- Delayed submarine cables from the Red Sea strain global bandwidth in already congested areas
- Operators face hazardous conditions that prevent vital installation personnel from working safely
- High-risk waters are forcing telcos to abandon long-planned implementation timelines
Ongoing instability in the Red Sea has created serious obstacles for tech giants and submarine cable operators, who now face long pauses in construction as security threats complicate every step of deployment.
Cable-laying vessels require predictable access, stable waters and political clearance, but these conditions are no longer present in a zone where conflict has disrupted routine maritime activity.
Companies involved in major systems expected to connect Europe, Asia and Africa have confirmed that critical segments of their infrastructure cannot go ahead because their ships and crews cannot operate safely.
Critical projects lose momentum
Meta’s 2Africa system and Google’s Blue-Raman project remain the most visible examples of stalling, with sections from the Red Sea still incomplete despite years of planning and extensive investment.
Operators responsible for additional cables, including India-Europe-Xpress, Sea-Me-We 6 and Africa-1, have been unable to complete their planned routes, creating a bottleneck in a corridor that historically handled large volumes of global data traffic.
These delays add pressure to countries that rely on limited cable paths and continue to experience slower speeds and higher prices.
Telecommunications groups are now evaluating overland routes through Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Iraq in an effort to bypass the Red Sea altogether — ironically, paths that were once dismissed as too expensive or politically complex.
Some companies are exploring the possibility of seeking waivers from the U.S. Treasury Department, which would allow them to negotiate directly with Yemeni authorities to secure permits for cable-laying operations.
Others have debated whether support from international security organizations might be needed to guarantee safe access for vessels tasked with installation and maintenance.
The delays have created wider operational challenges, with traffic diverted to alternative systems that were not designed to handle prolonged excess demand.
This congestion affects business services that rely on stable international routes, especially organizations that rely on business broadband connections for day-to-day operations.
Capacity shortages also complicate disaster recovery plans because sudden rerouting makes additional reliance on cloud backup networks to absorb unexpected loads.
Countries with fewer cable connections remain the most vulnerable because they lack the redundancy needed to withstand prolonged disruptions.
These conditions suggest that the likelihood of further outages will increase if geopolitical risks continue to block construction across the region.
Via Bloomberg
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