Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island, United Arab Emirates

Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island is an island territory of the United Arab Emirates served by submarine cable infrastructure connecting it to the broader UAE network. As an island location, submarine cable connectivity represents its direct link to the mainland, and one submarine cable currently lands here. The cable landing at Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island supports an intra-UAE corridor rather than an international or intercontinental connection.

The United Arab Emirates hosts submarine cable infrastructure across seven landing points, with Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island among them. The single cable landing here places the island within the national submarine cable landscape, which spans 21 cables in total across the country, with the first UAE cable entering service in 1992.

Cables Landing at Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island

Sir Abu Nu'ayr Cable is an 84-kilometre submarine cable that reached ready-for-service (RFS) status in 2018, with that status recorded as draft. Both endpoints of this cable are located within the United Arab Emirates, making it a domestic intra-UAE link. At 84 kilometres, it is a relatively short cable by regional standards, consistent with its role connecting an offshore island to the UAE mainland rather than spanning international distances.

Regional Context

Among the seven submarine cable landing points in the United Arab Emirates, Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island hosts one cable, placing it alongside Das Island and Sharjah as landing points with a single cable each. By cable count, it ranks in the top 43% of UAE landing points, while larger hubs such as Fujairah, with 14 cables, and Abu Dhabi, with four cables, handle considerably greater volumes of submarine cable traffic. Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island's profile is therefore that of a specialised, single-connection island terminus rather than a multi-cable hub.

Network Role

Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island's cable landing point serves a specific and defined role: providing submarine connectivity between the island and the United Arab Emirates mainland via the Sir Abu Nu'ayr Cable. With only one cable landing here, the island functions as a single-cable terminus rather than a multi-cable hub or transit point within a broader international network. The domestic nature of the cable means that all connectivity routed through this landing point remains within UAE territory.

Within the regional submarine cable graph of the UAE, Sir Abu Nu'Ayr Island represents one of several island and coastal landing points that collectively extend the country's submarine cable reach beyond its principal hubs to include offshore and more remote island locations.