A new subsea Internet cable connecting Syria with the Republic of Cyprus has been announced.

Developed by AI infrastructure service provider UNIFI Communications, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority, and the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, the cable will include 24 fiber pairs and 31 Tbps of capacity at launch and an eventual design ceiling of 370Tbps, according to a joint statement.

“Ugarit 2 is the first major international infrastructure agreement of post-sanctions Syria, and for our industry it means something specific: a nation of twenty million people, at the crossroads of three continents, is coming back onto the map of the global internet,” UNIFI Communications’ founder and CEO, Adrian Shatku, told DCD. "We are replacing a cable that has carried Syria's connectivity since 1995 with a 24-fiber-pair, Terabit-class system, delivered turnkey by an American prime contractor and 5 percent owner of the system under a valid US Treasury license and built end-to-end on Clean Network principles.”

Ugarit 2 is expected to be activated in early 2028. It will replace the original Ugarit cable, which began operating in 1995. That system, which spanned 239 kilometers (148 m) between the Cypriot landing point of Pentaskhinos and the Syrian city of Tartus, had a capacity of 622 Mbps, according to Cytaglobal. Ugarit 2 will follow a similar route with a significant uplift in traffic capacity.

Several suppliers for the project have already been selected, as per reporting by Developing Telecoms. These include Nokia, which will supply the DWDM optical transmission equipment for the first phase of construction, and Prysmian (NSW), which will provide the submerged portion of the cable. A marine survey of the route is also taking place.

UGARIT 2 forms part of a wider modernization of Syria’s digital infrastructure after its devastating civil war.

In February, the Syrian government awarded Saudi Arabian telco STC Group a 75 percent stake worth three billion SAR ($800 million) to run its ‘Silklink’ project. The scheme will see the firm build several data centers, submarine cable landing stations, and a 4,500 km (2,796 miles) fiber-optic cable network across Syria.

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