Telecom

1. Issuance of a policy paper pertaining to the telecommunication. sector(plan and vision).
2. Maintaining communication confidentiality and establishing a control and monitoring center.
3. Encryption Project for address assignment in Lebanon.
4. Launching initiatives to provide students with electronic tablets with educational content.
5. Cellular sector
   1. Implementing numerous reforms in the operation and management contracts and assigning new operators to the cellular sector after years of stagnation.
   2. Expansion of the two networks with an additional capacity of 400,000 lines for each network and moving from one million subscribers to more than 4 million subscribers.
   3. Deploying the fourth generation of the mobile phone on a national level. Possibility of launching the fifth generation technology on the market after conducting successful live tests.
   4. Increasing the number of call center agents (international standards have been achieved).
   5. Launching of the Research and Development Department.
   6. Establishing a system to monitor the quality of service provided (quality indicators).
   7. Establishing new sales centers in the governorates and opening the sales market to new competitors to prevent monopoly.
   8. Establishing new numbers for sale to meet market needs and organizing public auctions to sell distinguished numbers that brought in more than ten million dollars.
   9. Installing and expanding more than a thousand mobile stations in all Lebanese regions.
   10. Installing municipalities’ rights from cell phones revenues and starting to pay them their dues.
   11. Fighting jamming.
   12. Improving the telephone assistance systems of cell network operators (111).
   13. Radically reducing prices for postpaid and prepaid lines after their black market price reached $500.
   14. Reducing the cost of additional services and providing a package of new services (sms, data roaming, credit transfer, edge, mms, blackberry…).
   15. Reducing the price of third-generation chips from the device to the device by 90%.
   16. Increasing mobile internet speed by 18 times and fixed DSL internet speed by 15 times.
   17. Reducing fixed internet prices by 80%, mobile calling service prices by 40%, and mobile prices by 72% in different packages for different ranges of agents.
   18. Offering free internet in public parks.
6. Landline
   1. Connecting all telephone centrales to the fiber-optic network.
   2. Putting distinctive numbers for fixed telephones at the disposal of citizens.
   3. Regulating the work of mobile earth stations (SNG) and satellite broadcasting mechanisms and modernizing the fixed network.
   4. Launching the seasonal line for vacationers, expats, workers and students.
   5. Installing more than 1,000 public phones in all Lebanon.
   6. Reducing the cost of fixed-line subscription from 212,000 to 50,000 Lebanese pounds.
   7. Offering free internet from 12 am until 7 am.
   8. Launching fiber-optic services for subscribers (institutions and individuals), a fixed mobile solution for 200,000 citizens who do not have DSL connection.
7. International Calling
   1. Increasing the total capacity of the submarine cable by 4.5 times.
   2. Securing an alternative port for international internet in case the primary port is down by purchasing 24% of Alexandros cable capacity.
   3. Combating illegal international communication.
8. Facilitate business and create a favorable environment for start-ups
   1. Enabling public and private institutions to have access to the Internet via optical fibers: about a thousand centers have been connected to date.
   2. Facilitating the mechanism for paying bills through the ministry’s centers and Liban Post, and collecting unpaid telephone bills.
   3. Reducing the prices of international E1 lines for companies by 84%, the prices of international leased lines for companies by 82%, and machine-to-machine prices by 90%.
   4. Reducing the duration of equipment import procedures from 21 days to 3 days.
   5. Enacting the conditions for licensing digital zones and launching the Beirut Digital District (BDD).
   6. Licensing for mobile Internet service providers.
9. Ministry’s special youth initiatives
   1. The “Become a Minister of Communications” competition.
   2. The blogger competition.
   3. The “Your Painting for Tomorrow” initiative
   4. The “Raspberry Pi” initiative.
10. Social Achievements and Recognition of Employee Rights: Collective Agreement for Alfa and Touch employees and adjustment of salary benefits for the ministry’s employees.
11. Increasing the revenues of the public treasury through the initiative of illegal devices import prevention (realizing additional annual revenues of $60 million).