Mexico’s economy is quickly growing thanks to various factors such as onshoring, and companies are looking to digitally transform to enhance their operations. CSPs active in the country need to meet their partners’ needs through NaaS, scalable solution, security and collaboration tools, and more.

The MEX-IX internet exchange platform in McAllen, Texas, close to the border, handles a large proportion of traffic and peering relationships, particularly to Mexico’s northern states. The peering ecosystem will grow in future with new options for connectivity, including DE-CIX’s upcoming entrance into the Mexican market via a facility within the country.

WhatsApp currently dominates the Mexican messaging market with over 90% of the population regularly using it – and other apps are not far behind, with Meta Messenger on 80% and Telegram reaching around 40% of the population. 

However, rich communications services will likely grow in Mexico thanks to telcos in the market starting to support its use, including Telmex.

Queretaro, an area of Mexico City, is one of the world’s most exciting data centre markets – Digital Realty, Microsoft, Kio Networks, CloudHQ, Equinix,  Ascenty, ODATA and Scala Data Centres among others have either current or planned facilities in the area. Terrestrial and subsea buildout is now an important factor in the market to ensure sufficient capacity to, from and between these data centre campuses.

Data centre growth is creating demand for more fibre routes to serve them. Various cables in Mexico are hearing the end of their operation life, so new projects like GD-1 and Caribbean Express are underway to enhance Mexico’s international conenctivtiy and reduce dependence on terrestrial routes to and from the US.

48% of Mexican households across the country currently have Internet access, but this falls to under 16% in rural areas, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The Mexican government is working to address this divide and increase general connectivity across the country, including by encouraging project development, reducing taxes on radio bands to open new spectrum, and more.