Meta Platforms Inc. has paused part of a massive effort to expand internet service across Africa as the war in the Middle East freezes activity in the region.
Meta Platforms Inc. has paused part of a massive effort to expand internet service across Africa as the war in the Middle East freezes activity in the region. The disruption comes less than six months after Meta acknowledged that another section of 2Africa, a planned 45,000-kilometer underwater cable system, was delayed by geopolitical conflict.
The tech giant, along with consortium partners including Saudi Telecom Co.’s Center3, had planned to launch a segment of the cable, which will run through landing stations in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia, as soon as this year. But Alcatel Submarine Networks, the French state-owned company tasked with laying the fiber-optic cable for 2Africa, can no longer safely continue operating, according to people familiar with the matter. A large part of the cable has been installed on the sea floor but has not yet been connected to all of the landing stations. ASN sent force majeure notices to customers, some of whom asked not to be identified discussing a politically and commercially sensitive matter, notifying them that it is currently unable to fulfill its cable-related contracts. The company’s Ile De Batz cable installation ship, which had been working in the Persian Gulf for the past few months, is now stranded by Dammam in Saudi Arabia. When reached for comment, ASN referred questions to Meta. Meta declined to comment. Subsea cables are the fastest and most popular way to transmit internet data, with hundreds of the lines accounting for more than 95% of global internet traffic. When completed, 2Africa will be the world’s largest fiber-optic cable system, linking countries along the entire coast of Africa to Europe and the Middle East. The Persian Gulf section, known as “Pearls,” and a segment in the Red Sea are the two portions that still need to be finished. Just four months ago, Meta disclosed that it had stopped work on a section of 2Africa in the Red Sea following Houthi attacks and problems getting permits to install the cable. Other live cables that had been damaged in Houthi strikes in early 2025 were only repaired within the last four months, said Alan Mauldin, at the telecommunications research firm TeleGeography. Such conflicts highlight how vulnerable internet infrastructure can be to physical attacks and have raised questions about whether technology giants will continue to invest billions of dollars in geopolitically volatile regions. Laying cables in the Red Sea has historically been the most direct and cost-effective way to connect Europe with Asia and Africa. But the Houthi threat has compelled tech companies to explore other options. “Everyone has been trying to find alternate routes,” said Hasnain Ali, a subsea cable consultant. Until the US and Israel launched their joint military campaign against Iran, the Persian Gulf was a popular substitute. Meta does have plans to build a new cable, Project Waterworth, that will bypass the Middle East to connect the US, India, South Africa and Brazil. But that is years away from completion. Other undersea cable projects in the Gulf have also been impacted by the war, though they’re in earlier stages of development, said Mauldin and the people. Work has been halted on Sea-Me-We 6, a cable under development by a consortium involving the French telecom company Orange. FIG, a cable project overseen by the Qatari firm Ooredoo, is also on pause. The conflict has also made it virtually impossible for repair ships to service the undersea cables already in use in the area. “Cable ships are not going to operate in areas where there is active military operations happening, its too risky,” Mauldin said. Cables could also be damaged by the anchors of ships hit by missiles, as happened in the Red Sea last year, said Bertrand Clesca, a submarine consultant at Pioneer Consulting. If that happens, it will be a long time before they can be repaired, he added. Internet traffic can be re-routed through other cables, including terrestrial routes across Oman and Saudi Arabia, said Mauldin. “So there is at least still a way to continue connectivity,” although internet speeds in the region could slow down. Even after the war ends, undetonated bombs and other weaponry will present another challenge for cable installations in the Persian Gulf, Ali said. Many missiles fired by Iran were intercepted and landed in the Gulf, where they could still detonate. Before work proceeds, he said, the seafloor will have to be surveyed. Solon and Prinsloo write for Bloomberg.
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