RETN wins Asia-Pacific connectivity award for resilience

RETN has won Best Asia-Pacific Connectivity Provider and Best Marketing Team at the Global Connectivity Awards 2026. The awards recognise its work on network resilience in Asia-Pacific and its in-house marketing operation.

The Asia-Pacific award reflects RETN's response to repeated subsea cable disruptions across the region and the Red Sea, which have put operators under pressure to keep traffic moving when key links fail. RETN expanded route diversity and regional interconnection to make its network more resilient during infrastructure outages.

One of the main changes was the completion of a six-path network architecture for Taiwan. This increased route options on connections to Hong Kong and Tokyo, two of the region's main connectivity hubs.

RETN also highlighted two interconnection products as part of the effort. Remote-IX gives operators access to international peering without having to build local infrastructure. Flex-IX combines internet exchange access and IP transit on a single port and contract across BBIX locations in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as JPNAP and JPIX in Tokyo.

The measures come as telecoms providers and their customers place greater emphasis on route redundancy after a series of cable breaks and other disruptions affected international traffic in several markets. For carriers serving Asia-Pacific, alternative terrestrial and regional paths have become more important as customers look to reduce exposure to single points of failure.

Regional reach

RETN operates a 142,000km global backbone with more than 1,010 points of presence across 45 territories. Its network links Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America, giving it a broad footprint in wholesale and enterprise connectivity markets.

The group has built much of its reputation on overland routes between Europe and Asia, offering an alternative to submarine-heavy paths. That positioning has drawn renewed attention as cable resilience has become a central issue for international network operators.

The second award focused on the company's five-person global marketing team. RETN said the team supports 17 offices and works with sales, engineering and regional operations as the business expands its network across 45 territories.

Its remit includes public relations, thought leadership, regional campaigns and partner programmes. The function has helped explain RETN's network strategy and operating model to customers and industry stakeholders in a market where technical differentiation can be difficult to communicate.

Company comment

Tony O'Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, RETN, linked the awards to both technical operations and customer communication.

"These awards recognise the expertise and commitment of our teams across the business. Our network is built to deliver reliable connectivity in a world where disruption has become a constant consideration, while our marketing team helps customers and the wider industry understand what that takes. Both are central to how RETN continues to grow and serve customers around the world," said O'Sullivan.

The latest recognition follows another award in the same programme a year earlier, when RETN was named Best Pan-European Connectivity Provider. It has also received separate industry recognition as Best Pan-European Operator of the Year at the Carrier Community Global Awards 2026.

Industry awards do not by themselves change market positions, but they can signal where operators are directing investment and how they want to be seen by carriers, partners and enterprise buyers. In RETN's case, the emphasis is on resilience, international route choice and a network design that can continue operating when disruption hits key subsea corridors.

That focus has become especially relevant for customers moving traffic between Asian hubs and onward into Europe and North America. Network buyers are increasingly weighing not just price and latency, but also whether providers can offer multiple physical paths and rapid rerouting when outages affect major landing points or transit routes.

For RETN, the Asia-Pacific connectivity award highlights how that strategy is being applied in one of the world's most disruption-prone international traffic regions, while the marketing team accolade points to a parallel effort to present that work clearly to the market.