Thursday, November 1, 2012

4G LTE Soon in Lebanon (Update)

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November 1st, 2012


Annahar reported today that Telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui will be unveiling plans to roll-out LTE, aka 4G technology, in Lebanon on today's episode of "Talk of the Town" on MTV. The plan, according to Annahar, will start with a testing phase starting the 16th of the current month on both operators (Touch and Alfa), with consumer availability on April 23rd, 2013.


The 4G network should allow for theoretical speeds of up to 100 Mbps, with practical real-world speeds in the 30 Mbps range. By contrast, current HSPA technology allows for speeds up to around 8 Mbps. The upgrade is following work on improving the long-stagnating infrastructure in Lebanon, by installing fiber-optics cables to connect the different stations, and should give a great boost to the economy by encouraging new investments. Of course, you need to have an LTE equipped phone to take advantage of the new speeds.

Update: Alfa Telecom confirmation on twitter (find the official press release in the sources below):


source: Annahar, Alfa