Internet in Lebanon - Articles

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.

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.

Boys and girls across the country must be assuming they were bad this year, because almost all woke up to lumps of coal on Internet Christmas. Download speeds were supposed to be faster on October 1. Up to eight times faster. Yet for many, downloading videos on the Youtubes took just as long as ever—even longer, according to some.

“You want a personal anecdote,” a friend asked me in a pub last night when I told him the topic I’d be writing on this morning. “I woke up on Saturday and ran to my computer to download some [adult content], but my speed still sucked.”

Seems those fireworks exploding to the tune of “Ding Dong Merrily on High!" were duds.

Personally, I was once again ridiculed by almost everyone I know.

“Nash, I thought the Internet would get better.”

“You lied again.”

“F*** you.”

It hurts.

MoT’s part was fully completed (new packages have been released, legislation passed, paperwork signed, etc…) on the other hand Ogero has refused (according to MoT consultants) to start working on their part yet.
According to MoT consultants, Ogero was supposed to program servers and provide equipments to increase speed and capacity 10 days ago, yet that has not been done yet.
These servers are in centrals serving 40% of the users. Around 5-6 centrals do not need to be programmed or equipped; they are ready to receive capacity released by Ogero which can be accomplished in a matter of 2-3 days. These centrals are located in Ras Beirut, Achrafieh, Mina El Hosn, and Jdeideh and represent 40% of the users.

BEIRUT, Oct 5 (Reuters) - For Sara Darwiche, it has been more than problematic running her fast-paced Internet company out of Lebanon, a country with Internet access that is among the worst in the world.

The "invite only" website ChouChic.com gives its members the opportunity to buy surplus stocks of fashionable clothes at discounted prices. It works on the idea that the scarcity of the clothes coupled with the time limit on sales -- 48 hours to a week -- will nurture impulse buying and push up sales. The strategy is called flash selling.

But for ChouChic's main customers, who are Lebanese, there is nothing flashy about buying online here.

"Sometimes the website cuts and people think the sale is over. It really affects the quality," she told Reuters. "We open our sales everyday at noon and for some reason the Internet usually cuts out then for five minutes."

For a company aiming to sell the majority of stock in the first ten minutes of a sale opening, connectivity issues can be devastating.

"We needed a lot of modifications to compensate for the slow Internet," she said, adding that the website was now hosted in the United States. "For luxury fashion, it needs to look like the goods are in front of you so the resolution of the photos needs to be high. But we had to lower the resolution as upload speeds were too slow."

What happens on December 31, 2011?

Will the fate of 17 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), four Data Service Providers (DSPs), thousands of subscribers, thousands of employees, and private operators’ investments hang by the thread of licenses that may not be renewed, leaving the sector in turmoil?

صدر عن المكتب الإعلامي في هيئة "أوجيرو" أن "الهيئة سوف تقوم إبتداء من صباح يوم غد الأربعاء برفع سرعات خدمات الإنترنت السريع (DSL) بشكل تلقائي بسرعة 1Mbps في منطقة الشمال لكافة المشتركين المرتبطين بسنترالات الهاتف في طرابلس - البحصاص، طرابلس - التل، طرابلس - الميناء، طرابلس - باب التبانة، حلبا، أميون، زغرتا، وفي منطقة الجنوب لكافة المشتركين المرتبطين بسنترال صيدا وسنترال صور. وقد جاءت هذه الخطوة الهامة بعد إستلام هيئة "أوجيرو" على سبيل الإعارة جهازا تقنيا ثانيا لخدمات ال DSL، حيث قامت مديرية تكنولوجيا المعلومات في الهيئة والوحدات المساندة لها بتركيبه وتشغيله عاملة على ذلك دون توقف، ليلا ونهارا، منذ نهار السبت الفائت".

In March this year web users in Lebanon were shocked to learn the internet speed in their country ranked rock bottom in the world.

It came in placed 186th - behind Zambia, Vanuatu and even war-ravaged countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui issued a statement to The Daily Star Wednesday saying that faster Internet connections are already being delivered to most areas across the country.

The minister said faster connections, which had already been delivered to the capital, were rolled out by the ministry in other parts of the country on Wednesday.

The following is the full text of Sehnaoui’s statement:

1. All DSL subscribers of the ministry have started to enjoy the lower subscription rates, attaining 80 percent discount on previous tariffs. It is expected in this regard that the private ISPs will follow suit and apply reduced rates to the benefit of their subscribers.

2. Ministry DSL subscribers in Beirut have already started to enjoy higher speeds on their connection. Those in the North, in Sidon and in Tyre will today [Wednesday] undergo the same upgrade.

3. Private ISPs have partially implemented upgrading of their subscribers and are in the process of expanding their capacities to cover the remaining areas.

Boudy Nasrala runs a successful brand design company in Lebanon, but when it comes to communicating with clients around the globe using the Internet, he knows to arm himself with patience -- lots of it.
"I recently finished a branding campaign for a new restaurant in Qatar but it would have been easier to put my work on CD and send it by express mail," sighed Nasrala, 34, who counts among his clients Pepsi and Microsoft.
"What takes three days by mail takes one week via Internet."
According to data recently published by speedtest.net, Lebanon ranks next to last -- behind Afghanistan and Sudan -- among 172 countries tested for their Internet speed.
Such findings fan the anger of Lebanese who snap up new technological products as soon as they go on the market but whose enthusiasm is tempered by the country's snail's pace Internet connections.

Lebanon is expected to unveil a new optical submarine telecommunications cable, dubbed EUROPA, which is aimed at doubling international capacity, preventing Internet breakdown and radically improving the country’s forthcoming fiber-optics network, a senior telecoms official said Monday.

اعلنت هيئة أوجيرو أنها ستقوم بدءا من اليوم برفع سرعات خدمات الانترنت السريع "دي اس ال" إلى 1 ميغابايت بالثانية في الحد الأدنى إلى كل المشتركين المرتبطين بالمراكز الهاتفية في خلدة، حدث، جعيتا، النبطية، عاليه، بعبدا، بيت مري والعدلية. وبذلك يصبح إجمالي عدد السنترالات التي قامت الهيئة برفع سرعات خدمات الانترنت السريعة فيها 34 مركزاً بدءا من 4 الجاري بعد توافر السيولة المالية، اضافة إلى 14 مركزاً هاتفياً خلال تشرين الأول ليصبح إجمالي عدد السنترالات التي رفعت سرعة الـ DSL فيها إلى 1 ميغابايت بالثانية 48 مركزاً هاتفياً.
وتقوم الوحدات التقنية الخاصة في مديرية تكنولوجيا المعلومات والمجموعات الفنية التابعة لها بالعمل، ليل نهار، بما فيها أيام العطل والأعياد على تركيب وتشغيل وتطوير البنية التحتية اللازمة لاستكمال رفع سرعة خدمات الـ "دي اس ال".
وستستتبع الهيئة رفع زيادة سرعة خدمات الانترت السريع تدريجاً في المناطق الهاتفية الأخرى بما يسمح في تغطية كل الأراضي اللبنانية، وذلك تنفيذا للمرسوم الذي اصدرته الحكومة في 15 ايلول الماضي في هذا المجال والتزاماً منها المواعيد والمهل الزمنية التي سبق وتعهدتها الهيئة تجاه مشتركيها في بيانات صحافية اصدرتها سابقا".