Redazione RHC : 20 November 2025 09:22
Meta and Google have been forced to postpone several major undersea internet cable projects, including 2Africa and Blue-Raman , in the Red Sea corridor through which 20 percent of global internet traffic flows, due to increased security risks.
This delay has forced companies to resort to more expensive alternatives and highlighted how geopolitical instability threatens the global digital infrastructure.
The race to build next-generation internet infrastructure has hit a major hurdle on one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. Meta and Google have confirmed that their strategic fiber optic cable project across the Red Sea has been suspended, primarily due to the escalating conflict and growing security threats in the region.
Affected projects include:
Geopolitical conflicts, including reports of missile attacks, have made the region too dangerous for cable-laying vessels and their crews. This situation has forced the company to temporarily suspend construction of a large-scale data cable project.
The Red Sea plays a vital role in global communications networks:
Damage to cables in the region had a significant impact, including traffic diversion to Africa, leading to increased latency and reduced connection speeds.
This delay had a huge financial impact. Besides being unable to immediately monetize billions of dollars of investment, Google and Meta also had to purchase bandwidth from longer, slower, and often more congested alternative routes.
Despite the pause in work in the Red Sea area, both companies are continuing their projects in safe areas. For example:
The delays to the 2Africa and Blue-Raman projects highlight a new challenge facing the world: heavy reliance on conflict-ridden regions makes the reliability of the global internet highly sensitive to political situations . Until the Red Sea segment of the undersea cable is safely installed, the stability of the international network will remain fragile.
Redazione