The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
What Lives on the Ocean Floor — and Why It’s About to Matter More Than Ever
What Lives on the Ocean Floor | NJFXNJFX Insights · Subsea Infrastructure
What Lives on the Ocean Floor — and Why It's About to Matter More Than Ever
The cables beneath the Atlantic built the modern internet. Now nearly half of them are aging out — and where they land next will reshape global connectivity for a generation.
By NJFX Editorial·June 2026·8 min read
570+Active Cables Worldwide
95%+of Int'l Data via Cables
8Cable Systems at NJFX
200+Countries Reachable
In the Beginning
The Ocean Has Always Been the Network
Before satellites. Before fiber optics. Before the internet as we know it. The world's most consequential communications infrastructure has always run along the seafloor. Every email you've ever sent across an ocean, every video call with a colleague in London, every financial transaction between New York and Frankfurt — all of it travels through cables lying in the deep Atlantic, pressed against the continental shelf, buried in the sand off the Jersey Shore.
The history of subsea cables is, in many ways, the history of globalization itself. And as that infrastructure enters an unprecedented moment of strain — aging systems, exploding demand, and a generation of cables built for a pre-cloud world reaching end of life — the decisions made in the next few years will define the shape of the global internet for decades.
Understanding where we are requires understanding where we started.
More than 95% of international data traffic crosses the ocean not through satellites, but through submarine cables running along the seafloor. ↗ They are invisible infrastructure — and they are under pressure like never before.
A Brief History
160 Years of Undersea Connectivity
- 1858
The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable
After years of failed attempts, Cyrus West Field's Atlantic Telegraph Company successfully laid a cable connecting Valentia Island, Ireland to Newfoundland. On August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria and President Buchanan exchanged the world's first transatlantic messages — the Queen's 98-word greeting took over 16 hours to transmit. ↗ The cable failed within weeks, but the concept was proven. The world would never think about distance the same way again.
- 1866
The First Permanent Transatlantic Link
The SS Great Eastern successfully laid the first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable — and retrieved the failed 1865 cable, splicing it back into service. For the first time, two cables bridged the Atlantic simultaneously. ↗ The era of instantaneous transatlantic communication had truly begun.
- 1956
TAT-1: The First Transatlantic Telephone Cable
TAT-1, jointly operated by AT&T, the British Post Office, and Canada's overseas telecom corporation, became the first transatlantic telephone cable — capable of carrying 36 simultaneous calls. It went into service on September 25, 1956. ↗ Demand exceeded capacity from day one, an early pattern that would repeat at every subsequent inflection point in the internet's history.
- 1988
TAT-8: The Fiber Revolution Reaches the Ocean Floor
TAT-8 became the first transatlantic fiber optic cable on December 14, 1988, built by a consortium led by AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom at a cost of approximately $335 million. Connecting Tuckerton, New Jersey to the UK and France, its capacity was fully utilized within just 18 months — a stark signal that global appetite for digital data was growing faster than infrastructure planners had anticipated. ↗ TAT-8 was retired in 2002 after developing an unrepairable fault, and in 2025 its physical cable began being removed from the seafloor for recycling. ↗
- 1990s–2000s
The Dot-Com Build-Out — and the Glut
The rise of the commercial internet triggered a massive wave of submarine cable investment. Cables including TAT-14, Columbus III, and others were laid at enormous expense. When the dot-com bubble burst, the glut of dark fiber drove capacity prices into the floor. TAT-14, the last of the iconic TAT series, was retired on December 15, 2020. ↗ Many of the cables built in that era are the ones approaching end of life today.
- 2010s–Present
Hyperscalers Enter the Ocean Floor
Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon began investing directly in submarine cable infrastructure. Cables like Google's Grace Hopper — connecting New York, Bude (UK), and Bilbao (Spain) with a design capacity of 352 Tbps, entering service in 2022 — marked a structural shift. ↗ The dominant users of transatlantic capacity had become the dominant investors in it. As of 2025, TeleGeography tracks 570 in-service submarine cable systems globally, with another 81 planned. ↗
- Now
The Infrastructure Gap — and the NJFX Moment
In 2025 alone, the International Cable Protection Committee reported 150–200 cable outages worldwide, illustrating the growing fragility of these networks. ↗ AI workloads, cloud computing, and real-time financial applications are compounding bandwidth demands on transatlantic cables — some built for a world that predated cloud computing entirely. The way those cables reach their terrestrial destinations — through legacy carrier hand-offs and urban aggregation points — introduces exactly the kind of latency and fragility that modern applications can least afford. This is the problem NJFX was built to solve.
The Infrastructure Gap
Aging Cables, Accelerating Demand
The transatlantic internet infrastructure was not built for this moment. The cables that carry the world's most critical data traffic were engineered decades ago — for different use cases, under different demand assumptions. As AI workloads, cloud computing, and real-time financial applications require more bandwidth than ever, much of the physical infrastructure beneath the ocean was designed for another era.
When the dot-com era cables were originally built in the mid-1990s, their expected system life was 15–20 years. ↗ Many have been extended through upgrades, but a meaningful share of transatlantic cable infrastructure is now well past or approaching that original design horizon. Meanwhile, investment is accelerating globally — with $16 billion in new cable builds is planned for 2026–29, double the amount invested in the previous three years, with internet giants accounting for the bulk of that capital. ↗
⚠️
A Concentrated Risk
The transatlantic corridor is one of the most strategically critical — and most constrained — in the world. A significant share of cables on this route were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s, meaning their original 15–20 year design life has already elapsed. Retirements in this window create real capacity and resilience concerns, particularly as AI-era data demands compound.
New cables take years to plan, permit, fund, and deploy. The engineering is complex, the investment is enormous — and the landing station infrastructure where subsea meets terrestrial is itself a limiting factor. You can build a new cable, but if the facility on shore isn't carrier-neutral, isn't technically capable of direct interconnection, and isn't positioned away from legacy aggregation points, you've simply moved the bottleneck to a different address.
This is exactly the problem NJFX was built to solve.
All Eight Systems
Every Cable Accessible from NJFX
Two cables land directly at NJFX's facility in Wall Township — including the only systems on the US East Coast providing direct access to Norway. The HAVFRUE / AEC-2, which entered service December 1, 2020, was the first new cable to connect mainland Northern Europe to the US in nearly two decades. ↗ Seabras-1 remains the only direct point-to-point cable between the New York metro and São Paulo, Brazil. ↗
Direct Landing
HAVFRUE / AEC-2
Norway · Denmark · Ireland
Owners: Bulk Infrastructure, EXA Infrastructure, Meta, Google
Wall, NJ · Blaabjerg, DK · Kristiansand, NO · Leckanvy, IE
Direct Landing
Seabras-1
São Paulo, Brazil
Owners: Seaborn Networks
Wall, NJ · Praia Grande, Brazil
Direct Landing
TGN-Atlantic
United Kingdom
Owners: Tata Communications
Wall, NJ · Highbridge, UK
Accessible at NJFX
Grace Hopper
UK · Spain
Owners: Google
US East Coast · Bude, UK · Bilbao, Spain
Accessible at NJFX
Apollo
France · UK
Owners: Vodafone
US East Coast · Lannion, France · Widemouth Bay, UK
Accessible at NJFX
AEC Connect
UK · Ireland
Owners: EXA Infrastructure
US East Coast · UK · Ireland
Accessible at NJFX
Gemini Bermuda
Bermuda
Owners: Liberty Networks, Orange
US East Coast · Hamilton, Bermuda
Proposed Landing
WALL-LI
New York (Terrestrial Access)
Owners: Crosslake Fibre
Wall Township, NJ · Westbury, NY
Why It Matters
The Convergence Point the Industry Has Been Missing
For most of the history of submarine cables, the way capacity reached end users was fundamentally broken. A cable would land at a beach manhole, run to a nearby building, and then enter the hands of a legacy carrier — who would backhaul that capacity to a metropolitan aggregation point, where it would be carved up, re-sold, and handed off again. Each step added latency. Each hand-off added cost. Each aggregation point added a single point of failure.
NJFX was built to eliminate those hand-offs entirely — by creating the only place on the US East Coast where subsea cable infrastructure and terrestrial carrier networks converge in a single, carrier-neutral facility. No intermediaries. No additional hops. Direct interconnection, under one roof.
The Only Path to Norway on the US East Coast
HAVFRUE / AEC-2, which lands directly at NJFX, was the first new cable to connect mainland Northern Europe to the US in nearly two decades when it entered service in 2020. ↗ It is the only US East Coast cable providing direct access to Norway — and offers unique routes into Denmark and Ireland.
True Carrier Neutrality
With 28+ carriers, operators, and networks present on campus, NJFX operates as a genuine open exchange — no single carrier controls the relationship. Customers set the terms. Competition keeps quality up and price honest.
Latency Optimized by Design
Direct cable head access means traffic enters the subsea system at the source — not after traveling through legacy backhaul. Seabras-1, for example, delivers a measured latency of just 105.05ms round trip between the Nasdaq data center in New Jersey and Brazil's B3 exchange in São Paulo. ↗
NYC Proximity Without NYC Risk
Wall Township sits 60 miles from Manhattan — close enough to serve as the New York metro's cable edge, far enough to remain outside the infrastructure density and vulnerability concentration that defines New York's telecom hubs.
Route Diversity Across Three Continents
Eight cable systems reaching Europe, South America, and Bermuda from one address. Engineers can design genuinely redundant multi-path architectures without managing multiple facility relationships across different geographies.
Built for the AI Era
As AI inference workloads demand low-latency transatlantic paths, NJFX provides the cable head access the hyperscaler era built on. New cable builds are accelerating globally — $11 billion planned for 2024–26 alone ↗ — and where those cables land will determine who can use them.
What Comes Next
The Next Wave of Transatlantic Infrastructure
The history of the transatlantic cable is a history of moments where the old infrastructure couldn't keep up with what the world was becoming. The telegraph cable of 1866 couldn't carry telephone calls. The copper cables of the 1950s couldn't handle the bandwidth the internet demanded. The dot-com era cables built for one iteration of the internet are straining under the demands of the next.
Each inflection point required not just new technology in the cable itself, but new infrastructure on shore. New landing points. New facilities where the capacity could actually be used. The bottleneck was never the ocean — it was what happened when the cable came out of it.
That inflection point is here again. The retirement of aging transatlantic cables, combined with the exponential growth in AI-driven data traffic and $11 billion in new cable investment on the horizon, represents both a challenge and a defining opportunity. New cables will be built. New capacity will cross the Atlantic. The question is where that capacity lands, who can access it, and whether the shore-side infrastructure is ready for what the ocean is about to carry.
NJFX was built for this moment — the only carrier-neutral cable landing station on the US East Coast where subsea cable infrastructure and terrestrial networks physically converge, without intermediaries, under one roof.
— NJFX, Wall Township, New Jersey
As new cables are planned — designed with AI workloads and hyperscale cloud infrastructure in mind — the landing station infrastructure that greets them on shore matters as much as the engineering that crossed the ocean. NJFX's unique position at the intersection of subsea and terrestrial networks makes it not just a facility from the last era of transatlantic infrastructure, but the foundation of the next one.
Sources & Further Reading
- 1TeleGeography — How Many Submarine Cables Are There, Anyway? (Feb. 2026) — 570 in-service systems, 81 planned
- 2Atlantic Council — Cyber Defense Across the Ocean Floor — 95%+ of intercontinental data travels via submarine cables
- 3History.com — The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable — 1858 cable history, Queen Victoria and President Buchanan
- 4Submarine Networks — Recovery of TAT-8 — TAT-8 history, 2025 cable removal operation
- 5BGR — World's First Transatlantic Internet Cable Being Pulled From the Ocean (Mar. 2026)
- 6Submarine Networks — TAT-14 Cable System — retired December 15, 2020
- 7Submarine Networks — Old Cables Don't Die But Do They Just Fade Away — cable lifecycle analysis
- 8Eurasian Review — Digital Lifelines: Undersea Cables, Chokepoints, and the Evolving Sea Lines of Communication (Dec. 2025)
- 9Wikipedia — Grace Hopper Submarine Cable — 352 Tbps design capacity, service date Sept. 2022
- 10Submarine Networks — HAVFRUE / AEC-2 — first Northern Europe–US cable in nearly two decades, RFS December 2020
- 11Aqua Comms — AEC-2 Network — cable specs, landing points, commercial terms
- 12Seaborn Networks — Seabras-1 — only direct PoP-to-PoP cable between São Paulo and New York
- 13Submarine Networks — Seabras-1 System Details — 105.05ms RTD latency, NJ to Brazil Stock Exchange
- 14Telegeography — Building Tomorrow’s Internet — $16B in cable investment 2026–29
Ready to Connect at the Cable Head?
Talk to our team about subsea access, route diversity, and carrier-neutral interconnection at NJFX.
Get in Touch Explore Subsea Page
What Lives on the Ocean Floor — and Why It’s About to Matter More Than Ever Read More »
CCT Global 2026
NJFX at CCT Global 2026 — Dublin
CCT Global 2026NJFX AttendingGil Santaliz Speaking
CCT Global 2026
Europe's premier gathering of cloud, carrier, and interconnect executives — shaping the future of global digital infrastructure.
2026
Dublin, Ireland
C-suite & VP-level executives
About the event
CCT Global brings together the leading executives from cloud providers and hyperscalers, telecom carriers and service providers, interconnect and data centre players, and content and OTT players. CCT 2026 provides a unique opportunity to learn and discuss with peers, define priorities, advance agendas, and shape the future of the industry.
Cloud ProvidersHyperscalersTelecom CarriersService ProvidersInterconnect & Data CentresContent & OTT
NJFX team attending
Meet the NJFX delegation in Dublin. Find us at the sessions or reach out below to schedule time.
Speaking
Gil Santaliz
Chief Executive Officer · NJFX
Felix Seda
Chief Revenue Officer · NJFX
Emily Newman
Marketing Director · NJFX
On the agenda
8:30 amNetworking Breakfast
Thursday, 25 June 2026
8:45 am
Neocloud Providers Insight: Determining Infrastructure and Connectivity Needs and Optimum Partnership Strategies
Moderator
Jezzibell Gilmore
General Manager, Service Providers · Kentik
Speakers
Bryan Hill
Global Director, Strategy & Business Development, AI/HPC & Digital Media · Digital Realty
Gil Santaliz
Chief Executive Officer · NJFX
Daniel Bathurst
Chief Product Officer · Nscale
Clara Ulken
Program Director, Edge & AI Infrastructure · Gcore
Get in touch
Meet us in Dublin
The NJFX team is available for meetings throughout CCT Global 2026. Fill out the form and we'll be in touch to confirm a time that works.
First name
Last name
Work email
Company
Message
Send request
Request received! A member of the NJFX team will be in touch shortly to confirm your meeting.
New Jersey Evans Cup Scholarship
East Coast Evans Cup 2025 | NJFX
● Third Annual Event
East Coast Evans Cup
Join supporters, WGA Directors and friends for a day of golf and celebration at Spring Lake Golf Club. All proceeds benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation.
Date
Monday, June 15
Venue
Spring Lake Golf Club
Format
Shotgun Start
Time
8 a.m - 5 p.m.
Reserve Your Spot View Schedule
196
Caddies Supported
$1M+
In Scholarships
23
Active NJ Scholars
$125K
Value Per Scholar
About the Event
A Jersey Shore tradition worth teeing up for
We hope you can join us for the third annual East Coast Evans Cup at Spring Lake Golf Club. As we continue to grow the Evans Scholars Program in the East, we look forward to bringing supporters, WGA Directors and friends together for a day of golf and celebration.
All proceeds benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation and support East Coast initiatives in partnership with NJ Golf.
The Scholarship
Who Your Support Serves
The New Jersey Golf Evans Scholarship is a prestigious full housing and tuition grant for golf caddies, valued at an estimated $125,000 over four years. Scholars are chosen on caddie record, excellent academics, financial need and outstanding character.
Day of Play
Schedule
8:00 AM
Registration, Breakfast & Driving Range
Warm up and connect with fellow guests
10:00 AM
Shotgun Start
All groups take to the course simultaneously
2:30 PM
Cocktails
Celebrate the round with drinks and conversation
3:30 PM
Dinner, Program & Awards
Recognize scholars and toast the day
Venue
Spring Lake Golf Club
A storied Jersey Shore club with a classic layout — the perfect setting for a day of golf and celebration.
Click to accept marketing cookies and enable this content
Spring Lake Golf Club
901 Warren Ave, Spring Lake, NJ 07762
June 15, 2025
The Scholars
Meet the 2026–29 Class
The New Jersey Golf Evans Scholarship is a prestigious full housing and tuition grant for golf caddies, valued at an estimated $125,000 over four years. Scholars are chosen based on a strong caddie record, excellent academics, financial need and outstanding character — through a partnership between the Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholars Foundation and NJ Golf.
Lily Formichella
Rutgers '26
Political Science
Manasquan River Golf Club
Carter Frey
Indiana '26
Accounting, Finance
Fairmount Country Club
Noah Loveland
Miami (Ohio) '26
Kinesiology
Manasquan River Golf Club
Mairead Martin
Notre Dame '26
Finance & Marketing
Spring Lake Golf Club
William Martis
Rutgers '26
Economics
Manasquan River Golf Club
Maxwell Walker
Rutgers '26
Economics
Arcola Country Club
Anthony DeAngelis
Rutgers '27
Health Administration
Hollywood Golf Club
Kenneth Maher
Rutgers '27
Biomedical Engineering
Baltusrol Golf Club
Alexander Xanthacos
Rutgers '27
Labor Studies & Emp. Relations
Spring Lake Golf Club
Mason Adao
Rutgers '28
Meteorology
Baltusrol Golf Club
William Cosgrove
Rutgers '28
Finance
Manasquan River Golf Club
Jakob Krombholz
Rutgers '28
History & Classics
Plainfield Country Club
Declan Murphy
Rutgers '28
Marketing
Manasquan River Golf Club
Luke Roy
Notre Dame '28
Finance
Spring Lake Golf Club
Jhann Torres
Rutgers '28
Liberal Arts
Essex County Country Club
Rory Walker
Rutgers '28
Economics
Spring Lake Golf Club
Pedro Chicas
Rutgers '29
Economics/Business
Crestmont Country Club
Molly Craffey
Maryland '29
Political Science
Edgewood Country Club
Lindsay Gilbert
South Carolina '29
Communications Studies
Spring Lake Golf Club
Luke Phillips
Rutgers '29
Finance
Rumson Country Club
Edison Moya
Michigan State '29
Liberal Arts/Pre-Law
Essex County Country Club
Brian Ramirez
Rutgers '29
Business Administration
Baltusrol Golf Club
Peter Tadrick
Delaware '29
Engineering
Hollywood Golf Club
Support the Program
Donate to the WGA Evans Scholarship
Can’t make the event? You can still support the next generation of Evans Scholars. Every contribution helps fund full tuition and housing for deserving caddies across New Jersey and beyond.
Proceeds benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation — a Western Golf Association initiative.
Reserve Your Spot
Express Interest
Let us know you’re interested and our team will follow up within 2 business days with confirmation and next steps.
Thank you for your interest!
We’ve received your submission and will be in touch shortly. We look forward to seeing you at Spring Lake Golf Club on June 15.
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
Phone Number
Organization
Title
I am interested in
Golf FoursomeDinner Only
Additional Notes
Submit →
Our team will follow up with you shortly. You may also reach us at emily@njfx.net for any questions.
New Jersey Evans Cup Scholarship Read More »
Monmouth County Sheriff’s Golf Outing
Monmouth County Sheriff's Office Golf Tournament – NJFX
Community Engagement · 2026
Annual Charity Golf Tournament & Dinner Reception
Hosted by the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office — bringing together local leaders, first responders, and community supporters for a meaningful day of connection and impact.
Hosted By
Monmouth County Sheriff's Office
Format
Golf Tournament & Dinner Reception
NJFX Role
Proud Attendee & Sponsor
About the Event
A community tradition rooted in connection and resilience
NJFX was proud to attend and sponsor the Annual Charity Golf Tournament and Dinner Reception hosted by the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office. Events like these serve as an important reminder of the power of community, bringing together local leaders, organizations, and supporters to create a meaningful and lasting impact throughout Monmouth County.
At NJFX, community engagement extends far beyond the walls of our facility. As critical infrastructure operators, we recognize the importance of building strong relationships with the organizations and first responders who help keep our communities safe, connected, and resilient. Supporting local initiatives and strengthening those partnerships remains a core part of NJFX's mission and values.
Community & Partnership
Strengthening the ties that keep communities safe
The event provided an opportunity for NJFX team members to connect with local officials, community advocates, and public safety leaders while supporting a cause dedicated to strengthening local programs and outreach efforts.
"
NJFX's contribution to events like the Monmouth County Police Chiefs Association 2026 Annual Golf Outing Fundraiser fosters strong relationships and effective communication. Partnerships between local first responders and critical infrastructure operators are essential for enhancing a community's resilience and ensuring swift, coordinated responses during emergency situations.
JH
James Harrison
Site Access Team, NJFX
Looking Ahead
Gratitude and commitment to Monmouth County
NJFX extends its gratitude to the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office for hosting such a successful and impactful event. We look forward to continuing to support initiatives that strengthen our local community and foster collaboration across Monmouth County.
CommunityMonmouth CountyFirst RespondersCritical InfrastructureSponsorship2026
Monmouth County Sheriff’s Golf Outing Read More »
Investing in the Next Generation of Digital Infrastructure Leaders
NJFX Blog | Welcoming Paige Gille — 2026 Summer Marketing Intern
PG
Culture & Team
Welcoming Paige Gille to the NJFX Team
NJFX is excited to welcome Paige as part of the 2026 Summer Internship Program — investing in the next generation of digital infrastructure leaders.
PublishedMay 2026
CategoryCulture & People
AuthorNJFX Editorial
MSU '27
Michigan State University
Junior, Class of 2027
Communications / PR
ΣΔΤ
Sigma Delta Tau
Greek Life
Prevent Child Abuse America
3+
Years of hands-on
marketing experience
Branding · Content · Social
Summer '26
2026 Internship Program
Marketing & Communications
Wall Township, NJ
Investing in the Next Generation of Digital Infrastructure Leaders Read More »
The Fiber Exchange Redefining Global Network Strategy
Connecting Cable Landing Stations Is the Future of Global Network Strategy | NJFX
Global Network Strategy
Connecting Cable Landing Stations Is the Future of Global Network Strategy
The cable landing station is no longer a passive endpoint. It has become the defining infrastructure node of the AI era — and the carriers who recognize this are building tomorrow's network architectures today.
UpdatedApril 2026
CategoryInfrastructure & Strategy
AuthorNJFX Editorial
5Subsea cable systems at NJFX Wall, NJ↑ from 4 in 2023
35+Global & domestic network operatorsCarrier-neutral ecosystem
10 MWDedicated power milestone reached10th anniversary, 2026
$900BGlobal AI infrastructure spend by 2029IDC forecast
The Fiber Exchange Redefining Global Network Strategy Read More »
NJFX at ITW 2026
ITW 2026
Join NJFX at the ultimate convergence of the global connectivity and digital infrastructure ecosystem in National Harbor.
Catch the Team After the Event:
Events
CCT Global 2026
NJFX is excited to attend CCT Global 2026 in Dublin, bringing together leaders shaping the future of cloud, AI, connectivity, and digital infrastructure. As a premier carrier-neutral cable landing station and interconnection hub, NJFX continues to support the evolving demands of global networks, enterprise, financial markets, and next-generation AI workloads. Meet the NJFX team at CCT Global as we explore innovative partnership strategies, scalable infrastructure, and the future of high-capacity connectivity across Europe and North America.
New Jersey Evans Cup Scholarship
Join the Third Annual East Coast Evans Cup on June 15 at Spring Lake Golf Club. Support the Evans Scholars Foundation with a day of golf, celebration, and community impact along the Jersey Shore.
Monmouth County Sheriff’s Golf Outing
NJFX is honored to sponsor the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office Annual Charity Golf Tournament and Dinner Reception, strengthening community partnerships and supporting local initiatives across Monmouth County.
Explore More
Pilot Fiber Expands Enterprise Connectivity at NJFX’s Premium Cable Landing Station Campus
Pilot Fiber Expands Enterprise Connectivity at NJFX | NJFX Press Release
Pilot Fiber1,000+On-net buildings
NY metro
Pilot Fiber47Data centers
NY & NJ
NJFX250+Tbps live traffic
through CLS
NJFX100%Uptime at CLS
for 10 years
New York, NY · March 2026
Pilot Fiber, a leading provider of high-capacity connectivity solutions for businesses across the New York metro region, today announced the availability of its enterprise network services at the NJFX Cable Landing Station campus in Wall Township, New Jersey — one of the most advanced carrier-neutral interconnection hubs in North America. The partnership follows Pilot's recent acquisition of Extenet Systems's enterprise fiber business, supporting the company's commitment to connecting customers throughout New York and New Jersey.
Through its presence at NJFX, Pilot now delivers a range of high-capacity connectivity solutions to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators co-located within the facility.
Services Now Available at NJFX
IP TransitCloud ConnectWavelength ServicesEthernet Transport
The expansion reflects growing enterprise demand for high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity as organizations increasingly move data-intensive workloads between data centers, cloud environments, and global networks.
"Today's data infrastructure is being pushed by entirely new classes of workloads — from generative AI and real-time analytics to financial trading and media distribution. By partnering with NJFX, we're ensuring that enterprises operating in one of the most strategically connected facilities in North America have access to Pilot's diverse and resilient network that connects over 1,000 on-net buildings throughout the New York metro area."
— Joe Fasone, CEO · Pilot Fiber
Located in Wall Township, New Jersey, the NJFX campus serves as a critical gateway between North America, Europe, and South America. More than 250 terabits per second of live traffic flows through the campus, reflecting the rapid shift toward high-capacity environments and the accelerating adoption of 400G network infrastructure.
The carrier-neutral cable landing station provides direct access to multiple subsea cable systems — including Seabras-1 and HAVFRUE/AEC-2 — and dozens of global network operators, creating a dense interconnection ecosystem that reduces latency and enables greater control over routing, performance, and network resiliency.
"NJFX was built to create the most resilient and interconnected cable landing station ecosystem in the United States. Pilot's presence strengthens the diversity of network providers available within the campus and expands connectivity options for the global enterprises, financial institutions, and cloud platforms operating here."
— Gil Santaliz, CEO · NJFX
Pilot's expansion into NJFX reinforces its continued investment in supporting enterprise connectivity across the region. As of March 2026, Pilot's network is connected to 13 data centers in New Jersey and an additional 34 across the New York metro area.
About the Companies
About Pilot Fiber
Pilot Fiber delivers enterprise-grade connectivity to businesses across the New York metro area through complete network ownership and in-house operational expertise. Since 2014, the company has built a network of 300+ miles of modern fiber infrastructure throughout New York City, serving 3,500+ businesses across 1,000+ buildings with a full suite of services: Dedicated Internet Access, Ethernet Transport, Dark Fiber, Wavelength, and IP Transit. Pilot's end-to-end ownership model delivers 5–15 day installations in on-net buildings — versus the industry standard of 30–90 days — with transparent pricing, 24/7 support, and no contracts required.
About NJFX
NJFX is a Tier 3, carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station and colocation campus in Wall Township, New Jersey, where subsea and terrestrial networks converge. The campus provides diverse, low-latency connectivity with direct access to Europe, South America, and the Caribbean through multiple subsea systems and more than 25 terrestrial routes. NJFX supports a highly interconnected ecosystem of over 35 global network operators, cloud providers, and enterprises. The facility is built for resiliency, with four diverse points of entry, dual utility feeds, and N+1 redundancy across critical systems. With a decade of 100% uptime, NJFX delivers secure, scalable infrastructure where compute meets connectivity — including a new 10MW AI-ready data hall now expanding on campus.
The Inference Inflection Point Is Here
The Inference Inflection Point | NJFX
NJFX · Field Intelligence · NVIDIA GTC 2026
The Inference Inflection Point Is Here.
Jensen Huang said it plainly at NVIDIA GTC in San José: AI is leaving the training era behind. What comes next runs on telecom infrastructure — and NJFX is built for exactly this moment.
Wall, NJ•March 2026•NJFX Team
We just watched the AI industry announce its next chapter and it runs on fiber, power, and proximity to the network edge.
NVIDIA GTC is where the industry maps its future. This year's message was unmistakable: the massive investment in AI training is paying off, and now the work shifts to inference at scale — getting AI out of centralized data centers and into the distributed infrastructure where it can actually reach users, devices, and data in real time.
For NJFX, a carrier-neutral cable landing station at the intersection of transatlantic subsea fiber and the U.S. backbone, the implications are immediate. The infrastructure that delivers AI inference at global scale has to start somewhere. It starts here.
“
Telecom is one of the world's infrastructures. It will be completely reinvented as a future AI infrastructure platform.
Jensen Huang, CEO — NVIDIA GTC 2026
What We Heard at GTC
NVIDIA Is Rebuilding the World's AI Infrastructure — Starting with Telecom
Huang didn't position telecom as a supporting player. He called it a foundational partner — an industry that will be completely reinvented as the platform through which AI inference reaches the world. The mechanism for this reinvention is something NVIDIA is calling AI Grids: a distributed inference architecture that turns existing network real-estate into active compute infrastructure.
NVIDIA has already partnered with six network operators — primarily in the United States — to begin building out these grids. Some are starting by activating existing wired edge sites. Others are layering in AI-RAN and AI factory deployments. The path varies, but the destination is the same: a geographically distributed AI inference fabric, linked by high-speed data connections, running closer to the end user than centralized cloud ever could.
The key requirement for any node in this system? High-speed, low-latency connectivity. That's not a future investment for telecom — it's what the industry has built over decades. And it's exactly what NJFX was designed to provide.
The Inference Inflection Point
We have moved past the era of building AI models and into the era of running them everywhere. Inference — not training — is where the next decade of AI value is created and delivered.
AI Grids: Distributed by Design
NVIDIA's AI Grid architecture links any network node — fixed, wireless, or CDN edge — into a unified inference fabric connected by high-speed data links telecom companies already own.
Monetizing What Already Exists
Operators can begin lighting up existing wired edge sites as AI grid nodes today — turning stranded real-estate, power, and connectivity into active, revenue-generating infrastructure without building from scratch.
Telecom at the Center
For the first time, telecom is not the pipe that carries AI — it is the platform that runs it. Network operators are being repositioned as the physical layer of the global AI inference economy.
Why NJFX
Built at the Edge of the Network. Ready for the AI Grid.
NJFX is not a traditional data center. It is a carrier-neutral cable landing station — the physical point where transatlantic subsea fiber meets the U.S. network, and where the global internet literally comes ashore.
Most colocation facilities are inland. They depend on others to connect them to the world. NJFX is the connection. That distinction, which has always made NJFX a critical node in the global connectivity ecosystem, now makes it a natural anchor point for distributed AI inference infrastructure.
The AI Grid model NVIDIA is building requires nodes connected by the highest-capacity, lowest-latency links available. Subsea cable systems are those links. When AI inference needs to move between the Americas, Europe, and beyond — it moves through Wall, New Jersey, or it doesn't move at all.
NJFX offers carrier-neutral access, open interconnection, Tier 3 data center reliability, and direct proximity to the cables that carry the world's data. This is precisely what NVIDIA describes as the foundation of an AI Grid node — and NJFX has spent a decade building it.
10yrs
Of carrier-neutral subsea interconnection — longer than most AI grid conversations have existed
10MW
Of power capacity at the cable landing station — the energy AI inference demands, already in place
6+
Network operators in NVIDIA's AI Grid program — NJFX serves the infrastructure they all depend on
1
Carrier-neutral landing station at this location — an irreplaceable position in the global network
The Takeaway
This Is Not a Future Opportunity. It Is Now.
The shift Huang described at GTC is already underway. Network operators are making decisions right now about where their AI grid nodes will be, which subsea routes they'll rely on, and which interconnection facilities anchor their distributed inference strategy.
NJFX is the answer to those questions for the transatlantic and LATAM markets. The infrastructure exists. The fiber is live. The power is available. The interconnection ecosystem is carrier-neutral and open. What NVIDIA described as the ideal foundation for an AI Grid node is not a vision at NJFX — it is the current state of operations.
The inflection point isn't coming. It's here. And it runs through Wall, New Jersey.
Where the internet begins is where AI inference begins. NJFX is that place and we're ready to connect the next era of AI infrastructure to the world.
The Inference Inflection Point Is Here Read More »
Not all Data Centers are Created Equal
Not All Data Centers Are Equal | NJFX
Infrastructure Intelligence
Not All Data Centers Are Created Equal
From legacy converted buildings to purpose-built campuses, high-density AI facilities, and the edge — understanding what separates a data center from a true interconnection hub is the difference between good infrastructure and great strategy.
By the NJFX Team·Infrastructure Strategy·7 min read
The word "data center" gets used to describe everything from a room full of servers in a retrofitted warehouse to a purpose-built, carrier-neutral interconnection hub sitting directly on a live submarine cable. The difference matters enormously to how your data moves, how your latency performs, and how resilient your network actually is.
The data center industry has evolved rapidly, but not uniformly. Today, the market encompasses a wide and often misunderstood range of facility types — each designed with different priorities, different customers, and radically different infrastructure DNA.
Understanding where a facility sits on this spectrum isn't just academic. For enterprises, cloud providers, content networks, and carriers, choosing the wrong type of facility can mean paying for capacity that doesn't actually serve your traffic the way you think it does.
Gen01
Converted & Traditional Facilities
The Legacy Retrofit
The earliest era of commercial data centers wasn't purpose-built — it was improvised. Office buildings, industrial warehouses, and even old telephone switching stations were retrofitted with raised floors, basic cooling systems, and whatever connectivity could be pulled in from the street. These facilities met the demand of a market that hadn't yet decided what a data center should actually be.
Many of these converted facilities are still operating today. They tend to serve smaller regional colocation markets, enterprise tenants with legacy infrastructure commitments, or cost-sensitive workloads that don't require high power density or carrier diversity. The economics can work — older buildings often carry lower lease costs — but the infrastructure trade-offs are real and compounding.
Power distribution in converted buildings is typically constrained by the original electrical design of the structure. Cooling is often bolted on rather than integrated, resulting in hot spots, inefficiency, and limited headroom for density upgrades. Connectivity depends entirely on which carriers chose to extend fiber to the location, often leaving tenants with limited provider choice.
Low entry costEstablished locationsSuitable for low-density workloadsAging power infrastructureLimited cooling headroomConstrained carrier diversityPoor scalability
Best Suited For
- Legacy enterprise applications
- Low-density storage workloads
- Cost-sensitive regional colocation
- Disaster recovery and archival
Watch Out For
- Single-carrier connectivity risk
- Power density ceilings below 5kW/rack
- Cooling inefficiency and PUE overhead
- Limited physical expansion options
Gen02
Purpose-Built Colocation
The Enterprise Standard
The purpose-built colocation facility became the defining model of the modern data center industry. Designed from the ground up with data center operations in mind, these facilities introduced engineering rigor that retrofitted buildings simply couldn't replicate: N+1 or 2N power redundancy, precision cooling with structured airflow management, Tier III and Tier IV uptime certifications, and physical security infrastructure built to standards far beyond a commercial office environment.
Purpose-built colos became the backbone of enterprise IT infrastructure through the 2000s and 2010s. Enterprises could outsource the complexity of running their own data rooms while maintaining control over their hardware, their software, and their connectivity choices. Carrier-neutral facilities in this category — where multiple providers compete for cross-connect business — became particularly valuable, as they enabled tenants to build multi-provider network architectures without owning the real estate themselves.
The standard power density for purpose-built colo has historically ranged from 5 to 10kW per rack, with higher-density zones available in newer builds. This works for most enterprise workloads but the arrival of GPU-accelerated computing has exposed the limits of facilities not designed for the thermal profiles of AI infrastructure.
Tier III / IV redundancyCarrier-neutral optionsStandardized power & coolingProven security compliancePower density limits for AIGeographic clustering in major metrosOften far from subsea entry points
Best Suited For
- Enterprise hybrid IT infrastructure
- Multi-carrier network interconnection
- Regulated industries requiring compliance
- Dedicated hosting and managed services
Watch Out For
- Connectivity path to global subsea networks
- Power headroom for evolving density needs
- Latency to end users in non-metro markets
- Lock-in to metro fiber ecosystems
Gen03
High-Power & Hyperscale Facilities
Built for the AI Era
The emergence of large language models, GPU clusters, and cloud hyperscalers fundamentally changed what the market demands from data center infrastructure. High-power and hyperscale facilities represent the industry's response: massive campuses designed around compute density rather than multi-tenant flexibility, capable of delivering 30 to 100+ kW per rack and supporting liquid cooling architectures that air-cooled facilities simply cannot match.
Hyperscale facilities — the campuses operated by or built for AWS, Microsoft, Google, and their peers — are purpose-engineered for scale. They operate on campus models where power, cooling, and networking are vertically integrated and optimized for the specific workloads running inside. The economics work at hyperscale because the volume of compute justifies the capital investment in custom infrastructure.
High-power AI-oriented colocation is a newer category: facilities built with the power density and cooling capacity of hyperscale infrastructure, but operated as multi-tenant colocation environments. These facilities serve AI labs, ML engineering teams, and enterprises running inference workloads at scale. They are an important and fast-growing segment — but like all data centers, they depend on the connectivity infrastructure that gets traffic to and from their compute. That connectivity story is often the weakest part of the pitch.
30–100kW+ per rackLiquid cooling capableMassive scalabilityPurpose-built for AI workloadsOften single-tenant or hyperscaler-controlledLimited carrier-neutral ecosystemConnectivity frequently an afterthought
Best Suited For
- GPU cluster training and inference
- Cloud hyperscaler deployments
- Large-scale ML model hosting
- High-performance compute (HPC)
Watch Out For
- Ingress/egress costs at hyperscaler scale
- Limited control over network routing
- Distance from subsea entry points
- Power procurement and grid dependency
Gen04
Edge & Local Data Centers
Proximity at the Last Mile
Edge computing emerged as an answer to a latency problem that centralized data centers — no matter how well-designed — cannot solve by themselves: the distance between where data is processed and where users actually are. Edge data centers are intentionally distributed, positioned in secondary and tertiary markets, inside mobile network operator facilities, and increasingly at the cell tower level to bring compute closer to the end point of traffic.
For use cases where milliseconds matter — content delivery, real-time gaming, autonomous vehicle communication, industrial IoT, and augmented reality — edge infrastructure is not optional. A hyperscale facility in Northern Virginia cannot serve a user in Denver with sub-10ms round-trip times. An edge node in Denver can. The distributed model sacrifices the economies of scale that large campuses enjoy, but it trades that for the latency performance that certain applications require.
The strategic challenge with edge infrastructure is backhaul: how does data get from the edge node to the core network, and from the core network to the global internet? Edge nodes are, by definition, downstream from the primary network. They depend on the health and capacity of the networks connecting them back to the backbone — which means the quality of the backbone matters enormously, even if users never see it directly.
Minimal end-user latencyDistributed geographic coverageCDN and real-time application supportLimited compute densityDependent on backhaul qualityNo direct subsea or backbone accessHigh operational complexity at scale
Best Suited For
- CDN node deployment and caching
- Real-time gaming and streaming
- Autonomous systems and IoT
- Mobile network operator (MNO) integration
Watch Out For
- Backhaul dependency and single-path risk
- Inconsistent power and cooling standards
- Fragmented management across nodes
- Limited carrier choice at edge locations
Each of these facility types serves a real market need. But a critical question often goes unasked: where does your data actually come from, and how does it get there?
Most conversations about data centers focus on what happens inside the building — power density, cooling efficiency, uptime certifications. Fewer conversations address what happens outside: how fiber arrives, from where, and how many independent paths exist to the global internet.
For most data centers, connectivity is a secondary consideration. Carriers bring fiber in, operators sell cross-connects, and customers assume the network is "good enough." In many cases, it is. But for organizations whose traffic is genuinely global — reaching users across the Atlantic, into Latin America, or across Southeast Asia — the origin of that fiber changes everything.
Approximately 97% of intercontinental internet traffic travels over submarine fiber optic cables. The landing stations where those cables come ashore are among the most strategically significant pieces of telecommunications infrastructure on the planet — yet most data centers have no direct relationship with them at all.
A traditional cable landing station is exactly what it sounds like: the physical point where a submarine cable comes ashore. Historically, these were passive — protected, secured, and largely inaccessible. The cable arrived, connected to a carrier's network, and traffic flowed out through that single relationship.
That model worked when the internet was simpler.
Today's global traffic demands require direct, competitive access to the subsea layer — not just the ability to buy bandwidth from a carrier who happens to have a relationship with a cable. The difference between reaching a cable station passively through a carrier and sitting directly on that infrastructure is the difference between renting a phone and owning the switchboard.
Most data centers connect to the internet.
NJFX sits at the point where the internet begins.
NJFX is not a traditional data center. It is not a cable landing station in the passive, legacy sense. It is something the industry hadn't fully defined before it existed: a carrier-neutral, active interconnection hub built directly on a live submarine cable landing station where subsea meets land, and where carriers, content providers, cloud networks, and enterprises can connect directly, competitively, and on their own terms.
Located in Wall Township, New Jersey, NJFX sits at the landing point for multiple submarine cable systems including the highest-capacity routes connecting North America to Europe and Latin America. But unlike a legacy cable landing station, NJFX operates as an open, neutral exchange where customers can cross-connect directly to any cable system, any carrier, or any other party in the facility.
10+Submarine Cable Systems
Tier IIIPurpose-Built Facility
100%Carrier Neutral
NJLowest-Latency Route to Europe
This matters because subsea capacity is not a commodity when you can access it directly. Bandwidth purchased from a carrier who has already traversed cable infrastructure carries overhead — in cost, in latency, and in dependency on that single supplier's routing decisions. At NJFX, participants access the cable systems directly, making their own routing decisions, negotiating their own capacity, and building genuinely resilient, multi-path global networks.
The rise of cloud computing led many organizations to believe that geography had been abstracted away. For applications where latency tolerances are wide and traffic stays on terrestrial networks. But for global content delivery, real-time financial data, international voice and video, and any application where the Atlantic or Pacific is part of the path, physics still wins.
Light travels through fiber at roughly two-thirds the speed of light in a vacuum. That means every kilometer matters. New Jersey's geography — sitting directly on the Eastern Seaboard at the closest point between North America and Europe — isn't a marketing claim. It is a physical reality that translates directly into measurable latency advantage for every packet crossing that ocean.
Edge data centers have emerged to address the last-mile latency problem. High-power facilities have emerged to address the compute-density problem. Neither solves the global routing problem. NJFX addresses something different and more foundational: the point at which global traffic first touches land, and the terms on which it does so.
As AI workloads scale and become increasingly distributed the strategic importance of where data enters and exits terrestrial networks only grows. The question isn't simply where to colocate servers. It's where to anchor your global routing strategy.
Hyperscale facilities offer compute density. Purpose-built colocation offers reliability and redundancy. Edge facilities offer proximity to users. NJFX offers something none of those provide on their own: direct, neutral access to the global subsea infrastructure that all of them ultimately depend on.
The most sophisticated global networks don't just choose where to put their servers. They choose where to control their connectivity — and they anchor that control at the point where subsea infrastructure meets the terrestrial network. That point is NJFX.
Not all data centers are equal. They weren't designed to be. A converted warehouse in a metro market serves a different purpose than a Tier 3 colocation campus, which serves a different purpose than a hyperscale AI facility, which serves a different purpose than a local edge node. Understanding these differences is the first step toward building infrastructure strategy that actually matches your traffic patterns and business requirements.
What NJFX represents is the layer below all of those — the interconnection foundation that makes global networks function. Unlike the passive cable landing stations of the past, NJFX is an active, open, and competitive environment where participants don't just arrive at the subsea layer. They own their place in it.
That's not a subtle distinction. For the networks that understand, it's a strategic advantage.
See Why the World's Networks Connect at NJFX
Learn how direct access to submarine cable infrastructure changes the economics and performance of global connectivity.
Not all Data Centers are Created Equal Read More »
The Welcome
Investing in the Next Generation of Digital Infrastructure Leaders
NJFX is excited to welcome Paige Gille to the team as part of the 2026 Summer Internship Program. As NJFX continues to invest in developing the next generation of leaders within digital infrastructure, marketing, and communications, we are proud to provide students with hands-on opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute within a rapidly evolving industry.
Paige joins us at a pivotal moment — as NJFX celebrates its 10th anniversary and continues to expand its role as a carrier-neutral cable landing station at the intersection of subsea connectivity, cloud infrastructure, and AI-era compute. Her energy, curiosity, and marketing instincts are a welcome addition to the team.
About Paige
A Communicator Built for the Digital Age
Paige is currently entering her junior year at Michigan State University, where she is studying Communications with a focus in Public Relations. Alongside her academic studies, Paige is actively involved in Greek Life as a member of Sigma Delta Tau, supporting the organization's philanthropy, Prevent Child Abuse America.
Her passion for communications and marketing began during her freshman year at Montville Township High School after taking a marketing course that sparked her interest in branding, storytelling, and audience engagement. Since then, Paige has continued building her experience through coursework, leadership opportunities, and real-world projects both in high school and throughout her time at Michigan State.
Academic Focus
Communications with a concentration in Public Relations — with a strong foundation in branding, storytelling, and strategic audience engagement.
Community Leadership
Active member of Sigma Delta Tau at MSU, contributing to philanthropy efforts in support of Prevent Child Abuse America.
Experience
Real-World Marketing from the Ground Up
Over the past year, Paige has worked with local businesses supporting social media management efforts with a focus on content creation and engagement strategies across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Through these experiences, she has developed a strong understanding of digital engagement and the importance of authentic communication in building brand presence.
These early experiences have given Paige a practical, audience-first perspective on marketing — one she looks forward to expanding into the B2B and corporate communications space this summer at NJFX.
I was drawn to NJFX because of the company's unique role within global connectivity and digital infrastructure. With technologies such as AI continuing to transform industries and everyday life, I'm eager to understand how reliable, high-capacity network infrastructure powers the technologies people rely on every day.
Paige Gille — 2026 Summer Marketing Intern
This Summer
What Paige Is Looking to Learn at NJFX
This summer at NJFX, Paige is looking forward to expanding her knowledge of professional marketing and communications within the digital infrastructure industry. She is especially interested in learning how platforms such as LinkedIn, X, and Facebook are strategically used in a corporate environment to strengthen brand visibility, industry engagement, and professional communication.
- How NJFX operates as a carrier-neutral cable landing station and the role it plays in global connectivity
- How subsea connectivity, cloud infrastructure, and global networks work together to support the digital economy
- Strategic corporate use of social platforms for B2B brand-building and industry engagement
- How AI infrastructure demand is reshaping the digital infrastructure landscape — and NJFX's role in it
NJFX is proud to continue fostering opportunities for young professionals interested in telecommunications, marketing, and technology. Internship programs like this are an important part of our mission to bring new talent into the industry and provide meaningful exposure to the evolving world of global connectivity.
Looking Ahead
The Start of a Strong Industry Career
We are excited to have Paige join the team this summer and look forward to supporting her professional growth and industry experience throughout her internship journey at NJFX.
As the digital infrastructure industry continues to accelerate — driven by the rise of AI, expanding subsea cable systems, and growing enterprise demand for carrier-neutral interconnection — there has never been a more exciting time to enter the field. We are glad to have Paige at the table for it.
NJ
NJFX Editorial Team
Published by NJFX — North America's first carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station campus, Wall Township, New Jersey.
Related Reading
Careers at NJFX Leadership Team Rethinking the Role of the CLS The Fiber Exchange NJFX Newsroom
The Shift
From access point to infrastructure core
In today's hyper-connected world, the role of the cable landing station is transforming at a pace the industry has never seen before. No longer simply an access point for undersea cables, the CLS is emerging as a critical hub that networks increasingly rely on for primary connectivity — and now, for AI-era compute delivered at the network edge.
Recent industry analyses reinforce this shift, underscoring how direct interconnection at CLSs drives lower latency, enhanced resiliency, and cost efficiency. At NJFX, we have always been forward-thinking. As the first carrier-neutral CLS and colocation facility in the U.S., we've been empowering companies with direct, secure access to major subsea cables spanning North America, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.
That model is now accelerating dramatically. Networks are beginning to leverage CLSs as their primary point of interconnection — while still using other Points of Presence to ensure network diversity and redundancy. And the newest wave of demand isn't purely connectivity. It's compute, inference, and AI.
The cable landing station is no longer just a network access point — it's becoming the infrastructure core for tomorrow's digital economy.
Gil Santaliz, CEO, NJFX
Industry Context
A fundamental shift — confirmed by 2025–2026 developments
The trajectory we've long championed at NJFX is now being validated at a global scale. Data Center Dynamics calls this the era of "dynamic scalability, strategic redundancy, and adaptive infrastructure" — where CLSs evolve from interconnection points into foundational nodes of integrated global network infrastructure.
The industry is also witnessing a decisive move toward open, neutral CLS models. Traditionally, single-operator control of a landing station created barriers and bottlenecks. That model is giving way to carrier-neutral facilities that allow multiple network providers to share infrastructure, fostering competition, reducing costs, and enabling far more dynamic interconnection options.
The hybrid CLS emerges
The most transformative development of 2025 is the rise of the hybrid cable landing station — facilities that integrate subsea connectivity with AI processing capabilities, enabling localized compute power right at network entry points. This evolution supports the surging demand for distributed inference deployments, moving beyond traditional hyperscaler-only models.
Hybrid CLSs reduce the need for long-haul data transport, cutting latency for AI-driven applications while optimizing bandwidth utilization. This is exactly the model NJFX has spent a decade building toward — and why our campus in Wall, NJ is exceptionally well-positioned for what comes next.
Global AI Infrastructure Spend$334B in 2025
Exceeding $900B by 2029 — driving massive new demand for subsea edge infrastructure.
IDC Worldwide Quarterly AI Infrastructure Tracker.
What's New at NJFX
Recent milestones powering the future
The last eighteen months have brought a series of landmark developments to our campus — each a concrete expression of the CLS-as-infrastructure-core thesis playing out in real time.
January 2025
Leading European bank joins the NJFX ecosystem
A major multinational institution with a presence spanning 65 countries selected NJFX to enhance cloud connectivity and explore advanced AI applications.
Financial Services
2025
Boldyn deploys Ciena WaveLogic 6 at NJFX
Delivering wavelength services scalable to 1.6 Tb/s — the bandwidth and optical networking capabilities essential for AI-intensive workloads at the subsea edge.
AI Infrastructure
Mid-2025
Colt connects Apollo South to NJFX
Colt Technology Services expanded global fiber reach directly into New Jersey, ~3 miles from the Apollo South cable landing station — new standards for network resilience.
Connectivity
2026
NJFX celebrates 10 Years / 10 MW
A decade as North America's first carrier-neutral CLS campus, marked by reaching 10 MW of dedicated power capacity — purpose-built for the AI infrastructure era.
Anniversary Milestone
Global Signals
Hyperscalers are betting on the subsea edge
The largest technology companies in the world are making enormous bets that validate the CLS-centric network thesis. Google's America-India Connect initiative — part of a $15 billion AI infrastructure investment through 2030 — is connecting four continents through subsea cable infrastructure, with open cable landing stations positioned as strategic hubs for a new global data corridor.
This is the exact architecture NJFX pioneered on the U.S. East Coast: multiple independent subsea systems, diverse terrestrial backhaul, and a carrier-neutral environment where global and domestic networks interconnect freely — without recurring cross-connect fees, without backhaul bottlenecks, and without single points of failure.
As data volumes skyrocket and real-time AI applications become the norm, what was once a forward-looking thesis has become urgent infrastructure policy. The network industry's center of gravity is moving to the edge — to where the cables land.
Direct interconnection at cable landing stations represents more than just a trend. It is a fundamental shift in network architecture and strategy.
NJFX, Original Publication
The Case for CLS-First
Why direct CLS interconnection wins
The strategic benefits of connecting directly at the cable landing station — rather than backhauling through legacy carrier hotels in NYC, Ashburn, or Miami — are clearer than ever in 2026.
Lower latency for AI workloads
Proximity to diverse network nodes minimizes delays — mission-critical as AI inference applications require sub-millisecond response times at scale.
Improved network resilience
Direct CLS interconnection combined with diversified PoPs ensures robust continuity — eliminating single points of failure that plague legacy city-center routes.
Direct global market access
Immediate connectivity to five subsea cables spans North America, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean — from a single carrier-neutral campus.
Cost-effective scalability
Reducing backhauling and eliminating recurring cross-connect fees translates directly into economic benefits for expanding network infrastructure at any scale.
NJFX CLS Evolution
A decade of building toward this moment
2016
NJFX opens North America's first carrier-neutral CLS campus
Wall Township, NJ — the first colocation facility in the U.S. designed specifically at a cable landing station, with carrier-neutral access from day one.
2019
First-ever CLS-to-CLS terrestrial connection
Windstream connected NJFX to Telxius at Virginia Beach — the first carrier-neutral CLS-to-CLS route on the U.S. East Coast, with access to over 500 Tbps of combined subsea capacity.
2024
NJFX acquires Subcom bore pipe assets
NJFX acquired Subcom's bore pipe assets, securing ownership of our front-haul systems. This milestone delivers greater resilience and trust for our customers with direct control over critical last-mile infrastructure.
2025
AI-ready infrastructure buildout
10 MW water-cooled data hall. Ciena WaveLogic 6 at 1.6 Tb/s. European bank and Colt partnerships. Fifth subsea cable connected. NJFX positioned as a hybrid CLS for distributed AI inference.
2026
10 Years / 10 MW — the AI infrastructure decade
A decade of carrier-neutral CLS leadership and a 10 MW power milestone — at the exact moment a global AI infrastructure boom puts the subsea edge at the center of digital economy strategy.
The Road Ahead
The CLS is the infrastructure of the AI decade
As data volumes skyrocket and real-time applications become the norm, the network industry is undergoing rapid — and irreversible — evolution. Direct interconnection at cable landing stations is a fundamental shift in how global network infrastructure is designed, deployed, and operated.
The next generation of CLS facilities will integrate AI processing with subsea connectivity, serving as anchor points for distributed inference at a global scale. They will reward the carriers and enterprises who chose to co-locate here early — bypassing legacy chokepoints in favor of a more direct, resilient, and economically sound model.
NJFX leads this transformation. Our campus in Wall, NJ — 64 feet above sea level, Category 5 hurricane-resistant, DHS-designated Protected Critical Infrastructure — is where the subsea edge meets the terrestrial backbone, and where the AI infrastructure decade is being built, one connection at a time.
NJ
NJFX Editorial Team
Published by NJFX — North America's first carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station campus, Wall Township, New Jersey. Updated April 2026.