Lebanon says its share in the submarine cable Alexandros will be increased from 310 to 1,920 Gbps, reports Businessnews. The move comes after Lebanon telecom ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (Cyta) regarding the increased share.
The telecom cable links Lebanon to France through Cyprus. Lebanon’s available capacity will be increased tenfold from 60 to 600 Gbps at no cost to the Lebanese State, according to the ministry. The cost of expanding the capacity of the relevant equipment, amounting to USD 700,000, will be assumed by Cyta, it said.
The capacity of Cadmus, the undersea cable which links Lebanon to Cyprus, has recently become 500 Gbps. The new capacity will be put into service before the end of 2017. The Lebanese government will pay half the cost of this project, or USD 350,000, while Cyta will pay the other half, the ministry said.
Cadmos will be replaced in 2019 by a new cable called Europa, which will be installed in partnership with Cyprus. According to a source at the ministry, boosting the capacity of the cables that link Lebanon to the world is necessary in order to speed up the internet locally, because users need to connect to international servers. Expanding the bandwidth locally is not enough if it is not accompanied by a similar expansion of the international cables.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/lebanon-increases-capacity-on-international-cables--1212455