Libyan International Telecommunications Company (LITC) and OTEGLOBE announce the restart of works on the construction of Silphium, the new submarine fiber-optic cable in the Mediterranean.
The cable that the two companies had announced initially on June 2010, had temporarily been postponed due to the turmoil in Libya. Silphium will connect Libya with Greece and the connectivity will be performed through the landing facilities of the Chania International Cable Station in Crete, Greece, and the landing facilities of Derna in Libya.
Last week at Chania, at the presence of high-ranking executives from both companies, the cable’s connectivity to the respective landing station took place, while connectivity to the landing station in Derna had been performed earlier on June 7. According to the revised timeplan, Silphium cable is expected to be in full commercial service on the 4thQ of 2012. Silphium is fully funded by LITC and it is the company’s first wholly owned cable which connects the Northern-African country to Europe.
The new Cable is based on DWDM technology and according to the initial planning it will have a design capacity in excess of one terabit of bandwidth, in order to cover the constantly increasing capacity needs of North Africa, Middle East and Europe.
Apart from the landing facilities at Chania International Station, OTEGLOBE will also provide the connectivity to the major European internet hubs through the use of its terrestrial and fully redundant and diverse international fiber optic networks TBN & GWEN, which connect Greece with the rest of Europe through the Balkans and Italy accordingly.
The new submarine cable further establishes Greece’s position as a new telecom hub in the Mediterranean - through the Chania International Cable Station. This station, which is already hosting other major international cable systems, was selected due to its high level of service availability, along with options for highly reliable diverse connectivity to the major European telecom gateways. With this investment LITC further reinforces its international presence, in addition to its participation in other international cable consortia.
According to Mr. Kamal Farhat, CEO of LITC “The recommencement of works on silphium represents a significant milestone as Libya is opening up to the world and the whole region is delving into a new democratic era. The internet helped delivering the picture of the Libyan people’s struggle against one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, and it will now help building the country’s economy and improving its education system. Silphium will be one of the Libya’s main gateways to connect with the major internet hubs in Europe.”
“I am really pleased for the recommencement of works of Silphium cable, especially since it is accompanied by promising messages for prosperity and stability in the region”, states Mr. Dino Andreou, OTEGLOBE’s CEO. “When it comes to OTEGLOBE, by capitalizing on our geographic advantage and our solid and reliable infrastructure, we are here to cover again the continuously increasing needs for international capacity between North Africa, Middle East and Greece, while we get one step closer to materializing our strategy which is to establish Greece as the new hub in the Mediterranean.”