By Huawei

Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd. (“Huawei Marine”) announced that it has won the bidding for Libya LITC Silphium submarine cable project and is contracting to provide the end-to-end turnkey submarine system solution.

The 420km cable will cross the Mediterranean Sea connecting Darnah, north of Libya and Chania, Greece with an initial capacity of 7×10Gbit/s and a maximum capacity of 1.2Tbit/s. It is due to be completed in the middle of 2011. The completion of this new system will bring the most advanced submarine telecommunication technologies to Libya and provide not only route protection to Libya’s existing international communication, but also great bandwidth improvement to satisfy the increasing demand for multinational communications.

LITC is the only operator for international telecoms business in Libya. It is expanding its international network rapidly in order to provide better internet and other telecom services to Libyans. “As our first wholly owned international submarine cable, Silphium is a key milestone in our international network development strategy. It not only connects Libyaand the European internet hubs, provides a highly desirable diverse route across the Mediterranean, but also connects Libya’s existing next generation broadband network to enable direct internet access to the severely underserved countries in Sub Saharan Africa,” LITC CEO Kamal Farhat said, “Huawei Marine’s successful experience in Libya and the Med area proved it is a reliable partner.”

“This is the second project we have undertaken over two years in Libya. I am very happy that we can cooperate with LITC and together contribute to Libya’s telecommunication development,” said Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Huawei Marine. “We have world leading DWDM technologies and comprehensive capabilities for submarine engineering. I am confident that we will deliver the state-of-the-art Silphium on schedule.”

About LITC:

Headquartered in Tripoli, LITC is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Libyan Post, Telecom and Information Technology Company (“LPTIC”). LPTIC is the incumbent operator in Libya and provides a full range of fixed line, mobile, Wimax, data and internet services throughout the country. LITC is the international services arm of the business and is driving the company’s strategy to expend international networks and to improve the cost and availability of internet and other value added

communications services for the Libyan people. In addition to existing international network, it is investing in state of the art fiber optic cables which will serve the Libyan and Sub Saharan market. These include the Europe India Gateway cable along with several of the world’s leading operators; a cable to Sicily with Telecom Italia Sparkle and a wholly owned cable from Darnah to Crete. All those cables will have onward connectivity to the global internet hubs. In addition, LPTIC has recently completed both an equity and capacity purchase in WIOCC, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company. This company owns significant fiber capacity along the east coast of Africa.

About Huawei Marine:

Huawei Marine Networks Co., Limited (hereinafter referred to as “Huawei Marine”) is a joint venture established by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and Global Marine Systems Limited. Based on the advantages of the two parent companies, Huawei Marine integrates the state-of-the-art technologies in telecommunications and the experiences of marine operation near 100 years, committing itself to the construction of global submarine cable communication networks. Huawei Marine provides highly reliable, cost-effective solutions and end-to-end services including project management, installation, and technical support for submarine cable system operators.