Minister Sehnaoui will detail the new decree scheme, in all relevant aspects, terms, and effect, in a press conference to be held on Friday 26 August, at noon, in the ministry’s headquarters
As you have probably already heard, a new decree has finally passed by the Lebanese cabinet to create new internet packages and lower prices.
Being an advocacy campaign, we decided to mirror the community’s opinion, so we created a poll on facebook asking about the users’ opinion concerning the new prices and packages.
Implementing the new tariff and the new system will take place at the end of the month in which this decree will be published in the “journal officiel”
Internet Service Providers will enjoy a major drop in prices of bandwidth telecommunications lines, known as Leased Lines – Sehnaoui said they will be the cheapest in the Arab world, allowing Lebanon “to return to its place as a regional center.”
The decree is set to come into force on Oct. 1.
After that, 3G will make phased forays into the rest of Lebanon’s mobile phone sector. It’s expected that the technology will increase Internet penetration rates by about 30 percent.
The new DSL package is also expected to raise penetration rates by about 40 percent.
We are pleased to inform you that following the governments decision
to improve internet service in Lebanon, IDM is looking forward to this
positive change and will gradually implement major improvements
starting October 1st, 2011.
So is this enough? Do we lack initiative, investments, intelligence, or willingness to rank among the top 10 fastest countries like Lithuania (31 Mbps), South Korea (30 Mbps), Sweden (23.9 Mbps), Romania (23.8 Mbps), the Netherlands (23.7 Mbps), Latvia (23.7 Mbps), Switzerland (20.4 Mbps), Bulgaria (19.4 Mbps), Andorra (19 Mbps), or Singapore (18.5 Mbps)?
Due to Prime Minister Mikati’s travel plan he signed the decree on Tuesday, so with the time it needs to go to the President be signed by him and be sent to the Official Gazette, it won’t make it before this Thursday’s issue. It will most certainly be issued in next Thursday’s official gazette issue. So the implementation will be on 1st of October for all Lebanese users.
and this is newWhile the decree that lowered Internet prices and increased download speeds, passed last month by cabinet, has still not been published in the Official Gazette, the government pamphlet that announces official business, the Ministry of Telecommunications and the private sector are confident new Internet packages will be on offer starting October 1.
The new decree also changed the way caps are calculated, Hayek and Farhat said. In the past, a 2GB cap meant users could upload 2GB and download 2GB each month (any extra uploading or downloading came with an additional fee per GB). When the decree is implemented, however, caps (which are set at 4GB, 10GB, 20GB, 25GB and 30GB) will represent a total for uploading and downloading. Most users download far more than they upload. Farhat argued that under the current system, most users are wasting much of their upload cap.
Decree Update: The Decree was signed by the Prime Minister and the President and is now on its way to the Official Gazette! If everything goes as planned it should be printed in Thursday's issue. One step closer; we will keep you posted!
As you can see, download is @ 1.7Mbps which is superb compared to the current internet speeds, while upload is varying between 0.11 and 0.22Mbps. Ping is of course higher that it is supposed to be, and I hope it’ll improve soon. Note that I was in Beirut central district at the time of this test, and I guess speed might vary depending on your location.
BEIRUT: A lucky 4,000 Lebanese smart-phone users are getting busy exploring the benefits of 3G four days into its long-awaited pilot launch.
“I’ve made more than 7 [Voice-over IP] calls that were international since I got 3G. The connection was excellent,” said Abir Ghattas, one of the founders of youth-powered movement for faster and cheaper Internet, Ontornet.
Ghattas was one of two Ontornet members to be handpicked by GSM-providers MTC touch and Alfa for 3G’s pilot study. She’s sampling the bolstered speeds this month for free.
Telecoms Minister Nicholas Sehnaoui marked Lebanon’s 3G debut this Tuesday at USJ, where the names of some 50 university students who would be part of the pilot project were picked out of a glass box. A select few business-people and civil society members are also enjoying 3G this month.
BEIRUT: Despite the country’s notoriously slow and insecure Internet, businesses in Lebanon have begun to tap into a demand for online shopping, fueled by social media networking and a newfound consumer confidence in the safety of credit card purchasing.
“We saw the wave, and we decided to ride it at the right moment,” says Haytham El-Khoja, the co-founder of Mizalla, a Lebanese website set up two months ago that advertises itself as the region’s first online mall.
While well-established international companies have been available in the country for some time, local businesses have remained wary of branching into the market, perhaps put off by consumers’ mistrust of online credit card security, the country’s poor Internet and its lackadaisical approach to formal addresses.
BEIRUT: Lebanese Internet will press ahead with plans to release a game-changer Internet package in early October, despite widespread speculation that land-line provider Ogero will hold off on the release of needed bandwidth.
The Daily Star has learned that at least two major private Internet service providers will implement an Internet decree passed last month, which reduces end-user DSL prices by 80 percent and raises speeds up to eight times.
The release of the package has been scheduled for Oct. 1.
The 2,000 customers were chosen based on a draw system and according to predefined criteria, including the compliance of their handsets with 3G and their residence within the 3G coverage area: Beirut, part of Greater Beirut, Saida and Tripoli. In addition to the 2,000 customers, inbound roamers using mtc touch network in Lebanon will also experience the 3G services. A specialized dedicated team will handle customers’ queries to answer all their questions and assist them in anything they might need throughout the 3G Pilot period.
BlackBerry Instant Messaging in Lebanon would see a drop in prices by 33 percent from $40 to $27, and bandwidth caps would increase from 100Mb to 200Mb, Sehnaoui announced as part of a series of “surprises” he promised to revealed prior to the show.
The Ministry of Telecommunications has issued a new decree related to the Internet Services. The new decree constitutes a long overdue positive development, and meets many of the requests of the Internet Community. It heralds exciting changes that you will gradually experience in the coming days.
As we progressively move forward in upgrading your new plans, you will have the opportunity to feel the new benefits of a faster internet connection throughout the month of October 2011.
IDM has taken proactive measures and started upgrading ADSL connections in a phased approach to reach the ultimate transition plans listed below.
The new ADSL plans provide you with faster connections and more GB for your monthly consumption.
Note: I could have sworn I did this in English, but google translate is always there.استفاق اللبنانيون صباح السبت الماضي وكلهم فضول لمعرفة ما آل إليه حال خدمة الإنترنت على أجهزتهم، وهل نفذ وزير الاتصالات، نقولا صحناوي، ما وعدهم به، بأن تصبح الإنترنت من 4 إلى 8 مرات أسرع، مع انخفاض في التكلفة يصل إلى 80%؟ وبما أن الوزير أعطى موعدا محددا هو يوم السبت 1 أكتوبر (تشرين الأول)، واعدا المستهلكين بمفاجآت تسر قلوبهم، فقد بدأ رصد المواطنين للمتغيرات، واستغرب البعض أن تبقى السرعة على حالها عند بدء النهار فانهالت الاتصالات التليفونية على شركات الإنترنت التي بدت عاجزة عن الرد إلا في حدود معرفتها. وقال مسؤول في شركة «آي دي إم» للإنترنت لـ«الشرق الأوسط»، أول من أمس، إن عدد المكالمات الهاتفية التي تلقتها شركته من قبل المستهلكين، زاد 3 مرات على الحد المعتاد، للاطمئنان على نوعية الخدمات التي ستقدم لهم. وأضاف المسؤول، الذي رفض ذكر اسمه على اعتبار أنه لا يستطيع أن يجيبنا إلا بما يخبر به أي مستهلك عادي: «لا تمكن زيادة سرعة الإنترنت لكل المستهلكين في يوم واحد، وسيتم الأمر على دفعات، مما يعني أن الأمر قد يحتاج شهرا كاملا».
هل استعجل الوزير إطلاق الوعود والمواعيد؟ الإنترنت السريع مؤجّل إلى الأسبوع القادم, تشرين الأول 2011
أكّد رئيس شركة سيدركوم عماد طربيه أنّ سعات شركات الإنترنت لم توضع بعد في الخدمة الفعلية ومن المرجح أن تتأخّر أيّاماً إضافيّة بعد، عازياً ذلك إلى تأخير في آلية التنفيذ بين وزارة الإتصالات وأوجيرو.
