LITC and Huawei Marine Launch Silphium Submarine Cable Between Libya and Greece

Libyan International Telecom Company (LITC) and Huawei Marine Networks Co, Ltd. (Huawei Marine) announced the commercial launch of Silphium, the first wholly-owned submarine cable system to meet the increasing demand of international communications for the Libyan market.

The successful completion of the Silphium system which leverages industry-leading optical technology is one of the longest un-repeatered subsea cable systems in the world. The system length exceeds 425km across the Mediterranean Sea with a total design capacity of 1.2 Terabits per second at 10 Gbps per wavelength with provision to upgrade to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps in the future.

Connecting Darnah in Libya with Chania in Greece, Silphium is the third Libyan international submarine cable system. Now operationally ready the system enables Libya to connect into many European internet hubs with OTEGLOBE providing the landing point in Chania and access to their vast European network. As the Libyan market opens up, communications infrastructure will play a significant role in driving economic growth. This system forms a foundation to help enable this growth and future expansion to be realized. The project has, without doubt, been a major achievement, given many significant operational hurdles that were conquered with the collaboration of LITC, OTEGLOBE and Global Marine. The operational experience gathered through this journey is unique in many ways and clearly demonstrates commitment and delivery capability.

“As the owner of the system, we trust that this cable will play a major role in the process of rebuilding Libya and will contribute to its economical and social development. Silphium will provide the country with a diverse route to the internet and will help create business and employment opportunities in the eastern region of Libya.” said Kamal Farhat, CEO of LITC, “The challenging but successful delivery relied on Huawei Marine’s good sense of cooperation, advanced technical solution, professional delivery and installation capabilities, which offer us access to great bandwidth, and demonstrates Huawei Marine as a trusted partner.”

“This is the second time Huawei Marine has contributed to the communications infrastructure in Libya and throughout such a critical period of change for Libya we managed continued cooperation with our customer colleagues.” said Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Huawei Marine. “With quick response to customer requirements, Huawei Marine is committed to offering high-performance and reliable submarine cable systems that maximize benefits for customers.”

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Press Release, January 07, 2013