Gulf subsea cables delayed

War in the Gulf has pushed back at least five subsea fibre-optic cable projects planned for 2026 and 2027, according to industry executives and analysts. (agbi.com) The delays span both sides of the Arabian Peninsula: Red Sea work has been disrupted since late 2023 by Houthi attacks on shipping, and fighting tied to Iran has now hit the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz as well. (agbi.com) Brice Evin, chief financial officer of UK-based cable provider Flag, said “there is no vessel that is able to sail in the Gulf or the Red Sea for telecom operations,” and said some opening dates could slip by “a couple of years.” (agbi.com) These cables are the physical pipes of the internet: glass strands laid on the seabed that carry data between landing stations in different countries. Bloomberg reported in March that more than 95 percent of global internet traffic travels on subsea cables. (bloomberg.com) The Gulf has been adding more of those links as cloud computing and artificial intelligence data centers expand in the region. Semafor reported in February that Meta’s 45,000-kilometer 2Africa cable had already landed in the United Arab Emirates, while Du was also working on the Singapore-India-Gulf cable. (semafor.com) One of the biggest projects now under pressure is 2Africa Pearls, the Gulf extension of Meta’s wider 2Africa system. Bloomberg reported on March 12 that the segment was meant to reach landing stations in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia, with launch work targeted as soon as 2026. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg also reported that Alcatel Submarine Networks, the French state-owned company laying 2Africa, sent force majeure notices to customers after it could no longer operate safely in the Gulf. A large part of that cable is already on the seabed but had not yet been connected to all landing stations. (bloomberg.com) Another project in the same corridor is Al Khaleej, a 1,400-kilometer branch of the SEA-ME-WE 6 system. Batelco said the cable is designed to connect Bahrain with Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, adding regional capacity on top of the longer Asia-Europe route. (batelco.com) BMI analyst Vakai Mutambirwa told AGBI that even a ceasefire would not quickly restart work because operators still need to reset routes, schedules and costs before vessels return. In this market, a pause at sea can turn into a delay on land at data centers, landing stations and procurement desks. (agbi.com) That leaves Gulf operators trying to build faster digital links through waters where the ships that install and repair those links cannot safely sail. (agbi.com)