The Strait of Hormuz hosts a dense network of submarine cables in addition to ships. These fibre-optic lines carry massive data flows—over $10 trillion of transactions each day. They link Iran, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others to global internet hubs.
In recent weeks, Iranian state media have spotlighted this digital chokepoint. Tasnim News Agency published detailed cable maps, warning that this “digital backbone” is now in Iran’s crosshairs. Fars and Tasnim both urged Iran to tighten control – from charging tech firms transit fees to monopolising cable repairs. They argued even a brief outage could cost “tens to hundreds of millions” in damage.
Subsea Cables in the Strait of Hormuz
TeleGeography maps show all cables here lie in a narrow Omani-controlled corridor. Key links like AAE-1, FALCON and Gulf Bridge International run side-by-side across the seabed. Together they carry roughly 99% of global internet traffic.
Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar each have land links to Saudi Arabia, and the UAE lands cables in Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. Still, most Gulf states depend heavily on these subsea routes. Any cut would force data onto slower or satellite backups.
Globally there are about 150–200 cable faults per year (mostly accidents). A 2024 Red Sea incident showed how an anchor-dragging ship can sever multiple lines for weeks. In a Gulf conflict, damaged cables could remain unrepaired for longer. Even cutting just one or two main links could slow internet across the Middle East, South Asia and beyond. Local data centres and services (from banking to AI research) would feel the impact.
Strategic Leverage of Undersea Cables
Tasnim proposed that foreign tech firms (Meta, Amazon, etc.) should pay Iran licensing fees to transit the cables. Fars News dubbed the strait a “hidden highway” and said Iran could exercise sovereignty over its digital slice. Analysts note that over 97–99% of internet traffic flows through these links.
In practice, this means even limited cuts or delays could cascade into outages and economic losses globally. Iranian drones have already hit Amazon Web Services data hubs in Bahrain and the UAE, showing that digital infrastructure is now part of the battlefield. As one report put it, undersea cables and cloud data centres now sit “alongside ports, shipping lanes and energy facilities” as potential targets.
- IRGC-linked media are calling Hormuz a new digital chokepoint and urging Iranian control of cable transit and maintenance.
- They point to recent drone strikes on regional data centres to underline the vulnerability of undersea networks.
- Experts remind us that nearly all global internet traffic depends on these routes, so even a short disruption can slow commerce worldwide.
- Gulf states are responding by funding alternate routes (overland and hybrid cables). Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are investing in new lines through Iraq and Turkey to reduce reliance on the Hormuz passage.
