ADSL now available in Lebanon

Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh officially inaugurated Lebanon’s first ADSL service, dubbed ‘Blink’, in a launch ceremony on Monday. The new service, provided by incumbent telco Ogero, is being rolled out in ten of the most densely populated districts of the country. Initial network coverage includes neighbourhoods in Greater Beirut such as Ashrafiyeh, Riad Solh, Karantina, Minat al-Hosn, Ras Beirut and Bir Hassan, as well as Jounieh, Zahle, Sidon and Mina in Tripoli. Hamadeh said the next phase of the Blink rollout would include Mazraa, Ras el-Nabaa, Antelias, Qornet Shahwan, Jal el-Dib, Jdeideh, Zouk, Mazraat Yashouh, Broummana and Mansourieh. The country’s ISPs completed installation of the first ADSL lines last week, and Ogero says it aims to have 45,000 connections in service by the end of the year. Blink starts at USD23.90 per month for 128kbps (downlink), USD33.90 for 256kbps, USD46.90 for 512kbps and USD76.90 for 1Mbps.