{"id":31195,"date":"2026-08-28T00:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=31195"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:34:07","slug":"what-about-the-civilian-and-military-internet-cables-on-the-seabed-of-the-strait-of-hormuz-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/what-about-the-civilian-and-military-internet-cables-on-the-seabed-of-the-strait-of-hormuz-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What about the civilian and military internet cables on the seabed of the Strait of Hormuz?"},"content":{"rendered":"
What about the civilian and military internet cables on the seabed of the Strait of Hormuz?<\/h5>\n
Haydari Nazar<\/h5>\n
27<\/h5>\n
This is a very important strategic point in understanding the future of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is not only a route for oil and gas tankers; there is also digital infrastructure on its seabed, consisting of fiber-optic cables that connect the Gulf states to global Internet networks.<\/h5>\n
\nAccording to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), there are currently five active sections of submarine cable systems passing through the Strait of Hormuz itself, in addition to other systems in its vicinity. Some of these connect to landing stations in the Gulf states, and there are also two cables connecting to Iran.<\/h5>\n
\nWhy are these cables important?
\nThese cables carry:
\nInternet traffic between the Gulf, Asia, and Europe.
\nInternational communications.
\nCloud-computing services and data centers.<\/h5>\n
\nBanking services and electronic payments.
\nPart of the data traffic of companies and government institutions.
\nAmong the best-known systems associated with the Hormuz region are:
\nFALCON, AAE-1, and the Gulf Bridge International Cable System (GBICS),
\nin addition to other systems.<\/h5>\n
\nHowever, an important misconception should be corrected:
\nHormuz does not carry 99% of the world\u2019s Internet traffic.<\/h5>\n
\nThe roughly 99% figure refers to the share of global Internet traffic that travels through submarine cables in general. The cables specifically passing through Hormuz account for less than 1% of global international capacity, according to the International Cable Protection Committee. Their impact is therefore extremely important regionally, rather than being capable of paralyzing the global Internet.
\nWhat about military cables?<\/h5>\n
\nThis is where we need to be cautious about information circulating publicly.<\/h5>\n
\nThere is no reliable, publicly available information confirming the existence of specific \u201csecret military Internet cables\u201d on the seabed of the Strait of Hormuz whose routes can be identified. Sensitive military cables generally do not have their routes publicly disclosed for security reasons.
\nHowever, this does not mean that underwater military communications do not exist. From a technical and strategic perspective, government and military communications networks may use:
\nDedicated submarine cables,
\nFiber-optic infrastructure within civilian communications networks,
\nTerrestrial networks,
\nSatellites,
\nOr other military communications systems.
\nI cannot confirm the existence of any particular military cable in Hormuz without a reliable source.<\/h5>\n
\nMost importantly, in relation to our previous discussion:
\nThis is where the significance of Iran\u2019s statement that \u201cHormuz will not return to its previous status\u201d becomes apparent.
\nBecause future control or influence over Hormuz is not only about ships.<\/h5>\n
\nThere are actually three strategic levels:
\nOil and gas
\nEnergy tankers
\nTrade
\nContainer ships and cargo vessels
\nThe digital economy
\nSubmarine fiber-optic cables on the seabed
\nThis is why the current war has also raised serious concerns about the cables themselves.<\/h5>\n
\nReuters described Hormuz as a \u201cdigital chokepoint\u201d in addition to being an energy chokepoint, and noted that repairing cables during a conflict becomes extremely difficult because of risks, mines, and permit requirements.<\/h5>\n
\nIt is also noteworthy that Iran spoke in May 2026 about imposing fees on submarine cables passing through Hormuz, which sparked discussion over whether Tehran is seeking to expand its concept of managing the Strait from ships to the digital infrastructure located on its seabed.<\/h5>\n
\nAnd in my view, this is an extremely important point: If Iran genuinely wants to establish a \u201cNew Hormuz,\u201d the question is not only who passes over the water? but also who uses the infrastructure beneath the water?<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What about the civilian and military internet cables on the seabed of the Strait of Hormuz? Haydari Nazar 27 This is a very important strategic point in understanding the future of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is not only a route for oil and gas tankers; there is also digital infrastructure on its seabed, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1526],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-miscellaneous-articles-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31196,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31195\/revisions\/31196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}