Communications - note World, in 7 editions.

note 1: three major data centers - which provide colocation, telecommunications, cloud services, and content ecosystems - compete to be called the world's biggest in terms of physical space occupied:
no. 1. - a data farm in Langfang, Hebei Province, China, identified as the Range International Information Group, claims to be the largest with 585,000 sq m (6.3 million sq ft),
no. 2. - a data farm in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, known as the Switch SuperNAP data center, comes in second with over 325,000 sq m (3.5 million sq ft); it intends to expand to over 1.615 million sq m (17.4 million sq ft) by 2020,
no. 3. - a data farm in Ashburn, Virginia, USA, referred to as the DFT Data Center, is a transit point for 70% of the world's Internet traffic; it includes 150,000 sq m (1.6 million sq ft) spread out over six separate buildings note 2: estimates are that by the end of 2019, 53.9% of the global population (4.1 billion people) were using the Internet

note 1: data centers consist of a dedicated space within a building or a group of buildings used to house computing resources and other components, such as telecommunications and storage systems; the ongoing worldwide boom in data generation is responsible for the mushrooming of data centers; the three largest data center facilities by area as of the first half of 2021 2022 are:
no. 1. - the China Telecom data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, reportedly covers 1 million sq m (10.7 million sq ft); the largest Internet data center in the world, it has over 50% market share in the Chinese data center market, with an extensive network of over 400 data centers located in prime regions in mainland China and overseas markets
no. 2. - the China Mobile data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, covers 720,000 sq m (7.7 million sq ft); it is one of the world's biggest cloud computing data centers
no. 3. - The Citadel data center owned by US-based Switch, in Tahoe Reno, Nevada, covers 670,000 sq m (7.2 million sq ft); called the world’s largest technology ecosystem, the facility runs on 100% renewable (solar and wind) energy
note 2: of the global population, it is estimated that 51% (3.96 billion people) were using the Internet by the end of 2019

note 1: the development of formal postal systems may be traced back thousands of years; the earliest documented organized courier service for the dissemination of written dispatches was set up by the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (ca. 2400 B.C.); the invention of a true postal system organized for delivery of post to citizens, is credited to Ancient Persia (6th century B.C.); other credible early postal services are those of Ancient India (Mauryan Empire; 4th century B.C.) and Ancient China (Han Dynasty; 3rd century B.C.)
note 2: data centers consist of a dedicated space within a building or a group of buildings used to house computing resources and other components, such as telecommunications and storage systems; the ongoing worldwide boom in data generation is responsible for the mushrooming of data centers; the three largest data center facilities by area as of the first half of 2022 are:
no. 1. - the China Telecom data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, reportedly covers 1 million sq m (10.7 million sq ft); the largest Internet data center in the world, World, it has over 50% market share in the Chinese data center market, with an extensive network of over 400 data centers located in prime regions in mainland China and overseas markets
no. 2. - the China Mobile data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, covers 720,000 sq m (7.7 million sq ft); it is one of the world's World's biggest cloud computing data centers
no. 3. - The Citadel data center owned by US-based Switch, in Tahoe Reno, Nevada, covers 670,000 sq m (7.2 million sq ft); called the world’s World’s largest technology ecosystem, the facility runs on 100% renewable (solar and wind) energy (2021)

note 1: the development of formal postal systems may be traced back thousands of years; the earliest documented organized courier service for the dissemination of written dispatches was set up by the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (ca. 2400 B.C.); the invention of a true postal system organized for delivery of post to citizens, citizens is credited to Ancient Persia (6th century B.C.); other credible early postal services are those of Ancient India (Mauryan Empire; Empire, 4th century B.C.) and Ancient China (Han Dynasty; Dynasty, 3rd century B.C.)
note 2: data centers consist of a dedicated space within a building or a group of buildings used to house computing resources and other components, such as telecommunications and storage systems; the ongoing worldwide boom in data generation is responsible for the mushrooming of data centers; the three largest data center facilities by area as of the first half of 2022 are:
no. 1. - the China Telecom data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, reportedly covers 1 million sq m (10.7 million sq ft); the largest Internet data center in the World, world, it has over 50% market share in the Chinese data center market, China, with an extensive network of over 400 data centers located in prime regions in mainland China and overseas markets
no. 2. - the China Mobile data center located in the Inner Mongolia Information Park, Hohhot, China, covers 720,000 sq m (7.7 million sq ft); it is one of the World's world's biggest cloud computing cloud-computing data centers
no. 3. - The the Citadel data center owned by US-based Switch, in Tahoe Reno, Nevada, covers 670,000 sq m (7.2 million sq ft); called the World’s world’s largest technology ecosystem, the facility runs on 100% renewable (solar and wind) energy (2021)