Lebanon and Cyprus will work together to increase the internet speed across Lebanon by improving the capacity of the cabling, which runs from France to Lebanon via Cyprus.
Lebanon’s share in the submarine cable ‘Alexandros’ will be increased from 310 GB/sec to 1,920 GB/sec. The initiation of a fiber optic project is expected in the following weeks. The USD 300 million project will help to boost Internet speed; thus, the Lebanese people will soon have access to internet speed of 50 megabits per second.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Ministry of Telecom of Lebanon and the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (Cyta) regarding the increased share.
Telecoms Minister Jamal Jarrah said in a press conference that Lebanon’s current capacity will be increased tenfold, from 60 GB/sec to 600 GB/sec. at no extra cost to the Lebanese state. The cost of the relevant equipment for expanding the capacity will be assumed by Cyta.
The capacity of the current undersea cable, Cadmus, which links Lebanon to Cyprus has recently become 500 GB/sec. The new capacity will be put into service before the end of 2017. The expenses of this project will be shared between the Lebanese Government and Cyta. The minister also said that the changes would cost Lebanese state only USD 350,000.
Cadmus, which is expected to stop functioning in 2019 will be replaced by a new undersea cable, called ‘Europa’. The new cable will be installed in partnership with Cyprus.
Boosting the capacity of the cables is necessary in order to speed up the internet across Lebanon, because users need to connect to international servers.
Jarrrah said that the country’s uplink to international internet hubs would be increased by increasing the capacity of the cabling. “We are turning Lebanon into a hub for communications in the region … This is the first step of many – we must initially secure high internet speed here.” he said.
The new cable route will provide fast connectivity to European destinations and beyond, thus enhancing business opportunities and relations.
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