Overview
- Bloomberg reporting indicates both companies have pulled back work in the Red Sea, leaving key segments of Meta’s 2Africa and Google’s Blue-Raman on hold with no revised timelines.
- Meta’s 2Africa, a roughly 45,000-kilometer system, remains incomplete because the southern Red Sea leg has not been built.
- Google’s Blue-Raman, first announced in 2021 and originally slated for 2024, still lacks Red Sea connections near conflict-adjacent areas, and Google has not provided an updated schedule.
- Security threats, including reported missile attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants, along with permitting challenges and risks to ships and crews, have disrupted specialized cable operations.
- The Red Sea carries about a fifth of global internet traffic, and September cuts near Jeddah raised Europe–South Asia latency and forced rerouting, underscoring the costs and fragility as investors purchase capacity on alternate cables.