ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s internet usage has more than doubled compared to early 2026, Iraq’s communication minister said Tuesday, with experts citing a nationwide overhaul of point-to-point network systems to fiber optics.

“International internet traffic reaching Iraq was around 4 terabits before I assumed my ministerial duties at the beginning of 2026, while today it has risen to 8.5 terabits,” Mustafa Jabbar Sanad, who was appointed as communications minister in May, told state media.

He attributed the increased traffic to more mobile phone usage, improved 4G services, and advancements in cameras.

“The CMC [Iraq’s Communication and Media Commission], which oversees communications, made the decision around three months ago to ban point-to-point technologies from Iraq and for everyone to have fiber optic,” Camran Ahmed, head of IT at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations told The New Region.

Point-to-point networks connect to two different places directly, with both sending data back-and-forth. Meanwhile, fiber optic uses thin glass cables to send data over long distances using light.

While Iraq's wireless point-to-point links have been heavily bottlenecked by interference and max out at 100 to 400 Megabits per second, fiber optics leverage light to potentially carry multiple Terabits per second across provinces, Ahmed explained.

“That’s a very big jump.”

He added that the government will also employ a 5G network “maybe within six months.”

5G is the fifth generation of mobile network technology, allowing much faster speeds, lower latency, and the ability to connect to more devices at the same time compared with the previous 4G.

In late August, Sanad told reporters that he is set to visit the Kurdistan Region, and discuss the launch of 5G services with Kurdish authorities, so that the process can begin jointly in Baghdad and Erbil.

“This high demand will only push the internet providers to upgrade their services,” Shankar Luqman, Operation Manager at a local internet service provider (ISP) told The New Region.

“There is always more capacity to buy, it just needs a good enough reason for the country or the providers to invest in it, and this sudden spike is that reason,” he added.

Luqman explained that ISPs providing high-speed internet also contributes to the rise in traffic, as users end up using more data at a given time.

According to the Internet Society, 62 percent of the top 1,000 most visited websites in Iraq are accessible through an in-country server or cache. A higher percentage in the metric correlates with more efficient traffic and faster speeds for users.

Data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) put Iraq’s internet usage in 2025 at over 5 terabytes per subscription annualy.

Senior Simulation Platform Engineer at Volvo Kardo Marof also linked the surge to increased usage of AI bots and agents by private people, governments, and companies which constantly monitor and analyze data in real time.

“You can imagine them just living on these servers and constantly making internet requests to gather information, analyze it,” he told The New Region, adding that some of the traffic and data usage might be from other countries too.

According to Marof, the traffic could be from neighbouring countries like Turkey, “making requests over the nodes in Iraq.”

Shkar Taib, the head of DevOps at the Kurdistan Region’s Department of Information Technology (DIT), also said that AI has played a significant role in the sharp rise. “AI agents on people’s laptops dramatically increase internet usage,” he told The New Region.

The network increase shows Iraq’s increased digitalization. More government bodies and companies have digitized their processes. Iraq has also expanded the internet services for its citizens, including the fiber optic overhaul, Starlink, and the efforts to launch the 5G network.

This also puts more pressure on the infrastructure, requiring the government to keep up with new cables, equipment, and international connections.