UAE's du Forges Strategic Partnership for SING Subsea Cable System
In a significant advancement for the United Arab Emirates' digital infrastructure goals, telecom operator du has announced a strategic partnership to land and invest in the Singapore-India-Gulf (SING) submarine cable system. This next-generation undersea fibre-optic network will link the Middle East with South Asia and Southeast Asia, marking a pivotal step in enhancing regional and global connectivity.
What Is the SING Subsea Cable System?
The SING (Singapore-India-Gulf) cable is a planned high-capacity submarine fibre-optic network designed to establish a direct east-west digital corridor. It will connect six strategic landing points:
- Kalba, UAE (UAE landing point)
- Muscat, Oman
- Mumbai and Chennai, India
- Kedah, Malaysia
- Singapore
This system aims to provide high-capacity, low-latency connectivity and strengthen network resilience by diversifying data routes beyond traditional paths such as the Red Sea corridor. It will play a crucial role in supporting escalating global bandwidth demands driven by cloud computing, streaming, e-commerce, and real-time digital services.
du's Role and Strategic Importance in the Partnership
Under the new partnership, du, a leading telecom and digital services provider in the UAE, will host the SING cable at its Kalba cable landing station and participate financially in its rollout. This ensures a physical connection to the UAE's digital ecosystem, enabling faster and more resilient connectivity between the Gulf region and Asia.
Karim Benkirane, Chief Commercial Officer at du, emphasized that the project will "reinforce the UAE's role as a global hub for data, cloud, and artificial intelligence" by delivering the necessary connectivity scale, performance, and reliability for hyperscalers, tech innovators, and enterprise customers.
Why This Investment Matters for Global Connectivity
The SING subsea cable is part of a broader resurgence in global submarine infrastructure. Projects like SEA-ME-WE 6, which connects Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, highlight the growing need for redundancy, capacity, and network reliability.
Recent disruptions to undersea cables in the Red Sea, a critical data conduit, have exposed vulnerabilities in global internet routes, underscoring the necessity for alternative pathways like SING to mitigate service impacts if certain routes are compromised. By diversifying connectivity pathways, the UAE and its partners aim to ensure stable data routes that support corporate cloud services, consumer streaming, and real-time financial systems.
Future Outlook for SING and UAE Connectivity
While the exact ready-for-service date for the SING cable has not been announced, project progress has accelerated following a major investment by Cerberus Capital Management. This resolved longstanding funding challenges and propelled the system toward execution, with planned deployment by 2030.
Once operational, the SING network is expected to deliver tens of terabits per second of capacity, offering scalable flexibility for future data needs from businesses, cloud operators, AI research initiatives, and cross-continent platforms. Additionally, initiatives like USTDA-supported efforts for trusted India-to-Southeast Asia routes highlight increasing international collaboration on building secure, high-performance subsea networks.
This positions the UAE and the wider Gulf region at the forefront of next-generation connectivity infrastructure for global-scale digital services. As digital economies expand and data traffic grows exponentially, projects like the Singapore-India-Gulf subsea cable system represent critical investments in the future of global connectivity.
By partnering with Datawave and investing in the SING cable, du and the UAE are strengthening their role as a strategic gateway between continents, enhancing digital resilience, supporting AI-ready infrastructure, and unlocking new opportunities for economic and technological growth.
