Looking to ramp up its fibre network from the US to a country of growing importance, Arelion has launched a fully diverse terabit-scale cross-border route from its new point of presence (PoP) at a datacentre site in Tijuana, Mexico to its existing PoPs in San Diego.
The route is Arelion’s first PoP in Tijuana and 10th regional PoP in Mexico, enabling access to its dual PoPs in San Diego and dual routes from San Diego to Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Putting the launch into perspective, the multinational enterprise connectivity provider said local fibre providers were investing heavily in Tijuana and the neighbouring city of Mexicali in the Baja California region amid technology market growth and new sea cable developments in the area, including the trans-pacific Bifrost Cable System connecting Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, the US and Mexico.
It added that market growth was being driven by nearshoring investments in automotive, medical supply, aerospace and electronics manufacturing with 55 aerospace and defence companies and 122 electronics manufacturing companies having established operations in Tijuana. Moreover, it noted that as a vital part of the global supply chain, real estate developers are investing $635m to build 5.3 million square feet of industrial space in the city.
The network expansion is also designed to provide edge users in Mexico with reliable access to Arelion’s ecosystem of cloud, content and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Arelion’s new route is attributed with being able to improve diversity and resiliency for its existing customers while enhancing its ability to quickly support new customers in Mexico with low-latency connectivity to its North American network. The route uses the latest-generation open line systems and 400G coherent pluggable optics.
With this network expansion, Arelion provides customers with enhanced access to its global internet backbone, as well as a portfolio of diverse connectivity services including scalable IP Transit, Wavelengths, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), Cloud Connect, Global 40G Ethernet Virtual Circuit (VC) and DDoS Mitigation services for service providers, content providers and enterprises.
Arelion’s existing POPs in San Diego include EdgeConneX San Diego and LightEdge San Diego #1, while additional Mexico PoPs include one PoP in San Luis Potosi at Neutral Network’s site; two PoPs in Querétaro that serve Equinix’s MX1 and KIO Networks’ QRO sites; two PoPs in Mexico City operating in KIO Networks’ MEX2 and MEX5 datacentres; one PoP in Mérida, located at AiTelecom’s datacentre; two PoPs in Monterrey, serving Equinix’s MO1 site and Neutral Networks Pabellón M; and one PoP in Guadalajara at HostDime’s GDL datacentre.
The route’s completely underground fibre construction is said to enhance scalability and availability, supporting wholesale and enterprise customers with terabit-scale capacities and high-speed connectivity to US technology markets.
Arelion believes the expansion will empower Mexico’s local service providers and enterprises with direct connectivity to content providers in Southern California, and access to the booming cloud and AI datacentre regions in Phoenix via San Diego.
“This new cross-border route allows us to support Mexico’s ongoing economic growth and digital innovation amid the continued rise of AI and cloud applications, proving instrumental in serving customers in diverse sectors across the main cities in Baja California, such as Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada,” said Edison De Leon, regional director of Latam and Caribbean at Arelion.
“This new route allows Arelion to support massive traffic flows from Mexico into San Diego with terabit-scale capacities and fully diverse Tier-1 services, enabling cross-border connectivity to America’s thriving datacentre and technology markets.”
In April 2025, Arelion announced a Mexico network expansion connecting its PoP at KIO QRO1 in Querétar to KIO MEX 5 in Tultitlán and KIO MEX2 CDMX (Santa Fe) in Mexico City. Arelion said it made the move as the datacentre sector was expanding rapidly to support Mexico’s manufacturing and ICT industries, and to satisfy the “tremendous” demand it’s seeing from customers for terabit-scale capacities in the region.
