- An increase from 7% to 25%-30% in people working from home on multiple days a week in the US1
- Global internet traffic expected to double by 2022 to 4.2 zettabytes a year (4.2 trillion gigabytes)2
- Nearly two-thirds of the global population will have internet access by 2023, with 5.3 billion internet users in total, up from 3.9 billion (51% of the global population) in 2018. The number of devices connected to IP networks will be more than three times the global population by 2023, up from 2.4 networked devices per capita in 2018. This equates to 29.3 billion networked devices by 2023, up from 18.4 billion in 20183
- Between 2019 and 2022 traffic from internet video is expected to more than double to 2.9 zettabytes, while online gaming is projected to quadruple to 180 exabytes.4
What does digital infrastructure include?
Digital infrastructure assets include everything from the towers that carry data traffic across mobile networks, to the fibre optic networks required to connect businesses and homes, and data centres, which organisations use to house their critical networks of computer and storage resources. This infrastructure delivers what is now considered to be critical services for the continuing function of modern economies enabling economic growth and productivity


Investment opportunity
Columbia Threadneedle Investment’s European Sustainable Infrastructure Fund announced on 6 May 2020 the acquisition of a majority stake in the Lefdal Mine Datacenter (see /en/media-centre/). This is a unique “green” data centre based in an underground mine in Norway, which uses cold sea water from an adjacent fjord for cooling and renewable energy to power its operations. Rittal, a subsidiary of the German industrial family business, Friedhelm Loh Group, remained a minority shareholder post-transaction.
The majority stake was acquired from a consortium of local shareholders in a transaction which, together with Rittal, facilitates further investment and capacity expansion. Operational since 2017, the facility boasts 75 underground halls with data centre containers parked in former mine workings that are accessed by a road system. The centre benefits from high-density data capacity and has a market-leading total cost of operation which is attractive to clients with high-performance computing workloads, hyperscalers, and for customers looking for colocation solutions.
An opportunity for serious investment into sustainability
