Al Daayen, Qatar

Al Daayen, Qatar: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Al Daayen is a municipality in Qatar, situated in close proximity to the capital Doha. As a coastal location on the Arabian Gulf, it serves as a landing point for submarine cable infrastructure connecting Qatar to the broader regional network. One submarine cable lands at Al Daayen, linking Qatar into a multi-country Gulf and Indian Ocean corridor.

The cable landing here, the Gulf Bridge International Cable System/Middle East North Africa Cable System (GBICS/MENA), connects Qatar with a range of neighboring Gulf states as well as India, making Al Daayen a participant in both intra-Gulf regional connectivity and longer-distance intercontinental routing toward South Asia.

Cables Landing at Al Daayen

The Gulf Bridge International Cable System/Middle East North Africa Cable System (GBICS/MENA) is the sole submarine cable landing at Al Daayen. This system is currently in draft status. It connects Qatar with Bahrain, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Oman, forming a circuit that spans the Arabian Gulf and extends into the Arabian Sea toward South Asia. The cable touches a broad set of Gulf Cooperation Council states as well as Iran and Iraq, creating a regionally significant multi-country ring across the northern and western reaches of the Indian Ocean approach.

Regional Context

Among Qatar's four submarine cable landing points, Al Daayen sits alongside Doha, which hosts six cables and represents the country's primary cable hub, Al Ghariya with two cables, and Al-Kheesa and Halul Island, each hosting one cable. With one cable, Al Daayen ranks in the middle tier of Qatar's landing point infrastructure by cable count, sharing the single-cable category with Al-Kheesa and Halul Island.

Network Role

Al Daayen functions as a single-cable terminus within Qatar's submarine cable geography. Through the GBICS/MENA system, it extends Qatar's submarine cable reach to six other countries — Bahrain, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Oman — enabling connectivity across the Gulf corridor and onward to the Indian subcontinent. This positions Al Daayen as a secondary landing point that complements the denser infrastructure concentrated at Doha.

As Qatar's submarine cable network spans nine cables across four landing points, Al Daayen's role is that of a distributed landing site, broadening the geographic footprint of the country's international cable connectivity beyond the capital. In the regional submarine cable graph, its connection to multiple Gulf states and India through a single system adds a distinct node that diversifies Qatar's international routing options.