Under the high patronage and in presence of His Excellency the Minister of Telecommunications Nicolas Sehnaoui, a new historical achievement for the telecommunications sector in Lebanon was marked by Alfa, managed by Orascom Telecom, as the company launched the fourth generation technology 4G-LTE.
As a result, Lebanon became the sixth country in the MENA region and the 52nd worldwide that offers this technology, providing actual speeds of up to 30-40 mbps, which is six to ten times the current internet speed.
Alfa launched this technology a few months after the successful first laboratory test (Lab Test) on the fourth-generation technology 4G-LTE in Lebanon, carried out by the company on its network in the second quarter of last year, during which laboratory speeds of up to 100 mbps were achieved.
Today, Alfa announced the launch of the 4G service 4G-LTE at a press conference at the Press Club. It was attended by Minister Sehnaoui, Alfa Chairman and CEO, Engineer Marwan Hayek, officials at the Ministry of Telecommunications, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, the management of Alfa and a great number of journalists.
Commenting on the launch of the 4G-LTE service, the Chairman and CEO of Alfa, Engineer Marwan Hayek, indicated that "Alfa is proud of this new technological and historical achievement for the telecommunications sector in Lebanon. This achievement has allowed the sector to take a major leap forward as a continuation of the development we started in the sector two years ago. During this period, Alfa confirmed that it was at the heart of the digital revolution and that it was committed support its infrastructure by the latest in telecommunications networks in the world."
Regarding the 4G-LTE service, Hayek pointed out that "Alfa is the first to launch the 4G network today in Lebanon, as a natural result of the continuous work performed by our technical teams and engineers and I congratulate them on this achievement."
He mentioned that, "The Alfa 4G network was built in collaboration with both Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, the international pioneers in the telecommunications sector."
Hayek stated that "Alfa's 4G network will cover the Beirut administrative area at this stage, since studies have shown that it has the highest density of data service users on the Alfa Network in Lebanon."
He added that "By the end of the year, Alfa will prepare around 300 stations supporting 4G-LTE technology in Lebanon, i.e. 25% of the network's stations, covering about 40% of the population."
He pointed out that "In case subscribers were present in an area not covered by 4G, then they can continue to benefit from the 3G+ service and speeds offered by this service".
Hayek mentioned that "The Alfa 4G-LTE network will provide voice and SMS services by June. Subscribers can benefit of the 4G-LTE service when using devices compatible with this technology, such as electronic tablets, routers and dongles".
Hayek indicated that "With time, the market will witness a surge in the use of devices supporting the 4G-LTE network and frequencies, in conjunction with our expectations in the rise of Alfa data subscribers to more than one million by the end of this year".
Sehnaoui
The Minister of Telecommunications, Nicolas Sehnaoui said that "launching 4G is a great achievement and tells the world that Lebanon is on the right track to become a digital platform". He pointed out that "our will to make Lebanon a digital platform was translated through our work in the government and large investments we've made in the past years, which amounted to $200 million a year. This allowed us to launch all these mega projects, which have become a reality and now, in Lebanon, we all have to believe that we are able to make great achievements and that Lebanon is full of young energetic and creative minds as evidenced by the applications created by Lebanese programmers that have astonished the world".
Sehnaoui mentioned that "4G did not take its right place in the world yet and did not replace 3G; however, because of the difficulties that we faced in the fixed network due to a political team obstructing it, it was necessary for us to continue investing in the cellular network to our maximum capacity and working to develop it to meet the needs of subscribers and providing services needed by every citizen".
Sehnaoui noted that Gigabytes became a staple in production and is part of pricing for digital services. Here lies the importance of launching 4G today, which is a major leap that facilitates the production process, allowing citizens or companies to obtain more capacities. He confirmed that "our goal is to go beyond that with lower prices and capacities that we will offer to subscribers: all that comes at the core of our goal to transform Lebanon into a digital platform".
Answering reporters' questions, Sehnaoui concluded by indicating that
"4G will reduce the pressure on 3G, which will be a helpful factor in this field". He also noted that "the significant progress achieved in the project to strengthen the 3G coverage in internal regions or the 3G Deep Indoor will be finalized between the end of August and the end of this year, according to each operator".
During the press release, live tests of the 4G-LTE were done with the participation of the audience and the media.
4G Service Bundles
Alfa's 4G-LTE service will provide subscribers with a distinctive and high-quality user experience and more advanced services via the internet such as the possibility to view HD videos over the internet.
Alfa will offer new 4G bundles for individuals and companies offering consumption volumes larger than the current bundles to fit the speeds offered by this technology, specifically 10GB, 20GB and 40GB bundles for individuals and companies and 100GB bundle for companies only; noting that the 4G service will be available via all current Alfa internet bundles, with the exception of the 150MB bundle.
The following tables provide all bundle details that will be available through the 4G service for postpaid and prepaid lines located in areas covered by the 4G network while using devices supporting 4G services, such as electronic tablets, routers and dongles.
Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/alfa-launches-4g-lte-service--342406
