While headlines often dazzle with tales of sleek Starlink satellites, the real backbone of our interconnected digital world is the vast network of subsea cables quietly stretching beneath the oceans. Unbeknownst to most, an intricate network of subsea cables carries 99% of the world’s international data traffic, silently enabling everything from streaming video calls to instant financial transactions.

“Not a lot of people understand subsea,” admits Carl Grivner, CEO of Flag. “They don’t realise that 99% of the traffic carried between countries travels via subsea.”

Grivner is undoubtedly a seasoned figure in the industry, clocking up over two decades of experience in digital infrastructure. Formerly CEO of Colt, he assumed leadership of FLAG nearly six years ago. During his tenure, the company transitioned from its previous identity as Global Cloud Xchange to the FLAG brand in the past year.

Grivner has overseen the acquisition of additional capacity on key subsea cable systems, including securing a fibre pair on the ECHO trans-Pacific subsea cable in partnership with Google. The company has also seen substantial investment growth across India and Asia. Under Grivner’s stewardship, FLAG secured a US$340 million refinancing package in 2025, enabling significant upgrades to its network, the development of future subsea projects, expansion into edge data centres, and the establishment of new cable landing stations.

Fast forward to 2026 and Grivner is looking to the future. Flag is powering ahead with a long-term strategy that puts data centre connectivity at its core, mapping network expansion to both present and future data centre locations.

“We’ve developed what we call Vision 2030, which is really about a route-co strategy. Think of us as an airline, flying as many routes as possible,” Grivner explained.

Hybrid connectivity is the future

New additions to Flag’s network stretch from Mumbai to Singapore, Mumbai to France, and Singapore to Guam, with a terrestrial extension into the Middle East on the horizon. And it seems the days of terrestrial networks playing second fiddle are over.

“Right now, we’re probably 90% subsea, 10% terrestrial. Over the next four years, our 2030 vision will shift that to about 60% subsea and 40% terrestrial. That balance is essential to reach data centres, ensure reliability, and provide redundancy across the network.”

Grivner is adamant that this hybrid model is the future: “The combination of both makes for a powerful story for customers… the terrestrial route may be faster, more reliable, or offer better performance metrics.”

He continues, “Going from London to Paris is one thing but combining terrestrial and subsea to take a customer from London to Tokyo – that’s where the magic happens.”

Following the trail

When it comes to growth Flag’s network expansion mirrors classic marketing tactics, Grivner draws a parallel with Burger King’s 1970s strategy: “It’s very straightforward for us – where data centres are built, connectivity will be required.”

He predicts a tenfold increase in capacity needs over the next four years. “Without connectivity, a data centre is just a big, dumb warehouse. The amount of data flowing through these centres is going to increase tenfold, it’s massive.”

Emerging global hubs

The global map of subsea connectivity is evolving fast. Grivner identifies intra-Asia routes, the Middle East, and Australia as new critical nodes. India stands out: “India is growing massively in terms of data centres right now… it’s underserved in capacity and infrastructure. It’s going to be a massive growth market.”

With hyperscalers leading record build-outs in 2025 and new Tier-II cities emerging as hotspots, demand is surging on both sides of the Atlantic. “At one time, we thought the Atlantic had enough capacity. Now, it’s at a point where more is needed – it’s being revitalised in terms of demand.”

The role of hyperscalers has shifted dramatically in recent years. No longer merely customers of wholesale capacity, these firms have become major investors and architects of new subsea routes, designing systems to meet the specific needs of cloud and AI workloads.

Flag positions itself as a neutral operator, “We’re like Switzerland. We don’t have a bias one way or the other. We aim to serve all of our customers globally,” Grivner said. Private cable builds are redrawing competition but also creating fresh opportunities. “We see private builds… they’ll lay five repairs but reserve some capacity for others. That ‘other’ could be us.”

The power conundrum

Grivner cites power or (lack of) as being one of the biggest challenges facing the digital infrastructure industry. The International Energy Agency cites that electricity consumption from data centre amounted to 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024 and has increased by 12% year on year over the last five.

Data centre energy consumption is projected to more than double by 2030, reaching around 945-980 Terawatt-hours (TWh) globally, driven primarily by the massive power needs of AI.

“One new data centre I saw had power needs equivalent to Atlanta, Georgia. I don’t believe the necessary systems exist yet (to support the predicted level of capacity required) and that’s one of the unknowns moving forward,” Grivner warns. “Power is going to be one of the wild cards in all this.”

Geopolitics and resilience

Working in the Middle East and Asia means balancing diverse interests. “Different conflicts around the world affect what we do and that hasn’t changed, nor is it likely to.” Maintaining resilience is critical. Cable cuts, anchor drags, and supply bottlenecks expose the need for more fleet capacity, as Grivner points out, “It takes about five years to build a ship for this industry. There aren’t enough ships or service providers.”

Looking ahead, Grivner sees political unrest and infrastructure alignment shaping the next five years. “The challenge in the subsea space will be  navigating the geopolitical landscape and balancing assets with partners or competitors, especially on the terrestrial side.”

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