LITC and Huawei Marine announce commercial launch of Silphium cable system

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 designed 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 unrepeatered subsea cable systems in the world. The system length of the cable exceeds 425km across the Mediterranean Sea with a total design capacity of 1.2 Terabits per second at 10 Gbps per wavelength with a 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, using OTEGLOBE to provide the landing point in Chania which allows access to its 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 for expansion to be realized in the future. Given many significant operational hurdles that were conquered with the collaboration of LITC, OTEGLOBE and Global Marine, the project has been a major achievement, allowing all parties to gather uniquely valuable operational experience and clearly demonstrate 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 help create business and employment opportunities in the eastern region of the country," said Kamal Farhat, CEO of LITC. "The challenging but successful delivery relied on Huawei Marine’s solid sense of cooperation, advanced technical solutions, and professional delivery and installation capabilities, all of which has now provided us access to great bandwidth, evidence that Huawei Marine’s status as a trusted partner is well-deserved."

"This is the second time Huawei Marine has contributed to the communications infrastructure in Libya. Throughout such a critical period of change for Libya, we were committed to managing 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."