Lebanon and Cypriot company CYTA will work together to increase internet speeds across Lebanon by drastically improving the cabling running from France to Lebanon via Cyprus, Lebanese telecoms minister Jamal Jarrah said Wednesday.
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“After four months of talks, we secured the raising of Lebanon’s share from 310 Gbps to 1,920 Gbps until 2034, without any increased cost on Lebanon,” Jarrah said during a press conference.
Jarrah added that Lebanon was increasing the capacity of the Cyprus-Lebanon line tenfold, from 60 Gbps to 600 Gbps, in cooperation with a Cypriot company. Jarrah added that these changes would only cost the Lebanese state $350,000.
The minister also said a cooperation agreement had been signed with the Cypriot government to ensure a new undersea cable named Europa would replace the current Alexandros cable, when the latter reaches the end of its useful life.
“We are turning Lebanon into a hub for communications in the region,” Jarrah said. “This is the first step of many – we must initially secure high internet speed here.”
The initiation of fiber-optic internet could be expected in the coming weeks, and all Lebanese would soon have access to internet speeds of 50 Mbps, the minister said.
“We will move Lebanon from one situation to another, which will be similar to the world’s other large internet centers,” Jarrah noted.
Jarrah said that hundreds of thousands of fiber-optic lines would have to be installed, which would cost the Lebanese state $300 million over the course of three years.
He added that these costs would be offset given that revenues of around $1 billion could be expected in the fourth year, once the lines have been installed.
