Ooredoo Fibre agrees to buy iQ Networks dark fiber for Iraq-Turkey route

Ooredoo Fibre Networks has agreed to buy dark fiber from Iraq's iQ Networks to carry Fibre in the Gulf subsea cable traffic overland from Iraq's southern coast toward Turkey, subject to regulatory approval.

The unlit strands are designed to support up to 720Tbps across 24 fiber pairs and would serve Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.

Data Center Dynamics reported the agreement and cited Submarine Networks analysis that the route strengthens Iraq's position as a telecommunications hub by offering an alternative to Red Sea cables, which have suffered severed connections and transit fees imposed by Egypt.

The overland leg extends a 2025 landing agreement between OFN and the Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company for the cable's arrival in southern Iraq. iQ Networks is part of iQ Group, which claims 12,000km of fiber in Iraq under its Silk Route Transit Project and operates several data centers. Group CEO Asoz Rashid said in a joint statement with Ooredoo Group that the combination of Iraq's location, iQ's terrestrial infrastructure and FIG's scale creates "an opportunity to establish the primary route linking Asia, the Gulf and Europe."