TELECOM · PROJECT
SilkLink — national fibre backbone
More than 4,500 km of fibre, a Damascus–Aleppo link, switching centres at Palmyra and in the eastern and southern regions, a submarine cable landing station at Tartus, and regional interconnects with Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Telecom Index 4 sourced indicators of 15
Contracted
Scope
Sources
Method
SAR 3bn is the primary figure and denominates total project investment, not the price of a stake — settled by stc's own filing to the Tadawul stock exchange, which is the strongest source available for what a listed company has committed to. USD 800m is the filing's own conversion, not an Umran derivation, so both figures are official rather than one being derived from the other. An earlier Data Center Dynamics account framing SAR 3bn as the price of stc's 75% stake is superseded and is not carried here. The site-wide Project Tracker records ~$800m against this project from an Al Jazeera report; the two now agree.
No data
Still unsourced: the design capacity (100 Tbps circulates on a weak secondary source) and whether Iraq is inside the interconnect scope. Separately, Reuters cited a senior Syrian official in June 2025 describing talks with Zain, e&, stc and Ooredoo over a fibre project worth ~USD 300m. That figure does not reconcile with SAR 3bn and may describe an earlier or narrower scope; it is recorded here rather than published as a competing value, because two figures for one project with no way to relate them would mislead.
Sources
This project also appears in Umran's site-wide Project Tracker. Project Tracker
Owners and partners
Milestones
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Ministry launches SilkLink and opens the tender
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No data
Exact launch date within May 2025 not established. Tender drew stc, Zain, Etisalat and Ooredoo — that bidder list is reported, not official.
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Implementation agreement signed with stc Group
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Developments
SilkLink implementation agreement signed with stc Group
A joint venture 75% stc Group and 25% Syrian Sovereign Fund, to build more than 4,500 km of fibre and a submarine cable landing station at Tartus.
SilkLink — national fibre backboneSilkLinkstc GroupSyrian Sovereign Fund
Five Saudi–Syrian agreements worth more than USD 5.3bn, SilkLink among them
SilkLink was signed inside a package spanning aviation, telecoms, infrastructure and water desalination. This is the frame the sector's financing sits in: telecom is a line in a larger package, not a standalone deal.
SilkLink — national fibre backbonestc GroupSyrian Sovereign Fund
Minister sets out the split: SilkLink the backbone, Barq Net the last mile
The minister says SilkLink phase one completes within six to eight months, and that FTTH and fixed wireless access are under test in Damascus.
SilkLink — national fibre backboneBarq Net — fibre to the premisesMinistry of Communications and Information TechnologySyrian Telecommunications Establishment
Ministry launches the SilkLink project
The project goes to tender, drawing stc, Zain, Etisalat and Ooredoo.
SilkLink — national fibre backboneMinistry of Communications and Information Technology
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Sourced