Qatar’s Ooredoo commits $500m to new cable projects

• Move due to disruption in Red Sea and Hormuz
• Plans to redraw connectivity routes
• Subsea outages hit connectivity in September

Qatari-listed telecom operator Ooredoo will invest more than $500 million in international cable projects to reduce connectivity risks due to disruptions in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

The new projects will redraw connectivity routes between Oman, Iraq, Turkey and Europe through land corridors that would halve connection times, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported, quoting CEO Aziz Fakhroo.

Internet connectivity in multiple countries was hit by subsea cable outages in the Red Sea in September.

The Mena region is vulnerable to “marketplace distortion due to a lack of options”, Iain Ritson, director at telecoms infrastructure consultants Pioneer Consulting, told AGBI.

Speaking at the MWC25 Doha conference, Fakhroo said top global companies have begun reconsidering their expansions in regions where approvals take more than 18 months, while other regions are moving much faster, giving them a clear competitive advantage.

He added that cross-border cooperation has become an operational and strategic necessity, especially given that the Middle East is a global logistical and digital hub, accounting for 30 percent of the world’s data and 90 percent of data exchanged between Europe and Asia.

Fakhroo said Ooredoo has launched digital and financial service platforms in Qatar, the Maldives, Tunisia and Oman, with plans to launch a mobile financial platform in Iraq next year.

Further reading:

• Ooredoo to build high-speed data network for GCC
• Ooredoo profit rises to $522m as subscribers grow
• Good, but could be better: Telecoms giants rely on local lines

Earlier this month, the telco said the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will sell 160.5 million of its shares in a secondary offering.

Ooredoo has operations across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, and is listed on the Qatar and Abu Dhabi exchanges.

The telco reported net profit of QR3.1 billion ($850 million) in the first nine months of 2025, up 6 percent year on year. Revenue rose 3 percent during the period.

The stock closed 0.6 percent higher at QR12.56 on Tuesday, up 21 percent year-to-date.

Qatar Holding owns a 68 percent stake in the telco.