built in Mexico in 20 years. Also, Zayo will be the first communications infrastructure provider to connect all of North America with long-haul routes from Canada through the United States and now through Mexico.
Mexico is one of the fastest-growing economies in the telecommunication sector in the world and shows no sign of slowing down. The ability to provide seamless solutions for hyperscalers, international carriers, and U.S. corporations within North America puts Zayo in a unique position in the region.
From Quebec City to Querétaro, Zayo will connect what’s next for enterprises of all sizes.
What to Know About Zayo’s First Long-Haul Route in Mexico
Our newest long-haul fiber route, built in partnership with Fermaca, will provide modern digital infrastructure through the center of the country spanning six key Mexican cities.
There are a few key features of this route worth calling out:
- It’s built with modern, resilient fiber. This route is the first long-haul fiber-optic route built by a North American fiber provider in Mexico in 20 years and we can say with confidence that it’s built stronger, faster, and with greater efficiency than its predecessors. Modern fiber optic cables support greater data transfer speeds and bandwidth, better uptime and reliability, enhanced security and durability, and are easier to maintain than traditional copper cables. Businesses in the regions this route serves will see a major upgrade in the performance, speed, and reliability of their networks enabling them to innovate and grow further and faster.
- Zayo can now provide connectivity across all of North America from Canada through Mexico. In 2016, we became the first network provider to connect the U.S. and Canada. With this route, Zayo will be the first North American fiber provider to connect Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We will bridge the connectivity gaps between the three countries through border crossings – five of which exist between the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and one connecting into this dark fiber route. Another first to note: no other fiber infrastructure provider with cross-border connects between the U.S. and Mexico sells dark fiber.
- This route provides 400G connectivity into six key Mexican cities. Points of presence (PoPs) along the new long-haul route in the economic hubs of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Torreón, Aguascalientes, Guadalajara, and Querétaro provide opportunities for businesses to grow in these regions.
- It supports global business operations. Local businesses and economies aren’t the only ones that will benefit from this route. Thanks to cross-border connectivity, multinational companies with operations on both sides of the border will now be able to establish and maintain efficient communication networks, coordinate more smoothly across borders, and transfer data quickly.
- The new central route supports some of Mexico’s fastest-growing industries. Manufacturing is one of Mexico’s most important and fastest-growing industries. Manufacturers are increasingly tapping into technologies like IoT to improve productivity and efficiency, but these tools require a ton of bandwidth. Luckily, Zayo’s new route will give manufacturers the bandwidth they need to support innovation. Guadalajara and Querétaro are some of the most critical economic hubs in Mexico – and they’re both connected to Zayo’s new route.
- It’s future-ready. Aside from being built with more modern, higher-performing fiber optic cable, this route will be 400G-enabled for wavelengths. This means more bandwidth and guaranteed capacity to enable regional business growth. 400G-enabled networks help organizations better prepare for the boom of bandwidth-hungry technologies like AI, allowing companies that run on Zayo’s 400G networks to tap into what’s next and innovate.
- It provides connectivity directly to Querétaro, a key data center hub. As the demand for data storage and cloud services continues to rise, data centers provide the critical infrastructure backbone to support these and other emerging technologies. Hyperscalers and data center giants have taken note of Querétaro’s status as an emerging data center hub due to its strategic location between the U.S. and Central America. Organizations have begun to set up shops in this region as a result, further cementing its key role as a global data center hub. Long-haul connectivity to this region will help data centers extend their reach throughout the country and globally, facilitate high-speed and low-latency communication, allow data centers and hyperscalers to scale their capacity seamlessly, and ensure faster, more reliable data transfer.
Overall, Zayo’s new central Mexican route has major implications for North American economies, regional businesses, global companies, and Zayo’s current and future customers. It will aid Mexican cities in their economic growth in the digital era and help contribute to important technological innovations.