Sign the Broadband Manifesto
Can you think of a company that is not reliant on internet today? In fact, not just internet, businesses today depend on reliable and fast internet connections. Lebanon, one of the 1st countries in the middle east to connect to the WWW is now facing major problems in the technology field.
Web Applications have been growing very fast. As they require better hardware (that are fortunately available), they also require a faster internet connection. The concept of Cloud is getting more and more popular, your data is no longer stored on your PC, it’s now stored on the holy cloud. Clouds allow you to have your information synchronized with all your machines (mobile, laptop, desktop, PDA etc…). This has become critical but can we handle this massive amount of data transfer?
I did a survey and found out that the big majority still have 128kbps internet connections, which is equivalent to 0.125 mbps (excluding the big portion of people who are still using Dial up modems). A normal user can get a maximum of 1mbps (which is fair, but very limited in terms of daily/monthly quota). Let’s compare it to other countries:
I am an entrepreneur and I cannot tell you how much this matter is disturbing me. The Lebanese pathetic infrastructure is directly affecting our economy. Why?
- Young generations are not capable of keeping up with the technology.
- Enterprises are afraid to launch branches of their companies in Lebanon. (Think about employment)
- Lebanon is not known as a technology oriented country.
- It’s very tough to launch a startup in Lebanon. (Woopra as an example)
- Great entrepreneurs are leaving the country seeking better infrastructure for their venture.
I had a chance to meet the Lebanese Minister of Telecom Eng. Jubran Bassil a few months back and discussed this problem, he seemed very open and promised to be looking further into that. Bassil recently revealed on the press that he’s aware of this issue and working on a plan for this summer (2009). What if he doesn’t get elected again?
The ministry was also very excited to launch the Edge (not even 3G) connectivity for mobiles. I can’t believe they were serious about that!! I mean, I’m not paying 5$ for only 5MB of usage and 2$ for every extra MB. It’s like paying 5$ everytime I check my email inbox. I hope our Telecom ministry is not serious about this crappy solution.
Not to forget the huge Ogero scandal. As they have become DSL providers, they are not supplying private ISPs enough bandwidth for them to acquire the largest chunk of DSL users. I personally have 2 DSL accounts, 512 kbps and 1 mbps (at IDM), is it possible that I’m downloading at the rate of 5 kB/s and less than 1 kB/s at peak hours? And what about this silly quota limitation? 5GB of download per month? This is ridiculous.
“I have heard many reports of “unfair market practices” by Ogero vis a vis the DSPs.” said Mrs. Salam Yamout, a member of the Lebanese Broadband Stakeholders Group. “ISPs not being able to offer their customers DSL service because they do not get capacity from Ogero. This is the case of GDS in Achrafieh for example. In another case, a customer reported that an Ogero representative called him to offer him the Blink service within 24 hours while he has been waiting for his ISP DSL service for few days. Such practices are condemned in countries that have liberalized their telecommunications market, but not in Lebanon! It is said that there are 100,000 DSL subscribers in Lebanon (fastest DSL pick up in the world) 80% for Ogero, the rest divided among the 5 private DSPs! This fast pick up is a reflection of the starvation of the market for broadband. How else do you explain that Lebanese people are flocking in numbers to get poorer quality service, more expensive, and slower connectivity than in other countries?”
If you feel that we need the change, sign the broadband manifesto which was started by a group of people like you and me, sick and tired of the way this country evolves.
I am Elie El Khoury, from Lebanon (Byblos), Woopra co-founder & CIO, Web & Software Developer, Designer, Guitarist, Mac user and the worst blogger on earth! 
