The Strait of Hormuz is usually discussed as a route for oil tankers. However, submarine fibre-optic cables also connect parts of the Gulf to international communications networks.
What would happen if Iran deliberately damaged every telecommunications cable crossing the strait?
The consequences could be serious for affected communities and businesses. But the outcome would depend on available alternative connections, spare capacity and how quickly services could be restored.
This article examines a hypothetical scenario. It does not claim that such an attack has occurred, that every cable could necessarily be disabled, or that a particular country would lose all internet access.
Would the Whole World Lose Internet Access?
No. A disruption in the Strait of Hormuz would not automatically disconnect the world.
The International Cable Protection Committee, citing TeleGeography analysis, states that bandwidth passing through the strait represents less than 1% of international bandwidth globally. It describes the principal connectivity risk as regional rather than worldwide. [1]
This distinction matters. Undersea cables are essential to international communications, but the global network does not depend on one waterway.
Nevertheless, a small share of global bandwidth can still be extremely important to the people and businesses that depend on it.
What Does “All Cables Cut” Actually Mean?
For this discussion, the scenario means the loss of telecommunications cable connections passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
It does not mean that every cable serving the Middle East disappears. It also does not automatically remove terrestrial fibre networks, domestic mobile networks, local data centres or submarine connections landing outside the strait.
Losing a cable connection is also different from losing stored information. A business might temporarily lose access to an overseas application while its data remains intact.
The most useful question is therefore: which services would remain reachable, and how much traffic could surviving routes handle?
Why Gulf Countries Would Be Affected Differently
TeleGeography identifies important differences in regional connectivity. Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar have terrestrial connections through Saudi Arabia; Kuwait also connects to Iraq. Many UAE submarine connections land at Fujairah, facing the Gulf of Oman, while Saudi Arabia obtains much of its international bandwidth through its Red Sea coast. [2]
These alternatives reduce dependence on a single corridor.
However, an alternative route is not necessarily an equally capable replacement. Remaining networks might lack enough spare capacity to carry all displaced traffic. Individual operators could therefore experience different levels of disruption, even within the same country.
Oman’s experience would likewise depend on the particular networks, landing points and services affected. A reliable country-by-country outage percentage would require operator-level information.
Social Impacts: More Than Slow Video Streaming
The following are plausible consequences of reduced connectivity, rather than predictions of universal failure.
Communication With Family
Gulf countries have large expatriate communities. Unreliable international messaging and calls could make it harder for workers to contact relatives abroad.
During a wider crisis, uncertainty about loved ones could create anxiety even where basic domestic communications remained available.
Education and Remote Work
Students could struggle to join classes or access learning platforms hosted overseas. Teachers, freelancers and remote employees might miss meetings, deadlines or access to shared documents.
Locally hosted materials could remain usable where local networks continued operating, although overseas login or software dependencies could still interfere.
Access to Information
Official updates, independent reporting and public information could become harder to reach. Rumours might spread through the channels that remained available.
Clear updates from service providers and public authorities would be especially valuable: what is affected, which services still work and when another update will follow.
Economic Impacts on Gulf Businesses
Banking, Payments and Remittances
Some payment systems, banking applications and international transfers could become slower or temporarily unavailable if their network connections or external dependencies were affected.
That would not mean every bank stopped operating or customer balances disappeared. The practical outcome would depend on each institution’s systems and continuity arrangements.
Shops, Restaurants and Small Businesses
A shop could lose access to its payment terminal’s service provider. A restaurant might receive fewer online orders. A small company could struggle to use overseas accounting or customer-management software.
These examples show how connectivity problems can interrupt ordinary business even when buildings, electricity and equipment remain operational.
Logistics, Travel and Trade
Booking systems, shipment tracking and coordination between international partners could face delays.
A cable outage alone would not establish that ports or airports had closed. Operational disruption would depend on their network arrangements and any separate physical or security problems.
Cloud Services and AI Applications
An application running in a local data centre could still depend on an overseas identity provider, payment service, software licence server or AI model.
Businesses should therefore examine the complete service chain. “Hosted locally” does not necessarily mean “works without international connectivity.”
How Could Other Countries Be Affected?
The wider world would be more likely to experience particular service interruptions and commercial delays than a general internet blackout.
For example, an overseas company could struggle to reach a Gulf branch. A family could experience delayed communication or remittances. An international supplier might face slower coordination with regional customers.
The scale of these effects would depend on the businesses involved and the duration of disruption.
It is also important to separate a communications outage from a wider conflict. Higher oil prices or shipping interruptions would depend on additional events; they should not be presented as automatic consequences of damaged internet cables.
Why Repairs Could Take Time
Traffic restoration and physical cable repair are different processes. Some services may recover through rerouting while damaged cables remain out of service.
Physical repairs require specialised vessels, permissions, equipment and safe operating conditions. Conflict can complicate access and delay work. [2]
The International Telecommunication Union identifies repair delays, concentrated infrastructure and limited route diversity as important resilience challenges. Its recommendations emphasise timely repairs, risk management and geographically diverse connectivity. [3]
Without knowing the damage and operating conditions, an exact recovery deadline would be speculation.
What Can Businesses Do to Prepare?
These are practical planning suggestions, not a guarantee of uninterrupted service:
- Ask whether backup internet connections use genuinely different international routes.
- Identify which essential applications depend on overseas services.
- Keep appropriate, securely protected offline copies of critical operating information.
- Test how staff would work during reduced connectivity.
- Establish alternative contact arrangements with customers and suppliers.
- Give essential business traffic priority over optional high-bandwidth activity during an incident.
The Internet Society also highlights diverse connections, regional cooperation and local infrastructure as ways to improve resilience. [4]
The preparation should match the organisation. A small business may need a workable temporary process; a hospital, bank or telecom operator requires much more extensive engineering and continuity planning.
A Regional Risk With International Consequences
A hypothetical attack on cables crossing the Strait of Hormuz could create substantial regional disruption. Families, digital businesses and international partners could feel its effects.
However, “all Hormuz cables cut” does not mean “the entire world goes offline,” and it does not establish that every Gulf country would experience the same outage.
The central lesson is that reliable digital services depend on alternative routes, sufficient spare capacity, tested operating procedures and the ability to repair infrastructure safely.
For organisations investing in cloud software and AI, those foundations deserve as much attention as the applications built on top of them.
For more on business applications of AI, explore RumiWare’s AI solutions alongside the connectivity dependencies discussed here.
Sources and Further Reading
- International Cable Protection Committee: Media Enquiries & Frequently Asked Questions — Strait of Hormuz section.
- TeleGeography: Navigating Hostile Waters: Submarine Cable Infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz.
- International Telecommunication Union: International Advisory Body approves landmark report to strengthen submarine cable resilience, 10 July 2026.
- Internet Society: Policy Brief: Enhancing the Resilience of Submarine Internet Infrastructure, 13 November 2025.