Iraq Emerges From Isolation As Telecommunications Hub

New submitter jamaicaplain sends this quote from an article in the NY Times: "Iraq, cut off from decades of technological progress because of dictatorship, sanctions and wars, recently took a big step out of isolation and into the digital world when its telecommunications system was linked to a vast new undersea cable system serving the Gulf countries. The engineers who designed and installed the cable that made shore in Al-Faw, near Basra, had to deal with an unusual number of challenges. There were more than 100 oil and natural gas pipelines to cross; stretches of shallow water where the cable had to be buried; and unexploded ordnance from the Iraq war that had to be avoided. ... Because of the crisis in Syria and the tensions over Iran, the possibility of routing traffic via Iraq has suddenly become more attractive to telecommunications operators. ... 'Iraq has a very strong strategic position to become a transit point for traffic between Europe and Asia.'"

This was expected...

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously, this was going to happen. The US forces ran a ton of fiber to Iraq to support their own operations. When we left, we gave it back. Iraq would be stupid not to utilize the new optical links to generate some cash.

Re:I bet they go back to isolation

[hendridm]

Or as soon as they "elect" someone who thinks the Internet is a slight against Allah.