Lebanon boosts Internet access with link to I-ME-WE.(SUBMARINE CABLES)

A submarine cable that will give Internet service providers in Lebanon the capacity they need to supply high-speed Internet services, including 3G, has been put into action after months of waiting. "The tap was closed, and now it's open," said Riad Boustany, an adviser to telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnawi.

In a statement released by the Telecommunications Ministry, Sehnawi confirmed that people could expect "important developments" in the sector that "will coincide with the liberalization of the international capacities known as IMEWE and Cadmos." The statement added that Sehnawi would present a draft bill to the Cabinet in the coming three weeks that would reduce the prices of Internet services in the country.

The ministry contacted ISPs the previous morning to inform them that capacity they had requested several months ago from the India-Middle East-Western Europe submarine cable would now be available, Habib Torbey, the head of the Lebanese Telecom Association and president of GlobalCom Data Services, which groups all of the country's private ISPs. Torbey said IDM, the ISP owned by GDS, had noticed the increase in capacity that afternoon.

"This will really change the Internet landscape in Lebanon," Torbey said.

The 13,000-kilometer IMEWE cable runs between India and France and has a potential capacity of 3.84 Terabits per second. It has been operational since 2009, but its implementation in Lebanon has been repeatedly delayed. Its intended launch date of December 13, 2010, was postponed by the IMEWE consortium, which controls the supply, because of a dispute between the telecom Ministry, then headed by Charbel Nahhas, and OGERO, the semi-autonomous company responsible for administering telecom in the country.