EddieEC
I just watched on the news that the ministry of communications was give a 3G station for free by China or someone from there. So ummm, is this start of 3G in Lebanon? I hope so, we can get all those 3G devices from the carriers for a discounted price with a plan
Raficoo
i heard max users = 50,000 due to "small equipment" or something like that. still it's a Start somehow lol
EddieEC
I'm gonna be one of those users. But is it gonna be all over Lebanon or just in Beirut or some place?
50k is more than enough. I'd likeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 3G please! I'm too excited.
Kassem
excuse my ignorance on the subject but what technology do we currently have in Lebanon and what does 3G provide?
kareem_nasser
In brief 3G has wider range of support, a minimum data rate of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle, which feature such as :
Mobile TV
Video on demand
Video conferencing
Tele-medicine
Location-based services
also the bandwidth is under : EDGE or HSDPA mostly. it also supports WiMax (802.16)
But most advanced countries are now in the pre-4G stage or 3.5G.
So the politicians will make profit from it because most firms will need it so they'll charge them some high prices so even being one of 50k users you'll need a wasta. :P
Flakk
We currently have the 2G or second generation.
I suspect really high prices from this, it dosint cover alot of people and i know they will just strain the line to the max just like they are doing with the internet lines.
J4D
Three months ago , an "Alfa" network engineer actually confirmed this to me in a conference that was held at AUST , in a side talk chat with me he said that the service will start in major cities ( certain areas first) then expands gradually to all Lebanon as new base stations are brought in . similar to the start of DSL . not much is expected from my side though ;) .
Edit : tech info , its good to know that the cell phone chats we do, traverse on the landlines provided by Ogero .
so The 3G services you expect are actually Internet services that require heavy bandwidth . unless each cell post was provided with the proper medium (preferably fiber optics) for data transfer along with a huge amount of bandwidth per post , the idea of 3G is a far sighted dream . the current network can barely hold our minuscule calls , how then do you expect the solid infrastructure to cope with the huge amounts of data ?!
as an example , most of us house wireless routers , most have a speed of 54Mb/s if not the new 102Mb/s . we connect our crappy connections to them and barely reach the rated speed of the router , if they get the new base stations it will be the same issue , overly powered instruments that run crappy connections .
Kassem
Interesting stuff... does that mean that we will "eventually" start using our smart phones in a smarter way?
nuclearcat
I don't think so. Especially because 3G need better knowledge and RF planning.
hj88
3g or not , without increased international capacity there is no point . And according to the minister conference today in AUB , end users will not start seeing results of the IMEWE cable before 1 year .
kareem_nasser
yup thats what i recently read on Daily star. But the sure thing is 10%-20%(somehow) so we'll get the real 512 and 256 plans now not a lower bandwidth.
J4D
work has been done to lay fiber all around between POPs , i have spotted work going on to lay fiber more than once :)
Flakk
When the minister was interviewed with marcel ghanem a month ago, he said that the IMEWE cable has been delayed till june. And they are currently working on replacing the copper wires with fiber optics to support the speed of the cable and stuff like that.
When this cable arrives and everything is implemented then 3G will truly work in lebanon.
EddieEC
I don't care when it comes or how it comes. I just want it to be here. I'm a mobile user, I'm always moving, so fast internet on my phone would be great. I just hope everything gets updated here.
chosen2k
It is interesting news... but let's say it happens... we'll have fast internet on our mobile phones before having fast adsl ?
it would be funny in a deranged way but still typically lebanese.
Ghaleb
Hey,
I am a Communication & Networking Engineer.
My relative works as a consultant with the ministry of telecommunications. The party which gave us the stations and the soft-switches were "Huawei Technologies" and that dates back to more than 2 years ago. It was gonna be the third Telecom Operator in Lebanon and it was intended for 50,000 users as a start in Great Beirut with 3G technology.when the subscribers goes outside of Beirut they will be roaming through Alfa and MTC.
The name was going to be "Ogero Mobile". Many engineers from Ogero and Ministry of Telecommunications traveled to China even before installing the equipments to take the training on how to operate the Soft Switches, i think that was in 2006. However, to cut the story short, the political instability that occurred in Lebanon in the past two years prevented OGERO (which should be by now Liban Telecom) from acquiring the rights to operate ,the already, installed equipments. even the Maintenance contract with Huawei has expired.
MTC offered to buy the equipments, and the ministry of telecommunications is already studying the offer seriously. So, the donation will be sold ! which is ironic because the government would be selling the equipments to the government ! -> More Monopoly. Alfa already have bids for 3G equipments, they are in MoT's hands and waiting to be accepted.
EddieEC
Hey Ghaleb, can I ask something? If we get 3G, will it be only implemented in Beirut?
Kassem
That's for sure EddieEC... to the ruling group of the politicians, Lebanon is Beirut, and to be more specific Lebanon is "Solidaire"... That's all what they care about. Hopefully someday they'd grow up and start thinking about the interests of the country rather than their own personal interests.
pikatore
Hopefully someday they'd grow up and start thinking about the interests of the country rather than their own personal interests.
Hopefully the people here will all give enough to a shit to kick these crooks out of their seats, and release the greedy corporate stranglehold on the country's internet connection.
EddieEC
I wish Lebanon had politicians who care =(
I need technology. It's basically my life.
