The Alfa headquarters in Furn al-Shebbak, Aug. 21, 2024. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Telecommunications Minister Charles al-Hajj announced on Tuesday the launch of a three-year project to upgrade networks and roll out 5G service nationwide.
"The 5G era has begun in Lebanon! The Telecommunications Ministry and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority [TRA], which was activated a few days ago, in collaboration with Alfa and Touch, are launching a three-year project to upgrade networks and launch 5G service nationwide," Hajj wrote on X. "Better connectivity, new job opportunities, and growth in GDP," the minister added.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, the Ministry was not immediately available to provide more details about the project.
Alfa and Touch have been under public management since September and October 2020, respectively, under the supervision of the Ministry.
Last Thursday, the Cabinet formed a committee to examine the future of Alfa and MTC in coordination with TRA.
The move follows a request submitted in September by the Ministry for government approval to be reauthorized to take the necessary administrative and legal steps to launch an international tender for the management and operation of the two networks.
The launching of the project comes as Lebanon had been experiencing in recent years a concerning technological lag.
The country was late in setting a clear timetable for the deployment of 5G.
Moreover, the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) infrastructure, which is essential for integrating voice, video and data communications over IP, remains partially or entirely non-existent.
This technical gap isolates the country from the global digital shift and inhibits the development of modern, integrated and secure services.
Meanwhile, the existing 4G network experiences outages occasionally and does not function consistently across all areas, raising questions about the anticipated performance of 5G in Lebanon.
The Ministry's announcement follows a Cabinet decision made just a week earlier, which officially granted Starlink a two-year license to provide internet distribution services across Lebanon via satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
