http://mplbelgique.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/internet-haut-debit-le-cable-imewe-est-enfin-operationnel/
It's in French, but with a little Google magic and....
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The Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications was notified on December 10 of the commissioning of new submarine cable fiber optic IMEWE, learned Monday the Commerce du Levant.
The cable IMEWE (India Middle East Western Europe) serves eight countries: India, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France. Originally planned for 2009, commissioning was postponed several times due to technical obstacles, particularly in its Egyptian.
"We must now begin negotiations with a dozen operators who cover, directly or through partners, the entire global network," said Minister of Telecommunications Charbel Nahas of Commerce du Levant.
"In parallel we are considering a new trade policy for this additional capacity which will result in improved quality and / or prices for consumers. One track is to reduce the diversity factor, that is to say the number of customer is sold a certain bandwidth capacity. "
Even if the arrival of IMEWE not produce its full effect in Lebanon before the completion of the national fiber optic whose project has already commenced, "the connection speed can double or even triple in the near future in major cities the country, including Beirut, "said the minister.
The cable IMEWE was developed over 13 000 km by a consortium of France Telecom-Orange, Bharti, Etisalat, Pakistan Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle and Tata Communications and the Ministry of Telecommunications represented by Ogero for Lebanon .
IMEWE enjoys the most efficient technology currently used in the field of submarine cables: the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) that can increase capacity as needed without any further action underwater. The potential rises to 3.84 Tbps. In addition, the system has been designed to allow a shift to new technology which will support 40 Gbps ultra-broadband networks of tomorrow. The cable construction IMEWE represented a total investment of about $ 480 million, from Lebanon of 45 million.
In addition to this new access to international, Lebanon is connected to the world via cable Cadmus, attached property of the Department of Telecom / Telecom Ogero and Cyprus, and a second cable, known Berytar, ranging from Beirut to Tartus Syria, and thence to Alexandria in Egypt.
Lebanon has also agreed with Syria to support his candidacy for the land cable Jadi (Jeddah-Amman-Damascus-Istanbul) in Beirut that it includes in its path.
