Telecom Minister Boutros Harb inaugurated Thursday two fiber optics stations in Rabieh and Serhal hospital and promised to spread this new service to Beirut and other regions soon.
Harb said the new fiber optics stations are part of his plan to upgrade the internet service to all of Lebanon by 2020.
A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light wave.
“What we did today is one of the first steps in the 2020 plan which calls for installing fiber optics in all of Lebanon,” the minister told reporters after the inauguration ceremony.
Ogero and Telecom Ministry technicians built cabinets that resemble electricity transformers and placed between the distribution centers.
The cables were stretched over an area of 8,000 meters, 4,000 of which was in Rabieh and the remaining 4,000 to Serhal hospital.
The technicians and engineers will conducts tests to determine the speed of the fiber optic cables.
The fiber optic cables will increase bandwidth from the current speed of 1 megabit per second to over 25 megabits per second.
“Our ambition is that each individual will have minimum speed of 2 megabits per second and it could reach up to 85,” Harb said, adding that the new service would be available in Beirut next week.
“I have promised that in 2020, every last house in every last village and every Last Mountain and valley will enjoy Internet through fiber optics,” Harb said.
But it is not clear if the fiber optics service will become available to citizens any time soon.
Basically, the Telecom Ministry plans to provide this service to government institutions, universities and large firms in the first phase.
A worker at one of the Internet service providers told The Daily Star it was not clear when DSL subscribers would benefit from the fiber optics service.
“They [technicians] have to guarantee enough broadband with huge capacity in order to benefit from the fiber optics service. It all depends on the capacity of the Internet cables. If the cables are large then the subscriber will enjoy faster Internet in the future,” he explained.
Harb said DSL would soon be available in Baalbek and large areas in the Bekaa, south and the north.
“We are not joking. We are working. Anyone who wants to waste our time, let him not do that with the ministry,” Harb told critics of his plan to install SDL all of Lebanon.