Samer Karam wroteDisclaimer: The notes below are provided as is from the meeting, without fact checking. These notes reflect - verbatim - the answers to the questions asked during the meeting.

• Meeting 1

• Ministry of Telecommunications

• May 12 2011

• Vision: make Lebanon the Arab World’s internet hub, building an internet ‘surplus’ (not deficit, as currently is the case), which will be sold to the Arab World

• Current Projects:
o IMEWE (done, pending signature of Ogero to launch)
o National fiber backbone, connecting major cities (in progress, started 2 months ago)
o 3G – 4G
HSPA+ covering Lebanon
LTE covering Beirut
Huawei – MTC Touch
Ericsson - Alfa
Contracts acquired in open bidding process at half original cost of (35M USD vs 75M USD)
o International fiber links
JADI (Jeddah, Amman, Damascus, Istanbul)
Cadmous
Tartous
o Local fiber
1. FTTx: made a call for requests by large institutions who need fiber now for at least 100 Mbps, only received 12 applicants!
2. FTTh: 2012

• Pricing:
o New pricing matrix has been drafted, awaiting government formation and Council of Ministers to implement
o Pricing matrix aims to reduce prices by at least 40%
o E1 pricing should come close to 600 USD
o Pricing reductions are always slowed down by the Ministry of Finance (as is currently the case, and was the case during the pricing reductions on the cellular services a couple of years ago)
o Ministry of Finance is not willing to reduce prices due to fear of loss of income that is being used to finance the public debt.
o FYI: Telecom revenues finance over 40% of the public debt

• Services:
o Planning Triply Play via new infrastructure

• Speed:
o Aiming to raise the average internet speed to 10 Mbps by end of 2011

• Privatization:
o Privatization is not in the best interest of the government, as it needs the telecom sector to continue financing its public debt.

• Law 431:
o The law is outdated, and needs to be revised, for example voice is separated from data, which is the reason behind most of the VOIP crackdown we’ve witnessed in the past few years
o The law has never been implemented fully, and thus is problematic in that it is being used by the Shura Council to selectively pass or block specific decisions

• TRA:
o Previous TRA head was at odds with MoT
o Current TRA head is working together with MoT
o TRA self-financing target not met, MoT still finances TRA

• Ogero:
o Is the execution ‘arm’ of the MoT, and thus without the cooperation of Ogero, many projects cannot be executed, including turning on the IMEWE
o Many projects, services, installations, and activities are on hold due to stalemate between Ogero and MoT
o Ogero Head is appointed by the Council of Ministers

• LBN OGERO Mobile 41505
o 2G network built with donated Huawei equipment in 2008/2009
o Operating without a license, purpose and activities unknown to MoT

• People to Talk to:
o Mr. Tony Hanna
o Dr. Chebaro
o Mr. Imad Abi Rashed

• IMEWE: yes, flipping the switch will result in immediate increase in quality of service, even if there is no government to reduce prices (need for Council of Ministers)

• MoT financing: Ministry of Finance has limited financing of MoT projects, and thus MoT is self-financing most of its new projects, seeing as it is a cashflow positive ministry

Priority Next Steps:
Increase awareness about open call for FTTx requests for large entities needing over 100 Mbps
Increase awareness about MoT activities, projects, vision, and mission

Please keep the comments related to the points here and what do you think about the results of the interview.