Iraq moves to exploit its geographical location in the digital world to connect three continents
Shafaq News – The Iraqi Ministry of Communications unveiled new plans on Saturday to leverage Iraq’s unique geographic location, making it a key link between Southeast Asia and Europe via the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf.
Basra Communications Director Mohammed Helou told Shafaq News Agency, “Iraq has a strategic location that allows for the efficient reception and transmission of digital capacities. Currently, there are submarine cables in service, such as FALCON and GBI, that transmit data from Southeast Asian countries and India to Europe. These existing projects are a first step towards investing in the Iraqi corridor for global communications services, and they represent the foundation upon which larger projects currently under implementation are being built.”
According to Al-Helou, “The past period included the signing of four contracts to install new submarine cables, the most prominent of which is the Toferica project, which is the longest in the world at 45,000 kilometers. This cable starts from Europe and descends to Africa via the Atlantic Ocean, then passes through the Horn of Africa and reaches Southeast Asia, before branching out to Iraq via the Arabian Gulf outlet.”
He explained that “work is expected to commence during the last quarter of this year, with the possibility of it entering service next year, marking a qualitative leap that will strengthen Iraq’s position on the international data map.”
Other projects, according to Al-Helou, include the Fiber In Gulf cable, which was signed last March with Ooredoo, and which represents a qualitative leap from a technical standpoint, as it consists of 24 fibers (optical fibers) with a massive transmission capacity of up to 720 terabits, and the total length of the route is 1,900 kilometers. Iraq is a key part of this project, which is currently in the stage of demarcating the route and obtaining the necessary approvals.
He pointed out that “the contract for the 27,000-kilometre North Gulf SMW cable is already in place, in addition to the Warlink cable, which is intended to connect databases.”
He considered these projects to be sovereign and would enhance Iraq’s position in the region, as the capacities would be unloaded at the Faw Port and later transferred to Europe via the national system, thus contributing to shortening the distance and solving the problem of delayed and weak data.
Helou concluded by saying, “Iraq will be a new hub for global digital development, and international companies will move to open data centers there, strengthening the country’s sovereignty and digital security.”
Shafaq.com