Two calendars that don't meet

In November 2025, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdulsalam Haykal, said the first phase of the SilkLink project would be complete within six to eight months. Read at its most generous, that window closed in July 2026. As of publication, nothing has confirmed that phase one is finished.

Disclosures accompanying the implementation agreement signed on 7 February 2026 describe something different: a two-phase programme running eighteen to twenty-four months from signature. On that schedule, completion falls between August 2027 and February 2028.

The two statements do not reconcile. That does not necessarily make either wrong — the earlier figure may predate a final scope, and the later schedule may follow a closer survey of what actually survives on the ground. But both are on the public record, and one date has passed.

What SilkLink is

SilkLink is the national backbone: more than 4,500 kilometres of fibre, data centres, a submarine cable landing station at Tartus, and regional interconnects with Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The project is valued at SAR 3bn — around USD 800m — per stc Group’s filing to the Saudi stock exchange. It is delivered through a joint venture in which stc holds 75% and the Syrian Sovereign Fund 25%, and it is one of five Saudi–Syrian agreements together worth more than USD 5.3bn.

Why the date matters

The point is not that an infrastructure project may be running late. Delay is the norm in infrastructure, and more so in a country emerging from war.

The point is the dependency. The ministry launched Barq Net on 15 June 2025 to bring fibre to homes and offices, with a stated plan to connect 85% of households and institutions within two years — by June 2027. The ministry also stated explicitly that Barq Net would connect to SilkLink once SilkLink was complete.

If the second schedule is the operative one, the backbone will not be finished before August 2027 at the earliest — after the date by which 85% of homes are meant to have fibre.

That does not make the Barq Net target impossible. Last-mile fibre can be laid ahead of the backbone, and international capacity can run over existing routes in the interim. But as published today, the two schedules do not fit together.

What would settle it

A single official statement on the status of SilkLink phase one — complete or not, and at what scope — would resolve the contradiction. A comparable statement on Barq Net’s progress since the RFI closed on 15 July 2025 would show whether the 2027 target still stands.

Umran is tracking both commitments and will update the ledger when documented information appears.

This piece draws on primary sources: SANA, stc Group’s Tadawul filing, the Saudi Press Agency, and statements from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. All links are in the commitments ledger.