Technology
Led Fibre Corridor Targets Red Sea Internet Chokepoint as Cable Risks Mount
BirrMetrics · 2 weeks ago · Read the Full Story on BirrMetrics
AI SUMMARY
Three African telecom operators are advancing the Horizon Cross-Border Terrestrial Fibre Initiative to provide an alternative data route as recurring submarine cable failures disrupt internet traffic in the Red Sea corridor.
- Ethio telecom, Djibouti Telecom and Sudan’s Sudatel Group are advancing the Horizon Cross-Border Terrestrial Fibre Initiative.
- The initiative has entered its pre-commercialisation phase following a workshop in Addis Ababa with global technology and telecom providers.
- The proposed terrestrial corridor connects submarine-cable landing stations in Djibouti and Port Sudan by crossing Ethiopia.
- The route is designed to allow data between Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe to bypass damaged or congested Red Sea subsea cables.
- The project positions Ethiopia as a transit market for cross-continental data traffic to generate wholesale revenue and support digital ambitions.
- Multiple Red Sea submarine cables have been damaged since 2024, causing internet disruptions across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
- Around 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, creating systemic risk due to infrastructure concentration.
- The Horizon network is planned to carry multiple terabits of data with low-latency connections between Djibouti and Port Sudan.
- Companies including Ciena, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Meta and China Mobile International participated in the Addis Ababa workshop.
- The consortium has not yet announced binding customer agreements, investment commitments, project costs, financing structures or launch dates.
- The three operators signed a tripartite agreement for the Horizon initiative in February 2026.
- Horizon intends to offer wholesale data transport, colocation and hosting services to telecom carriers, cloud providers and content networks.
- Horizon is developed as an additional redundancy route rather than a replacement for existing Red Sea submarine cables.
Related
OpenAI’s A.I. Agents Meddled With U.S. Government Websites
New York TImes · 18 hours ago
Meta tests human concierge for AI assistant Muse
Reuters · 4 days ago
Google says its AI model gained unauthorized access to three outside systems
NBC News · last week
OpenAI Discloses Six Incidents Involving AI Misbehavior
BBC · last week