For the Libya Silphium project, which will connect Libya and Greece, Nexans is supplying 440 km of fibre optic cable. Huawei Marine is constructing the link on behalf of the Libyan International Telecom Company (LITC). It will cross the Mediterranean Sea, connecting Damah, in Northern Libya with Chania, Greece and will have an initial capacity of 7 x 10 Gbps and a maximum theoretical capacity of 1.2 Tbps. The fibre optic cable will be installed at sea depths of down to 3,700 metres so will only require relatively light armouring.

The Silphium system will provide route protection for Libya’s existing international communication channels and also offer bandwidth improvement designed to satisfy increasing demand for multi-national communications.

The cable is for unrepeatered fibre optic systems and will be manufactured at Nexans’ factory in Rognan, Norway with delivery in spring 2011.

“This very significant submarine cable contract in the Mediterranean Sea is the result of almost a year’s careful planning between Nexans and Huawei Marine” says Tom Birkeland, Nexans Vice President Telecom and Building cable division in Norway. “It reinforce the successful cooperation between the two companies developed over a number of high profile projects such as the Hannibal link between Tunisia and Italy and the T-E project connecting the coastal cities of Libya, Tobruk and Emasaed”.

Source: Nexans, Celine.Revillon@nexans.com