Iran is shifting its attention to one of the "undercurrents" of the global economy in Hormuz: submarine cables that transmit large amounts of Internet data and financial transactions between Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf.
The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to charge the world's largest technology companies when using underground Internet cables located under the Strait of Hormuz. Data traffic may be interrupted if companies do not pay this fee.
We will charge fees for Internet cables," Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari announced last week.
Tehran's plan to exploit revenue from the Hormuz Strait will require companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon to comply with Iranian law, and underground cable operating companies will have to pay licensing fees for the cable to pass through this area. The right to repair and maintain the cable will also be exclusively granted to Iranian companies.
These developments could affect the amount of global data worth trillions of USD transmitted every day, and also affect Internet connectivity around the world.
Undersea cables are the backbone of global connectivity, transmitting most of the Internet traffic and data around the world. If they become targets of attack, the impact will not only stop at the speed of the Internet but also threaten everything from banking systems, military communications, cloud computing infrastructure serving artificial intelligence (AI), to remote work, online games and streaming services.
According to Dina Esfandiary - head of the Middle East region at Bloomberg Economics, Iran's moves are part of a strategy to demonstrate Tehran's leverage of influence over the Strait of Hormuz and ensure the country's survival.
The goal is to make the price that the global economy has to pay so high that no one dares to attack Iran again," she said.
Some large intercontinental submarine cables pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Due to prolonged security risks related to Iran, international operators have long actively avoided Iranian waters, instead concentrating most of the cables in a narrow strip on the Oman side of this maritime route, according to Mostafa Ahmed - senior researcher at the Habtoor Research Center based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
However, according to Alan Mauldin - research director at telecommunications research company TeleGeography, two cable lines, Falcon and Gulf Bridge International (GBI), currently run through Iranian territorial waters.
According to expert Ahmed, with a force of combat divers, small submarines and unmanned aerial vehicles operating underwater, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) can create risks for submarine cables. He believes that any attack could trigger a "chain disaster" spreading across many continents.
Iran's neighbors across the Persian Gulf may face serious disruptions to Internet connectivity, leading to the risk of affecting oil and gas exports and the banking system. Outside the region, most of India's Internet traffic may be affected, threatening the country's large-scale outsourcing service industry with potential losses of up to billions of USD, according to Mr. Ahmed.
