Iraq’s communications market stands on the brink of an inflection point set to position it as a key international transit hub in the near future, if remaining regulatory bottlenecks are broken down.
So says Asoz Rashid, CEO of the country’s iQ Group. It comes as his company moves to bolster Iraq’s standing further this year in the next phase of the Silk Route Transit fibre-optic project, run by subsidiary iQ Networks. This involves the construction of a secondary route across the country, providing resilience and redundancy for the 3,500km network previously launched in 2023.
Given the infrastructure both already deployed and planned in the country, Rashid believes the speed and quality of Iraq’s communications can rapidly come into line with those of other digitally advanced countries the moment restrictions lift.
“Once the government sorts out regulations and pricing structures, Iraq has the internet capacities for the market to transform overnight,” he says.
High-quality silk
Rashid points to the quality of infrastructure already available via iQ Networks, which claims the Silk Route provides the shortest terrestrial route connecting the Middle East and Asia to Europe – running northwards from the Gulf and reaching the borders of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Syria.
“When more people started testing our cables, they realised how efficient our network is compared with the traditional Red Sea submarine cable route via the Suez Canal,” says Rashid. “The infrastructure is also essentially AI-ready.”
With that type of network, the country’s promise as an alternative terrestrial fibre route is surging, he says. It comes, too, as concerns about overreliance on the Red Sea pathway for traffic between Europe and Asia have risen following subsea cable cuts on the route over the past couple of years.
Remaining barriers
One remaining issue holding up a full-scale explosion of traffic in Iraq is the country’s internal regulatory environment, says Rashid, resulting in a fragmented and uneven market when it comes to fibre quality and pricing. He cites factors such as complexity with government policy and licensing, which is often carried out on a regional basis rather than by just a few carriers nationwide.
Sulaymaniyah in the north, for instance, where iQ Networks is headquartered, has speeds and latencies similar to other sophisticated networks around the world, says Rashid. However, the capital, Baghdad, to the south, is much further behind.
The picture is compounded by the traditional view of Iraq as a postwar country with many security concerns.
Yet things have changed significantly in the past couple of years, with Rashid now far more confident that the market is truly ready to take off. “Regulatory bodies have started becoming more receptive to following an international market structure, at the same time as Iraq has gained more regional and international interest in its fibre transit market,” he says.
Iraq is also pushing to digitise its economy, with the country lying behind many others in the Gulf on AI readiness. Furthermore, it wants to reduce its dependence on cash and diversify outside the oil industry.
On the cusp
Meanwhile, there is significant recent evidence that the market is ripe for a surge. Internet penetration has grown to more than 80%, while there has been a flurry of activity to roll out new subsea cables connecting to Iraq.
In addition, iQ Networks has seen a big increase in demand for the Silk Route, surpassing the milestone of 1Tb of capacity in 2024. With the level of demand now from the likes of OTT players and hyperscalers, Rashid believes this will only continue to rise, and foresees financial companies migrating from Red Sea routes to the Silk Route as they see the latency advantages for connecting to European markets.
As the opportunity grows, iQ Networks hopes to take more of a role in managing data on the route, with a third phase of its Silk Route project later involving building data centres.
If such initiatives are combined with continued improvements in the regulatory environment, Iraq is on course to become a thriving hub for transit, believes Rashid.
“Internationally, demand is huge to enter the Iraqi market and use the transit,” he says. “If you have good and sophisticated digital infrastructure, it will bring big investment.”
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