The introduction of 326 Tbps of new submarine cable capacity is planned in Central and West Asia, while the creation of a digital corridor under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program will allow landlocked Central Asian countries to access global oceanic cable networks through transit points.
According to Report, which cites the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the bank, with support from international auditing firm Deloitte, has developed a master plan for establishing a digital corridor within the CAREC initiative.
The initiative aims to reduce the region's critical dependence on the single northern route for internet traffic transmission and address rapidly growing data exchange needs, which are expected to increase several-fold by the 2030s. According to the study, international bandwidth demand in CAREC countries is projected to rise from 39 Tbps in 2025 to 1,045 Tbps by 2039, representing a 27-fold increase.
Currently, the region's main challenge is excessive traffic concentration. Despite the existence of multiple terrestrial fiber-optic networks, around 57% of regional traffic passes through only two countries, while the northern corridor through Russia accounts for approximately 44% of total transmitted data.
This situation creates significant risks of disruptions and keeps wholesale IP transit prices at elevated levels. The CAREC digital corridor project envisages the creation of a second independent southern gateway.
The expansion of cross-border infrastructure will connect Central Asian countries to global submarine cable systems through Pakistan, including the PEACE, 2Africa, and UMO cable systems. According to the analysis, the development of alternative routes has already demonstrated positive results in local markets: in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, the emergence of new submarine and terrestrial connections reduced wholesale IP transit prices by 50–80%.
The digital corridor architecture consists of four key components.
The first component involves the construction and modernization of backbone fiber-optic networks, including the completion of a missing section on the Pakistan–China border, the creation of new cross-border connections (including Samarkand–Panjakent, Jirgatol–Karamyk, and Miram Shah–Khost routes), and the expansion of overall network capacity.
The second component involves the creation of a two-tier data center ecosystem, combining national data centers for domestic services with a distributed hyperscale gateway in Pakistan to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence applications.
The third component focuses on integrating national internet exchange points (IXPs) into a unified regional peering structure while preserving the sovereignty and operational control of each participating country.
The fourth component involves regulatory harmonization, including the development of common frameworks, simplification of right-of-way procedures, alignment of cybersecurity standards, and rules for cross-border data exchange.
Project financing and governance are expected to follow a blended finance model using public-private partnerships (PPPs), investment consortia, development institution resources, and private infrastructure funds. International experience from ASEAN and Smart Africa is considered a potential coordination model without centralizing infrastructure ownership.
According to the study, the main drivers of exponential growth in international data traffic are rapid digital transformation across industries, the expansion of artificial intelligence technologies, cloud computing, and government digital services.
Experts forecast that global mobile network traffic will increase approximately 2.5 times by 2031, while the economic impact of digital technology adoption could reach $12.5 trillion annually by 2030.
Data exchange capacity in the subregion currently stands at 29,400 Gbps, with total data center capacity of 106 MW, mainly concentrated in Türkiye and Kazakhstan, and 18 internet exchange points. The subregion is expected to see the launch of 326 Tbps of submarine cable capacity, largely due to the SeaMeWe-6 system.
The report notes that IP transit costs are directly linked to infrastructure development and regulatory conditions. Markets with developed data center ecosystems and IXPs have the lowest transit prices: average rates are $0.35 per Mbps in East Asia and $0.56 in Southeast Asia.
In markets with limited connectivity, such as South Asia, the average cost reaches $1.36 per Mbps, while in the Pacific region it stands at $3.24. In Central and West Asia, the most competitive tariffs are recorded in Türkiye ($0.09 per Mbps), Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. The highest prices remain in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan due to insufficient development of interconnection infrastructure.
The report cites Myanmar as a practical example, where the launch of the UMO submarine cable in 2023 resulted in a 68% decline in IP transit prices within one year.