Daily Star - Lebanon to resolve Internet congestion in six months
15 February 2012

BEIRUT: Lebanon is set for another Internet upgrade as work on the IMEWE submarine cable nears conclusion, the adviser to Telecoms Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui told The Daily Star Tuesday.

The upgrade primarily aims to eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks, or congestion on Lebanon’s international linkages with global Internet providers, which is still stifling connection speeds across the country

“The upgrade on IMEWE, linking Lebanon and Cyprus, will allow the elimination of bottlenecks on international links that are still slowing down Internet speeds,” said Firas Abi-Nassif, adding that “the upgrade is due to be finalized within a six-month period.”

Most Internet users still report that they still do not benefit from the full speeds stipulated in their new ADSL contracts with OGERO, the public landline and Internet provider, and most privately run Internet providers.
Full Article
5 days later
a month later
Minister Sahnaoui's tweet less than an hour ago :
Good News: Since last Monday, Leb's capacity increased by 10Gbps. From 3 Gbps for many years, to 13 Gbps seven months ago, to 23 Gbps today
7 days later
Another tweet from Minister Sahnaouni
Nicolas Sehnaoui
Minister Sehnaoui will announce a new Good News for Internet Subscribers tomorrow from USEK!
Minister Sahnaouni Live from USEK
@NicolaSehnaoui just announced Lebanon will be reaching 33 Gbps in May 2012. And an extra 700 Gbps in a few months after that
Tayyar - Ogero Users will get unlimited night traffic from 12 AM to 7 AM
أعلن وزير الإتصالات نقولا الصحناوي من جامعة الكسليك "USEK" أنه سيرسل الى مجلس الوزراء نهار الأربعاء مشروع تعديل تعرفة الـ"DSL"، بحيث يصبح بامكان المشتركين مع وزارة الإتصالات تصفّح الإنترنت مجاناً من الساعة الثانية عشر ليلاً وحتى الساعة السابعة صباحاً.
Daily Star-- Sehnaoui: Further Internet bandwidth in coming weeks
BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui announced Tuesday plans to boost the country’s high-speed Internet capacity to 33Gbit/s and said he submitted to Cabinet plans to reduce the charges of extra consumption on DSL usage.

Sehnaoui, who spoke at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), said Internet capacity had been upgraded substantially since his taking office and unveiled further plans to boost capacity by 10Gbit/s from the present 23Gbit/s.
a month later
Minister Sehnaoui (Facebook) - April 30 Announcements
Share: For all those that missed today's numerous big announcements, here is a summary:

- New Blackberry Offers: Instead of paying 27$ for 200MB => BB SOCIAL 200MB for 8$ | BB COMPLETE 200MB for 12$ | BIS 500MB for 24$
- New 3G Offers will be announced in approximately 2 weeks
- Unlimited Night Traffic was signed by the President and should be published in Official Gazette this Thursday
- This Thursday I will be on Kalem El Nees with @Marcel_Ghanem to give all the answers and provide a detailed reply on all the accusations
The plans' details can be found in here:
http://www.mtctouch.com.lb/autoforms/portal/home/Personal/Prepaid/Features%20and%20Services/Blackberry%20Offers
2 months later
The Daily Star - Lebanon Internet outages linger
A statement released by the ministry said that the IMEWE cable – a submarine fiber optic cable linking Lebanon to international Internet capacities - was severed at a junction 50 kilometers from the coast of northern Egyptian city of Alexandria and affected eight other countries.
4 months later
Nicolas Sehnaoui: November 2012 Update.
Nicolas Sehnaoui wrote Many of you heard of our opening of the new Fiber Optics center in Beirut but asked me to explain more about it.

Tonight I'd like to take a moment and tell you more about this new achievement and where it falls in our national Fiber Optics Plan.

It's the Network Operation Control NOC that we opened simultaneously with the activation of the first Fiber Optic Ring of Greater Beirut Area linking 26 co's.

It is situated in Nahr Area and will allow teams to monitor and control the Fiber Optics network that is being installed all over Lebanon.

The first users to benefit from this 1st Ring in a few months will be the Heavy Users like Educational, Medical and Governmental Institutions.

These Heavy Users will have access to a speed 10 to 20 times faster than current DSL.

Remaining 12 rings will be activated from now till April 2013 and they will connect around 300 Centrales by a strong network of Fiber Optics.

When all Rings are active we will immediatly start equipping villages where there is currently no DSL with the proper equipment.

FTTH (Fiber to the Home) will connect the Citizens directly to this Fiber Optics network and will allow for a totally new level of connectivity.

FTTH tender will be launched on Jan/Feb 2013 to allow a quick Implementation kick off.
2 months later
Minister Sehnaoui (Facebook) - Expectations for 2013:
Minister Sehnaoui wrote في السنة ٢٠١٣ أتوقع ان نأخذ القطاع إلى مستوى القرن ٢١، مع ١٠ خطوات ملموسة:

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 1 - تحسين نوعية الجيل الثالث 3G مع تنفيذ برنامج Deep Indoor Expansion

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 2 – نشر الجيل الرابع 4G في المدن الرئيسية

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 3 – اطلاق مناقصة مشروع الألياف إلى المنازل (FTTH)، وبدء ربط المستخدمين بشبكة الألياف البصرية

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 4 - تجهيز ما تبقى من السنترالات الـ 130 بالقدرة على بيع خدمات الانتنت السريع DSL

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 5 - توفير تكنولوجيا VDSL ووضع نظام التعرفة الخاص بها، وهي تتيح لـ 75% من المشتركين الذين يقطنون او يعملون في اماكن يقل بعدها عن السنترالات عن الكيلومترين، الحصول على سرعات أعلى.

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 6 - إطلاق مناقصة دولية لعقدي إدارة شركتي الخليوي

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 7 - وضع الصيغة النهائية مع قبرص لشراء 700 جيغابيت على الكابل الكسندروس

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 8 - زيادة القدرة الاستهلاكية لمشتركي الجيل الثالث 3G، بواقع مرتين وبالسعر نفسه

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 9 - بدء ربط المشتركين ذات الاستخدام العالي Heavy Users بشبكة الألياف البصرية

توقع ٢٠١٣ # 10 - نشر الـ active cabinets التي تتيح لـ 25٪ من المشتركين الذين يقطنون او يعملون في اماكن تبعد اكثر من كيلومترين عن السنترال، الاستحصال على الانترنت السريع DSL بالسرعة العادية
2 months later
Minister Sehnaoui (Facebook) - Good News and Announcements:
Minister Sehnaoui wrote - Lebanon purchased 24% of Alexandros submarine cable connecting Cyprus with France.

This agreement opens up for Lebanon an additional 700 Gbps capacity.

This agreement provides Lebanon with international connectivity redundancy.
23 days later
The Daily Star - Lebanon Internet speed to rise to 20 megabits per second
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Internet connection speeds could leap to 20 megabits per second within the next three months, the chairman of a major ISP told The Daily Star, as the country climbed 10 places on a global Internet speed ranking.

Maroun Chammas, chairman of IDM, said the upgrade would result from several developments, including additional international capacity purchased recently by Lebanon, and the gradually expanding fiber optics infrastructure.

“Within months we will be able to reach 20 Mbps and, in the near future, the speeds will go up even higher in the future ... albeit if all the initiatives take place in a timely way,” he said.
xazbrat wroteDaily Star-- Sehnaoui: Further Internet bandwidth in coming weeks
BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui announced Tuesday plans to boost the country’s high-speed Internet capacity to 33Gbit/s and said he submitted to Cabinet plans to reduce the charges of extra consumption on DSL usage.

Sehnaoui, who spoke at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), said Internet capacity had been upgraded substantially since his taking office and unveiled further plans to boost capacity by 10Gbit/s from the present 23Gbit/s.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2013/Apr-03/212359-lebanon-internet-speed-to-rise-to-20-megabits-per-second.ashx
4 months later
27/07/2013
Telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui said that more than half of Lebanon’s telephone substations were linked to a long-awaited fiber-optics network, and vowed to extend coverage to the remaining areas within the next six months. “After two years of work, the fiber optics network is ready in 170 telephone areas, and we sent a letter to [state-run telephone land line operator] OGERO to detail their financial and technical requirements to expand it to the remaining areas, which do not yet have DSL,” he said.

The minister said that around six months were needed before some 500,000 households in 541 towns covered by 118 stations would benefit from the expansion of the network.

“The project is a part of balanced development … and no Lebanese will be without fast Internet by the end of the year,” Sehnaoui said.

Average Internet speed in Lebanon stands currently at 2.62 Mbps.
Source
FTTH is almost here, few months away hopefully!
3 months later
Nicolas Rouhana (Spokesperson of BeirutIX) - 20 November 2013
What a pretty sight.. Finally fiber to @BeirutIX @berytech ;) #Internet #eXchange #Lebanon cc @NicolaSehnaoui
Source
4 months later
The Daily Star - Harb seeks better deal for Lebanese on cellphone bills

Two relevant statements from the article:
The minister intends to hold a news conference next Wednesday to unveil his plans for the sector.
Sources said that Harb plans to increase the speed of the Internet in Lebanon, which is among the slowest in the world.
ministryinfo on 24 March, 2014. - View

وزير الإتصالات سيُعلن في مؤتمر صحافي الأسبوع المقبل خفض تعرفة المكالمات الهاتفية العادية والخلوية وتسريع الإنترنت .
From the minister's press conference on 26 March, 2014 - View

Nothing specific about internet speed increases, however this was stated:

تحسين الخدمات للمواطنين يتضمن دراسة إمكانية حزمة أنترنت دون سقف ودون حدود للإستهلاك، بحيث يستفيد منها حوالي /330,000/ مشترك أنترنت حالياً
20 days later
From the minister's Twitter - View


From his Facebook - View

Lebanon’s Telecom Minister in A Hurry to Ring the Changes - View
(...)
“I hope to get higher [internet] speed within a month. The fiber optic cable is already done. In a month we’ll have results.”
(...)
Mr. Harb said his next project is to work on a lump sum monthly payment for Lebanese internet subscribers, allowing unlimited online sessions (rather than the current system in which they pay for their time spent online), similar to what has been available in the West for the past 20 years.
(...)
Mr. Harb also acknowledges that he probably won’t accomplish nearly as much as he wants during his short allotted time at his post. “I’d like to implement Law 431.”