Sehnaoui unveils plan to boost Internet capacity by 10 Gbit/s

Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui announced Tuesday plans to boost the country’s high-speed Internet capacity to 33 Gbit/s, and said he submitted to the Cabinet plans to reduce the charges of extra consumption on DSL usage. Sehnaoui, who spoke at Universite Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, said that Internet capacity had been upgraded substantially since he had assumed office and unveiled further plans to boost capacity by 10 Gbit/s from the present 23 Gbit/s. “You will recall that 10 months ago the capacity was 3 Gbit/s for all of Lebanon and we were able to add 10 Gbit/s that we have used up completely. Then we recently added 10 Gbit/s and we hope to add a further 10 Gbit/s in the coming weeks and thus Lebanon will have moved from 3 Gbit/s 10 months ago to 23 Gbit/s at present and within a few weeks to 33 Gbit/s, or 11 times as fast in a span of one year,” he said. He also said he submitted to the government Tuesday a request for amendments to the tariff decree governing DSL. One amendment seeks to grant all DSL subscribers to Ogero – the semi-autonomous public company responsible for administering landline and Internet sectors in the country – unlimited nighttime usage between 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. The other amendment aims to reduce the charges on those exceeding their download quotas, Sehnaoui said, adding that he believed the Cabinet would turn down the amendments. Many privately held Internet providers already offer the service. Those exceeding their quotas would, if the amendment is approved, be charged for the price of 100 MB rather the 1 GB, which is the pricing scheme at present. Sehnaoui also said that the Cabinet’s agenda Wednesday would include an item about linking Lebanon with Cyprus through a new international cable, which could benefit Lebanon with an additional 700 Gbit/s of capacity. Last February, Telecommunications Ministry officials told The Daily Star that the upgrade works on the IMEWE submarine cable – which links Lebanon and Cyprus – were nearing conclusion. The upgrade works, they said, aim at eliminating Internet congestion still holding back connection speeds across the country. The Telecoms Ministry has also made a preliminary agreement with Cyprus over a new submarine cable dubbed EUROPA. The Cabinet has yet to endorse the $10 million project, which will give a further boost to speed and lower costs for Internet providers and subscribers, the ministry said.