OFN Links FIG Cable to Iraq Transit Route

Publication Staff, Ooredoo
October 7, 2026

Ooredoo Group’s international connectivity arm, OFN, has reached a dark-fibre purchase deal with Iraqi infrastructure provider iQ Networks. Disclosed on October 7, the transaction gives OFN multiple fibre pairs on a cross-Iraq terrestrial path intended to continue north toward Türkiye and Europe. It is distinct from OFN’s agreement with the Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company covering the planned Fibre in Gulf (FIG) landing in Iraq, although the two projects are meant to operate together.

FIG is designed as a high-capacity loop around seven Gulf markets, including Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Ooredoo places the system’s planned ceiling at 720 Tbps over 24 fibre pairs. The landing agreement addresses the subsea system’s arrival in Iraq; the iQ Networks deal supplies the overland segment needed to carry traffic onward through the country. That distinction makes the new signing a terrestrial-transit milestone rather than another announcement of the landing partnership.

Commercially, the proposed corridor would give international wholesale customers another geographic option between Asian markets, the Gulf and Europe. Dark fibre allows a customer to install and control its own transmission equipment, making capacity easier to tailor as requirements grow. Ooredoo expects the route to be relevant to carriers and large digital-infrastructure users, including hyperscale, cloud, artificial-intelligence, content and data-centre operators. The company has not described the agreement as an operational service launch.

For Iraq, the route could turn the country’s existing terrestrial network and location into a larger role in international data transit. For OFN, combining a Gulf subsea system with cross-country fibre may improve route diversity and create additional wholesale business from assets on both sides of the landing point. Those benefits remain prospective, but the signed purchase establishes a commercial basis for integrating iQ Networks’ infrastructure with FIG once the necessary implementation steps are completed.

The current milestone is the executed dark-fibre agreement, not construction completion or ready-for-service. Ooredoo says implementation will follow the parties’ plan and still requires regulatory, governmental and any other applicable approvals. The release provides no dated construction start, approval deadline, service date or operational-launch target. The next confirmed step is therefore the approvals and implementation process itself, with the timetable and delivery sequence still undisclosed.

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