Hatif Libya: Creating a Communication Environment with Advanced Services and Technologies

Hatif Libya has been established upon a decision from the Secretary of the Board of Directors of LPTIC since 2008, for purposes of operation and maintenance of the State systems and the development of a national phone network. It includes local systems represented in the transit switchboards, secondary switchboards, connection parameters within cities, providing all services to subscribers. Recently, ZTE Technologies interviewed Dr. Mohmoud Aujali, chairman of Hatif Libya. He shared with us Hatif Libya’s focuses, his thoughts on FTTX and LFON projects, and future plans. He also talked about his expectations for ZTE.

 

Today, Hatif Libya focuses on network performance, network capacity and network stability. These are the most important issues for us. The strategy of Hatif Libya is raising the performance level to meet the international standards, so network performance is always our priority. Network capacity is a key issue that impacts data center, and network stability affects network performance. By improving network performance, increasing network capacity, and enhancing network stability, we can deliver high quality services to our customers.
 
What’s the significance of national FTTX and LFON projects?

The LFON project has existed in Libya for more than 10 years. It is a key telecom project, and its main function is to protect Libyan phone networks. In my view, this project provides Libya with one of Africa’s most widespread fibre optic backbones, which enables Libya to interface with neighboring countries. In addition, it supports the economic growth and social development of Libya.
The FTTX project is in great demand in Libya. With the evolution from voice to data, our customers are demanding more and more data and traffic. As the use of mobile internet devices such as smartphones continues to grow, more and more subscribers want to access high volume data and internet applications such as video. In the future, video-based applications will continue to dominate network bandwidth needs. Therefore, we have to pay more attention to data communications.
FTTX includes FTTN, FTTC, FTTB, FTTH and FTTP. Hatif Libya endeavors to grasp the latest FTTX technologies to satisfy customers’ increasing needs for data. Actually, we have wireless solutions, but they are not sufficient to deliver the services that customers look for. In my view, the FTTX project is one of our key strategies; it is not for one or two years, but for a very long time.
 
Since 5G, IoT and big data are emerging trends, what are Hatif Libya’s plans for the next five years?

Yesterday, we deployed 3G network; today, we are working on 4G technologies; tomorrow, we will focus on 5G. This is a mainstream trend.
For Hatif Libya, the first plan is to deploy core networks. Now, we have 10G and 40G. However, with the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as virtualization, video on demand, social networking, and voice over IP, 10G and 40G is no longer enough. Currently, what we are looking for is to upgrade 10G/40G to 100G.
To upgrade our network from 10G/40G to 100G is not easy. There are several aspects that have to be considered. First, the switch clocks need to be synchronized. Second, the latency is required to  remain at reasonable levels. Third, the existing network infrastructure has to meet the increasing bandwidth demands.
Our second plan is to upgrade the gateway, because the gateway is the first point to deliver data services to our customers. In fact, we have made many efforts on the gateway, and we have made a concrete plan for the next two years.
The third plan is about the migration from 2G to 4G LTE. As our society has become data-centric, 4G LTE delivers more capacity for faster and better mobile broadband experience.
The last plan, as I mentioned before, is FTTX project. We plan to deploy it very soon.
 
What is the biggest challenge you face?

Our biggest challenge is to reconstruct the infrastructure. As you know, considerable telecom infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war in Libya, and the telecom sector was disrupted at that time.
Later, the government made massive investments on infrastructure reconstruction. We hope this challenge can be tackled soon. Of course, Hatif Libya will invest on network equipment. We will focus on access equipment and deploy integrated core networks according to the population of different cities.
 
How do you comment on ZTE’s delivery and O&M capabilities?

We are satisfied with ZTE. As a global leader in telecommunications and information technology, ZTE did a very good job in Libya, and we are very appreciated for ZTE’s contributions. ZTE provides Hatif Libya with advanced technologies and first-class products and services. In addition, it has a very extensive delivery capacity that enables us to complete projects smoothly. ZTE’s O&M capabilities are very good. ZTE has introduced some innovative O&M solutions to help us improve O&M efficiency.
 
What are your expectations for ZTE in the future?

ZTE entered Libya’s telecom market in 1995. After more than 20 years of hard work, ZTE has laid a solid foundation for further development in Libya. We consider ZTE a long-term strategic partner rather than a vendor for just one or two years. Therefore, we hope ZTE will pay more attention to customer care and knowledge transfer in the future. Because Hatif Libya strives to seize more market share, we need to improve customer experience with ZTE’s assistance.
Nowadays, the competition in the telecom
market is increasingly fierce, and the information technology is evolving rapidly. We need to struggle and survive in the market, so I hope ZTE can cooperate with us closely, and look at ways to eliminate our pain points. By doing this, I believe we can create a win-win situation together.