Meta has been forced to stop work on the Persian Gulf section of the company’s planned 45,000km (28,000-mile) 2Africa subsea cable because of the war in the Middle East. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), which is building the network, sent force majeure notices to customers, according to Bloomberg. Its cable vessel, Ile De Batz, is stranded at a port in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The 2Africa cable is the world’s largest subsea communications project. The main portion of the cable, which encircles most the continent, was completed late last year. The Meta-led consortium intended the section through the Strait of Hormuz to go live this year, connecting to landing stations in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, all of which have suffered attacks by Iran.
Commercial ships have been attacked by Iranian drones and missiles in the Strait of Hormuz.
The subsea cable will also intended to connect to Pakistan and India – see planned route below.
This announcement follows one last November by Meta which said it had paused the Red Sea section of the 2Africa cable due to attacks on ships by Houthi rebels. The Houthi are based in Yemen and backed by Iran as part of its so-called Axis of Resistance. Houthi vessels are also suspected of sabotaging undersea cables: about 90% of all data communication between Europe and Asia passes through the Red Sea.
Tensions in the Middle East have held up progress on other subsea cable routes including: Sea-Me-We 6, which decided to cross Saudi Arabia overland, joining Bahrain to Jeddah; and the Blue-Raman cable which is backed by Google.
In December 2024, Meta announced it was planning to construct a 40,000km subsea network that will span the globe. The so-called W-cable