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Google and Meta delay undersea cable projects over security concerns — Red Sea corridor carries a fifth of global internet traffic, but risk to crews and ships stalls plans
Google and Meta have delayed segments of their subsea cable projects crossing the Red Sea, Bloomberg reported Monday, November 17, citing continuing security risks in a corridor where previous cable damage has already impacted global cloud traffic. The decision affects some of the world’s largest infrastructure builds, including Meta’s 2Africa system and Google’s Blue-Raman route, at a time when Europe-to-Asia capacity remains stretched and prone to latency spikes during outages.
The Red Sea bottleneck carries about a fifth of global internet traffic, but has been repeatedly flagged as increasingly fragile. In early September, two major cables — IMEWE and SEA-ME-WE 4 — were severed near Jeddah. Microsoft confirmed higher latency between Europe and South Asia after the event, and routing data from Kentik showed traffic diverted around Africa. That same detour could reappear during future disruptions if new capacity is delayed or never completed.
TeleGeography’s latest status maps show that Meta’s 2Africa cable, a nearly complete 45,000-kilometer system, remains in progress in the Red Sea. Google’s Blue-Raman project, designed to bypass Egypt’s congested corridor by linking Europe and India through Israel and Jordan, must still connect via subsea legs running close to conflict-adjacent areas. According to Bloomberg, both firms have pulled back Red Sea work for now, citing risks to ships and crews.
The delays follow a year of escalating threats in the region. In addition to the September break, which took weeks to resolve, operators have reported higher insurance premiums and fewer vessel operators willing to undertake repairs. In a recent subsea telecommunications cables resilience report, the UK Parliament explicitly warned that the Red Sea was becoming a live risk for subsea infrastructure, citing a growing role for non-state actors and uncertainty around repair access windows.
When backbone links between Europe and Asia are severed or sidestepped, traffic hops onto alternate routes with longer round-trip times, straining secondary connections. The September cuts introduced measurable latency increases for a myriad of both consumer and enterprise services. Without new systems to absorb that load, operators may face the same outcome again, with longer detours and more noticeable slowdowns.
While nothing yet suggests that these projects will be cancelled — indeed, undersea cable investments are on the rise — revised and delayed deployment timelines seem inevitable in a corridor where progress depends heavily on geopolitical stability.
Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
