By Nexans

Nexans, the worldwide leader in the cable industry, has been awarded a major contract by the Chinese company Huawei Marine Networks Co Ltd (‘Huawei Marine’) to supply around 440 km of submarine fibre optic cable for the high profile communications project – the Libya Silphium link across the Mediterranean Sea.

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.