Ooredoo's OFN Buys Iraqi Dark Fibre to Link Gulf with Europe

Ooredoo Group's international connectivity arm, OFN, will buy dark fibre capacity from Iraqi fibre-optic operator iQ Networks to carry data traffic across Iraq towards Türkiye and Europe. The agreement, signed with iQ Networks, aims to improve internet connectivity between the Gulf, Iraq and Europe, and gives OFN a terrestrial leg for traffic landing on its subsea systems.

The deal does not stand alone. It builds on OFN's earlier agreement with the Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC) to bring its Fibre in Gulf (FIG) subsea cable system into Iraq. Together, the two projects create an additional route for international data traffic serving telecom operators, cloud providers and data centres.

How much capacity does FIG bring?

The FIG subsea cable system carries the weight of the plan. It will connect Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, and is designed to carry up to 720 terabits of data per second across 24 fibre pairs, the company revealed.

That figure is a design capacity, not a lit-service number, and OFN has not disclosed the value or volume of the dark fibre purchase from iQ Networks. What the agreement does provide is terrestrial backhaul: once FIG lands in Iraq, traffic can move over iQ Networks' fibre towards Türkiye and onward into European markets.

What did the executives say?

OFN CEO Khalid Hassan Al-Hammadi framed the iQ Networks contract as part of a wider build-out. "This agreement marks the next phase of a disciplined, multi-stage infrastructure programme and further strengthens OFN's international connectivity portfolio," he said.

"By bringing together FIG's subsea capacity and iQ Networks' terrestrial infrastructure, we are advancing a more integrated and resilient connectivity proposition for international customers," Al-Hammadi added.

iQ Group CEO Asoz Rashid cast the partnership in geographic terms, positioning Iraq as a transit hub rather than a terminus. "The sheer scale of this collaboration with OFN reinforces Iraq's position as a key gateway for international connectivity," Rashid said.

"By combining Iraq's strategic location and iQ's leading terrestrial infrastructure with the scale of the FIG subsea system, we have an opportunity to establish the primary route linking Asia, the Gulf and Europe," he added.

Why does a second route matter?

For carriers and hyperscalers, route diversity is the commercial draw. A Gulf-Iraq-Türkiye corridor would offer an alternative path for Asia-to-Europe traffic, reducing dependence on existing submarine and terrestrial crossings. Rashid's claim that the partnership could become "the primary route linking Asia, the Gulf and Europe" is aspirational; established corridors through Egypt and the Red Sea currently carry the bulk of that traffic.

Neither company has published a construction or activation timeline for the combined route. The FIG cable's seven-country footprint — Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq — and the ITPC and iQ Networks agreements together define the scope of what OFN has announced so far, with deployment schedules yet to be disclosed.