In the following year, the Iraqi Ministry of Communications announced the completion of 93% of the project implementation within a period that did not exceed a year[2]. The actual work of the project started in 2018 as 10% of it was commissioned experimentally.[3] The project included the extension of 4 million meters of optical cable in all governorates and a depth of 3 meters. The project also linked Iraqi with international cables from four border ports with the establishment of an international access portal to secure and protect data[4]