Telecom and Content

Video, web and mobile traffic · CDNs, interconnection and 5G core · Flagship: Equinix Ashburn

Telecom and content workloads move traffic rather than train models, and they are built for live-event peaks. Internet traffic grew 19% in 2025, much of it from AI crawlers. Mobile networks are moving into data centers, from AT&T's 5G core on Azure to GPUs at cell sites.

The path of a video stream from a cloud origin through an interconnection hub such as Equinix Ashburn, to a Netflix Open Connect appliance inside an internet provider, through a 5G core running in the cloud, to an AI-RAN cell site and the phone; with internet traffic up 19% in 2025 and the 65 million concurrent streams of the Netflix Paul-Tyson fight WHERE A VIDEO STREAM TRAVELS ORIGINCloud region, content library INTERCONNECTION HUBEquinix Ashburn: carriers meet clouds CDN CACHENetflix Open Connect box inside the ISP 5G COREAT&T's core on Microsoft Azure CELL SITE, AI-RANNvidia and Nokia; T-Mobile trials 2026 ↓ phone, TV, car 19%Traffic growth, 2025Cloudflare Radar ~20%Web traffic carriedby Cloudflare 65MConcurrent streams,Paul-Tyson, Netflix 1,000+ISPs hostingNetflix boxes
Traffic growth, 2025
19%
Netflix peak
65M streams
Cloudflare share
~20%
AI-RAN trials
2026
Hub
Workloads

What it is

Moving Video and Calls, Not Training Models

Telecom and content workloads deliver video, web pages, calls and mobile data. They are built for peaks: a live event can multiply traffic in minutes.

  • Content delivery networks cache popular files close to viewers. Netflix's Open Connect boxes sit inside more than 1,000 internet providers. Cloudflare carries about 20% of web traffic.
  • Interconnection hubs are where carriers, clouds and content companies swap traffic; Ashburn, Virginia is the largest in North America.
  • Mobile core networks are moving onto cloud platforms, starting with AT&T's 5G core on Microsoft Azure.
  • Traffic: global internet traffic rose 19% in 2025, much of the growth from AI crawlers run by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta (Cloudflare Radar).

Flagship

Equinix Ashburn: Where Networks Meet

  • Role: Equinix calls its Ashburn campus the largest internet peering point in North America. Carriers, content companies and clouds connect there, with direct on-ramps to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle.
  • Market: Ashburn sits in Loudoun County, the center of the world's largest data center market. See Colocation Data Centers.
  • Sister site: Equinix's NY11 in Carteret, New Jersey hosts Nasdaq's matching engines. See Financial Services.

Live events

Live Sports Set the Peak

  • Netflix: the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight in November 2024 drew 65 million concurrent streams; some viewers hit buffering.
  • India: JioHotstar's 2025 Indian Premier League final reached about 350 million viewers by the end of the first innings.

Mobile

The Mobile Network Moves Into Data Centers

  • Cloud core: AT&T runs its 5G core on Microsoft's cloud. Boost Mobile, which built a cloud-native network on AWS, shut its own radio network in November 2025. EchoStar sold spectrum to AT&T for $23 billion and to SpaceX for about $28 billion.
  • AI-RAN: Nvidia invested $1 billion in Nokia in October 2025 to put GPUs at cell sites that run both radio processing and AI inference; T-Mobile US starts field trials in 2026.
  • China: China Mobile tripled its Hohhot computing hub in Inner Mongolia to 20,100 petaflops on 120 MW in 2026.

Sites

Telecom and Content Infrastructure

Telecom and content infrastructure
SystemWhereWhat it doesStatus
Equinix Ashburn campusAshburn, VAInterconnection and peering hub; on-ramps to AWS, Azure, Google and OracleOperating
Netflix Open Connect1,000+ ISPs, 60+ data centersNetflix's own content delivery boxes, free to qualifying ISPsOperating
Cloudflare networkWorldwideAbout 20% of web traffic; 52% of its HTTPS traffic uses post-quantum encryptionOperating
AT&T 5G core on AzureMicrosoft Azure for OperatorsMobile core network running on Microsoft's cloud since a 2021 dealOperating; current scale not public
Boost MobileVirtualized core on AT&T radio networkShut its own 5G radio network in November 2025 after EchoStar sold spectrum to AT&T and SpaceXOperating
Nvidia and Nokia AI-RANT-Mobile US trialsNvidia invested $1B in Nokia; GPUs at cell sites run radio and AITrials 2026
China Mobile Hohhot hubInner Mongolia120 MW, 20,100 petaflops, 16,700 for AIOperating

Record

Dataset Record

Dataset
Content delivery, interconnection and mobile core infrastructure
Sources
Cloudflare Radar 2025, Netflix Open Connect, Equinix, Microsoft, AT&T, EchoStar, Nvidia, Nokia, SCMP, CBS
Last verified
October 2026