Bandar Abbas, Iran

Bandar Abbas, Iran: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Bandar Abbas is a port city on the southern coast of Iran, situated on the Persian Gulf in Hormozgan Province. Its position along this strategically active coastline makes it a natural terminus for submarine cable infrastructure connecting Iran to the broader regional and intercontinental network. One submarine cable lands at Bandar Abbas, linking the city into a corridor that spans the Persian Gulf and extends into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The cable landing at Bandar Abbas is FALCON, a long-haul system that connects Iran with Bahrain, Egypt, India, Iraq, and Kuwait. This single connection places Bandar Abbas within a multi-country arc that bridges Gulf states with South Asia and North Africa, enabling intercontinental data pathways through a single landing point on Iran's Persian Gulf coast.

Cables Landing at Bandar Abbas

FALCON is a submarine cable system spanning 10,300 kilometres, which reached ready-for-service status in 2006. The cable connects Bandar Abbas to a range of countries across the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula, and beyond: Bahrain, Egypt, India, Iraq, and Kuwait all feature as landing points along this system. FALCON's reach across these diverse country endpoints positions it as a multi-regional link, connecting Gulf economies with South Asian and North African networks through a single continuous cable infrastructure.

Regional Context

Among Iran's seven submarine cable landing points, Bandar Abbas hosts one cable, placing it in the same tier as Ganaveh and Khark Island, each of which also serves a single cable. By cable count, Bandar Abbas ranks in the top 43 percent of Iranian landing points, sitting below Chabahar, Jask, and Bushehr, which host three, three, and two cables respectively, as well as Soroosh Platform with two cables. Bandar Abbas is nonetheless a distinct node in Iran's national submarine cable map by virtue of its Persian Gulf coastal position and its connection to the FALCON system's wide geographic reach.

Network Role

Bandar Abbas functions as a single-cable terminus on Iran's southern coast, serving as the country's access point to the FALCON system. Through FALCON, the city is connected to five other countries across the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea corridor, and the Indian subcontinent, enabling data flows between Iran, the Gulf states of Bahrain, Iraq, and Kuwait, as well as Egypt and India. This gives Bandar Abbas a corridor role that is simultaneously regional — within the Persian Gulf — and intercontinental, reaching as far as South Asia and North Africa.

While Bandar Abbas does not host the highest cable count among Iranian landing points, the geographic diversity of FALCON's endpoints means that this single system touches multiple distinct regions of the submarine cable graph. In the context of Iran's overall submarine cable infrastructure, Bandar Abbas represents one of several Persian Gulf access points through which the country connects to the broader international network.