Internet Services: Cable, ADSL, DSL in Lebanon?

[admin]

In 2003, there are no serious fast internet connexions available in Lebanon. What is the reason for this? Is it economical, political or what?

In Beirut, some offices can afford a little better connexions, but there are no CABLE or ADLS internet providers (ISP) in Lebanon, yet. Also, modem connexions are more expensive than in the USA or Europe. Computer parts are also more expensive due to the small size of the Lebanese market...

Time is running fast outside... Things are being developed... For some people this is a big issue.

[admin]

As for the ADSL broadband project, the director-general at the Telecommunications Ministry, Naji Andraos, told The Daily Star that two internet nodes are currently being built to boost Lebanon’s bandwidth from an estimated 72 to 152 mega bits per second.

The Daily Star / Dec. 01, 2003

[Josette]

But cables & ADSL are not the only ways to get Fast Internet...

A fast Internet service through SATELLITE started in Spring 2003. They asked for $50 to $100 for installation and for less then $50/month. It kept being postponed, and then it was finally launched one day in April or May.

It worked very well for... 2 days! and then it suddenly closed. With no warning and no clear reason... It had to call myself to ask and they just told me: "Oh you didn't know?... They stopped it!"...

I don't have serious info about this story... Only vague rumors that contradict each other.

1/ Some people told me it was the President Lahoud who refused to give a licence to anyone for many years on purpose (!) so he could keep it for his son (!)... And then this project was finally launched by the son. And P. Minister Hariri stopped it because he is jalous (!)... Is this possible?

2/ Some other people said it is the Syrians who don't like the idea of affordable Fast Internet for everybody because this would be too much freedom...

3/ Another source said it is the State of Lebanon who wants the Lebanese to keep using the regular phone lines, so that the money keeps going to the Telecom State Company, instead of giving up licences to private companies.

Where is the truth in all of this...?!

[Josette]

Just suggesting:

Maybe they stopped this SATELLITE method for political reasons... because it is technically much harder for the State of Lebanon (or the State of Syria) to spy on Lebanese citizens...

And on the other side, maybe they cannot lauch the normal Cable or ADSL because the country is not ready yet (inter-continental cable to thin, bandwith to low etc.).

[jiu]

Hello,

Let me first tell you few things lebanese living in beirut and only visiting the west for vacation should know:

1 - Education (schools & Universities) in lebanon vs in the west:
Education in lebanon WINS

2 - Banking system in lebanon vs in the west:
Banking system in lebanon WINS

3 - Movie theaters in lebanon vs in the west:
Movie theaters in lebanon WINS

4 - Night life in lebanon vs in the west:
Night life in lebanon WINS

5- Common Sense, IQ and EI of lebanese vs Westerns
Lebanese wins by far over westerns

Now, this is my own opinion after living most of my life in lebanon, made travels to few westerns countries and living since 2 years in France.
I am ready to go in details with anyone wishing to learn more about the realities of the west rather how the media represents the west for us.

Now, why to hell, if we lebanese has so much mind and culture advancement are way back as a nation from the westerns?
Simple! it is due to our high level, the masterminds who control the west wished and decided that our country suffer continous wars: economical as well as political. All public figures since 1943 did the job directly and indirectly for the western powers; of course, keeping westerns in ignorance by providing them money without working, offering them absolute freedom as to eat, drink, have a house and have sex.

Why lebanon does not have neither ADSL nor Cable:
- ADSL and Cable if governed as shitty as lebanon is governed by all respective (not respectful) lebanese governments will make the country and the pockets of the governers loose money, lots of money coz ADSL and Cable will allow having a lot of IT technology without passing by lebanese public services.
- Information cannot be tracked
- in 1994, lebanon was supposed to be the center of telecommunication of the ME (apart Isreal) but the project shifted to syria by international orders.

and more to come if you wish.

Take care all

MerryXmas and HappyNewYear to you and to your beloved

JIU
System Enginneer / BBA

[smubarah]

Hi
is there a Wi Fi (Wireless fidelity) ISP or Wi Fi service in Lebanon
And how much dos it cost ?

[smubarah]

By the way
ADSL in New Zealand cost 25 US $ for the speed 1 GBps

[Nestor]

hi,

I just moved to lebanon a few weks ago and now I am lookign for a high speed internet connection.
I see many offers for satellite downlink (Cablevision, Destination, ...)

is anybody using one of these ?

Regards

[zeez]

As of November 2004, here are the ways to get online in Lebanon:

- Dial up connexions though ISP like terranet or cyberia (very very slow, even when it says 56, it is more like 4...)

- 'Illegal' cables (about 50$ for installation, and 40 to 50 per months). They usually use satellite connexions to download, and a local ISP for the upload. It can be very slow sometimes but at least it is permanent...

- Fast connexion (usally through sattelite). This costs about 300 to 500$ per month... for a speed like about 128... When in Europe, they now offer a speed of 1000 for less than $40 per month...


In these conditions, no wonder the Lebanese web is very poor. People use emails, they chat alot also, they search for informations... Of course, there is no real Lebanese online market and nothing serious will ever happen if it stays like this.

This is very sad. Fast internet access for a cheap price should be a priority in Lebanon. It should have been a prority, 10 years ago, a much higher priority than to rebuild the Centre-Ville for example. Many underdeveloped and Third World countries understood this already.

[admin]

This is a press release dated May 4, 2003

The planned local Internet node in Lebanon is set to reinvigorate the market.

With an initial planned capacity of 90 mbps, the Internet node will enhance the total country's bandwidth, allow for local exchange of traffic between ISPs and set the stage for launch of broadband ADSL service later this year. The Arab Advisors Group projects Lebanon's total country bandwidth to reach 344 mbps by 2007.

In Lebanon, only Ogero, the monopoly fixed services operator, can provide International Internet bandwidth to ISPs. Nevertheless, a lack of sufficient Internet bandwidth capacity has caused the ISPs to utilize private Internet download connections via satellite operators. To remove the incentive of these connections and regain revenues, Ogero is moving ahead with plans to establish an Internet node that will pool the ISPs' bandwidth requirements and provide them with their required symmetrical bandwidth at lower rates, which will enable them to offer their subscribers higher quality connections. The tender for supplying the Internet node with international bandwidth is already in process and is expected to be finalized by summer 2003.

A new comprehensive country report, "Lebanon Internet and Datacomm Landscape Report 2003." was released to the Arab Advisors Group's (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Service subscribers on May 4, 2003. The 52-pages report fully analyses the Lebanese Internet, datacomm and content market and provides five-year forecasts of more than 40 Demographic, Economic and Infrastructure indicators. It also fully analyses all the major datacomm and Internet operators in the country and the equipment vendors' competitive landscape. This comprehensive report can be purchased from Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 750. Any investment in this report will count towards a Strategic Research Service subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.

"Internet figures in Lebanon are quite impressive by regional standards. The subscriber base was 150,000 by end of the year 2002 -corresponding to an estimated user base of around 450,000, a user penetration of more than 11.8%." Arab Advisors Group's senior research analyst, Sami Sunna', wrote in the report. "The Internet node is planned to have a total bandwidth capacity of 90 Mbps (two nodes with a capacity of 45 Mbps each via fiber optic links) and will cater for all of the incumbent ISPs in Lebanon and interconnect them locally. The upgrade in the total Internet bandwidth will allow for the future growth in broadband Internet services. In fact, the upgrade will allow leading ISPs to provide broadband services such as the high-bandwidth ADSL service that Ogero expects to start rolling out in Lebanon by end of year 2003. This will reinvigorate the ISP business and raise Internet access revenues to more than US$ 64 million in 2007 up from less than US$ 33 million in 2002" Mr. Sunna' added.

On the datacomm front, The Lebanese Ministry Of Telecommunications provided a number of fixed wireless network licenses to a number of operators for a validity period of 5-6 years during the late 90's. This means that fixed infrastructure-based competition was allowed by the MOT through wireless networks: Private operators are already allowed to compete with the fixed line operator (Ogero) in non-voice services although they are limited to using wireless technologies. Companies requiring copper or FO based leased lines and connectivity still have to purchase it from the fixed services operator.

Source: ArabAdvisors.com

[zeez]

INTERNET - Le DSL sera proposé à un prix parmi les moins chers de la région, d’après Habib Torbey

Hamadé: Le haut débit au Liban au plus tard en avril

L'Orient le Jour - 4 janvier 2005
(Article de Sahar Al-Attar)

L’Internet haut débit, via DSL, fera son entrée sur le marché libanais au plus tard en mars ou avril 2006, selon le ministre des Télécommunications, Marwan Hamadé. Ce dernier a signé, hier, un accord avec les entreprises de télécommunications, (GlobalCom Data Services, Pesco Telecom, Cable One, Cedarcom et Sodetel, détenue à 50 % par l’État), Ogero et les fournisseurs d’accès (Cyberia, Inconet-Data Management, Terranet, New Com et Moscanet) leur autorisant à exploiter l’Internet haut débit.
« Cet accord permet de rattraper l’immense retard accumulé en matière de télécommunications, le Liban étant le dernier des pays arabes à se doter de cette technologie », a souligné M. Hamadé, qui a tenu à donner le premier rôle au secteur privé. « Une première dans la région en ce qui concerne le DSL », a-t-il ajouté.
En effet, le DSL empruntant le réseau de téléphonie fixe, le gouvernement s’est engagé à fournir aux compagnies privées, en collaboration avec Ogero, une partie des investissements nécessaires à sa mise en place. « La réduction des coûts entraînée par cette collaboration nous permettra de proposer le DSL aux tarifs les moins chers du monde arabe », a expliqué à L’Orient-Le jour le directeur de GlobalCom Data Services, Habib Torbey.
Grâce à un modem relié à la ligne de téléphone fixe, le DSL offrira aux usagers une connexion continue et un débit beaucoup plus rapide que celui dont ils disposent actuellement. « Le débit pourra aller jusqu’à deux megabytes par seconde dans un premier temps puis jusqu’à 18 MB/s dans un second temps », selon M.Torbey, contre 33 kilobytes par seconde actuellement. Il estime le nombre de clients potentiels entre 150 et 200 000, soit un marché d’« environ 150 millions de dollars par an ».
Plus tard lorsque le DSL sera raccordé à la télévision, le nombre des utilisateurs pourrait même passer à 500 000. Cette opération devrait aussi entraîner une hausse du nombre d’abonnés à la téléphonie fixe. « Le réseau libanais a une capacité de près d’un million et demi de lignes, et il ne compte aujourd’hui que 650 000 abonnés », a souligné M. Torbey.

50 dollars par mois
Les décrets tarifaires n’ayant pas encore été publiés, les prix ne sont pas encore définis, mais le communiqué d’Inconet évoque un prix autour de 50 dollars par mois, avec un investissement initial de 100 dollars. Des « packages » seront proposés aux entreprises, selon leur taille, a affirmé M.Torbey. Et des tarifs préférentiels seront proposés aux écoles, aux centres de recherches, aux associations et autres, a ajouté le ministre.
Cette nouvelle technologie, qui comptait 110 millions d’usagers dans le monde fin juin, mettra-t-elle fin au bas débit ? Non, répond M.Torbey, l’offre sera simplement plus élargie pour répondre aux besoins des consommateurs, les fournisseurs d’accès proposeront les deux services en fonction du mode d’utilisation des clients. Et le secteur demeurera ouvert à la concurrence afin de maintenir les prix à un niveau abordable.
M. Hamadé a profité de l’occasion pour inscrire cette initiative dans le cadre des réformes du secteur, promises par le gouvernement il y a cinq mois. Il a ainsi relevé la hausse des recettes, qui sont passées de 1 150 milliards de livres libanaises en 2004 à 1 655 milliards cette année, soit le tiers des revenus du Trésor. Il a également évoqué les recrutements au sein de la direction, indiquant avoir reçu plus de 750 candidatures pour cinq positions, l’application prochaine de la loi 431 afin de créer l’Office de régulation des télécoms puis Liban Télécom, et l’adoption du budget annuel des compagnies de cellulaires à près de 8 millions de dollars.
Enfin, le ministre a rappelé le règlement du différend avec les entreprises FTML-FTMI, qui a permis des économies de l’ordre de 230 millions de dollars.

[admin]

Finally! It seems ADSL will be operational in April 2006...

It is hard to believe that it will come on time... but hopefully it will come...

Ogero, Cyberia and other ISP's will be offering this service for about $50 per month for a speed of 2MB, at least for donwload...

Also: we have no idea if the monthly bandwidth will be limited, and what will be the speed of the Upload...

[zeez]

I think it will be: $50.00 per month

512kbps DOWNLOAD
512kbps UPLOAD
+ Unlimited bandwidth

if it works well that would be a good beggining...
And the opening of a sort of new era in Lebanon...

[murex]

I called Ogero. They said that the starting offer might be only:

DL = 128
UL = 64 or 32...

But that they will also offer such things as:

DL = 2 MB
UL = 2 MB

But they don't know much yet, nothing seems decided and they have no prices to give...

We are already into march now... The DSL is suppose to be out by the end of the month... I wonder if they'll be on time...

[Raficoo]

hey every1, DSL is really new to lebanon, however DSL should have arrival in Lebaon before 5 years, REALLY IT"S TRUE, the 1 single only thing that didn't allow DSL to be in LEBANON is the syrian troopes that withdrawed from Lebanon before a year ago, so now Lebanon is more free than before, and nwere things will come, DSL will range fromm 128kb/s, 256kb/s, 512kb/s, 1.0mb/s and finaly 2.0m/s, now i'm not sure about the prices, but i hope it'l not be more than 50$ for 512kb/s, but the price will decrease in time cause the compaines will have more people, which means more money and they'll decrease the price.. so i'm expecting DSL WILL ARRIVE in the beginning of april. and HOPEFULLY it's be out in all of LEBANON.. god willing... but PLEASE IF ANYONE KNOWS WHEN DSL WILL ARRIVE TO LEBANON EXACTLY PLEASE EMIAL ME or REPLY!!

PEACE
Rafic Bsat