The digital world is entering ‘the intelligence era’. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how data is processed, where it is generated, how it is moved, and how infrastructure is designed. For Zayo Europe, this shift confirms the role it has long embraced: operating behind the scenes as the carrier that other carriers, cloud players and data centers rely on. Matthew Williams, Head of Data Centre and Managed Service Provider Sales at Zayo Europe, sits close to the epicentre of that change. Working daily with data center operators and service providers across Western Europe, he sees first-hand how fibre infrastructure is becoming one of the most critical foundations of the digital economy.
At its core, Zayo Europe is a fibre owner and operator. As a company that originated in the United States, Zayo recognised that the European connectivity market is fundamentally different in structure, regulation and demand. For that reason, Zayo Europe became a standalone entity in July 2024. This greater autonomy allows the European branch to make its own investment decisions, deploy capital locally and respond directly to the specific realities of the European market, from data sovereignty to geography and regulation.
Owning and operating its own fibre assets, gives Zayo Europe full control over the customer experience, from sales to delivery and operations. The supply chain is short, transparent and efficient, so problems are identified quickly, and performance is measurable. “That’s why our operating metrics, such as ‘time to deliver’ (TTD) and ‘mean time to repair’ (MTTR), are exceptional,” Williams says. “And that ultimately translates into trust.”
How would you describe Zayo Europe’s network footprint today?
Matthew Williams: “Across Western Europe, we operate both long-haul and metro fibre networks, with 400G capacity available end-to-end across the entire footprint. We are also preparing to launch 800G services. Alongside that, we run a tier-one IP network, ranked in the global top ten by CAIDA (Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis, an independent research institute at the University of California, San Diego). That combination is essential for large enterprises, carriers, hyperscalers and cloud providers that move massive volumes of traffic between data centers.”
Who are your core customers?
“More than half of our business, is situated in the wholesale carrier space. Cloud providers, content platforms, hyperscalers and technology companies form a significant part of our customer base. In parallel, we are deeply embedded in the data center ecosystem, with more than 600 connected data centers across Europe.”
“Large enterprises are also very important for us. Around 30% of our customers come from sectors such as finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and media. These organisations consume connectivity at scale and expect absolute reliability.”
“Compute follows power, and connectivity must follow compute”
“We are the DC-to-DC, DC-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud connectivity provider. In that sense, you could say that we are the carriers’ carrier. We operate one large, integrated IP network alongside our fibre infrastructure, which allows us to deliver high capacity, low latency and predictable performance at scale.”
“Over my career, I’ve seen many technology shifts. Yet the intelligence era is by far the most profound change I’ve witnessed. AI is pushing data centers to new extremes of power density and scale. Compute follows power, and connectivity must follow compute. That increasingly means connecting facilities in non-traditional locations, sometimes far from established hubs and often close to renewable energy sources. These are complex engineering challenges, but this is exactly our expertise: layer-zero and layer-one infrastructure (i.e. the physical fibre routes and the optical capacity built directly on top of them), built for high capacity and high availability.”
“Because we physically build networks, dark fibre is a natural part of our portfolio. Hyperscalers, carriers and large enterprises rely on it for complete control and virtually unlimited scalability. Where needed, we light that fibre, delivering wavelength services at 400G today and 800G in the near future. We also design and operate managed optical networks across multiple cities, offer subsea connectivity between the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, and provide IP services such as dedicated internet access and IP transit, protected by DDoS mitigation. Cloud on-ramps and bespoke network engineering projects complete the picture.”
“In practice, this often means working with data center operators from the earliest design stages, particularly when new facilities are planned in remote or power-rich locations. High-capacity fibre becomes part of the initial business case, helping those sites attract hyperscalers, neo-cloud providers or large enterprise anchor tenants.”
“Brussels sits perfectly between London, Frankfurt and Paris. That makes it essential for resilience and low latency”
“Belgium, and Brussels in particular, is becoming increasingly attractive as a data center location. We see new hyperscale investments alongside established multi-tenant colocation sites. From a geographic perspective, Brussels sits perfectly between London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. That makes it ideal for resilient routing, alternative paths and low-latency services. We recently launched a London-Frankfurt route via Brussels, creating an additional corridor between Europe’s key financial markets.”
“Brussels also plays an important role in terms of sovereignty. As the heart of European governance, it offers clear advantages for sovereign data use cases.”
“For us, being present in highly interconnected sites is non-negotiable. We need to be where networks meet, and that is why LCL’s data centers matter. LCL is deeply embedded in the Belgian enterprise and government landscape and is known for strong interconnection density. That provides exactly the environment a wholesale carrier like Zayo Europe requires. We also see LCL’s investments in power capacity as critical, not only for Belgian organisations, but for carriers and technology companies operating at scale. As a long-haul network operator, we need to be present where traffic enters and leaves the country. In that sense, LCL forms a natural anchoring point.”
“Future-ready infrastructure is what gives customers the confidence to scale as their needs grow”
“Very. Regulatory frameworks such as CSRD (the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) place responsibility across the entire supply chain. Our customers are accountable, and that means we are too. We support this through our own environmental and social responsibility policies, and by helping data center operators connect sustainable power sources to the infrastructure required by AI workloads. In the intelligence era, scaling responsibly is foundational.”
“We expect demand for high-capacity fibre to spread far beyond the traditional hubs of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. Tier-two cities and even rural locations will host data centers designed for inference workloads closer to end users. Route diversity, dark fibre ownership and ever-higher capacities are central to our strategy. We already see 400G wavelengths overtaking 10G and 100G in total capacity sold, which clearly shows where the market is heading. At the same time, we work with customers on multiple time horizons: meeting immediate connectivity needs while planning the construction projects that will define the next five years. Infrastructure takes time, but future-ready infrastructure is exactly what gives customers the confidence to scale as their needs grow.”
Subscribe to our newsletter and receive monthly news about LCL, our innovations, our services, our events
