Ministry renews Alfa, MTCTouch contracts

02 February 2011

BEIRUT: The Telecommunication Ministry announced Tuesday that it has renewed contracts with cellular operators MTCTouch and Alfa for one more year and under the same conditions.

Caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas said that the two contracts were signed with Cairo-based Orascom Company which operates Alfa and Kuwait based company Zain which operates MTCTouch.

The two companies operate the cellular networks on behalf of the Lebanese government, which collects all the proceeds while the firms receive a monthly fee from the Cabinet.

The renewal of the contracts is expected to relive millions of subscribers who feared at one point that service would come to a halt if the contracts were revoked by the government.

Nahhas said that both MTCTouch and Alfa pledged to introduce the third generation (3G) cellular service to all their customers within eight months.

He added that the ministry tried to introduce this service earlier.

Nahhas stressed that the 3G is part of the broadband network which will be installed all over Lebanese territories.

“The broadband and other related issues were clearly mentioned in the last ministerial statement and the ministry did not breach any law in this respect,” Nahhas explained.

Some March 14 deputies accused Nahhas of breaching the law because he signed several agreements without the consent of the Cabinet.

Nahhas indicated that the new service will allow the subscribers to download any file with a fraction of second.

The caretaker minister insisted that 3G will have a major impact on the Lebanese economy as it would boost investments in the telecom sector and create more jobs.

Nahhas said that he also intends to slash the rates of the prepaid cellular lines in the future to help the limited income families.

But is it is not certain if these ambitious plans by Nahhas will materialize if he was replaced by another minister from a different political bloc.

Cellular and fined line revenues are the second source of income for the government after the Value Added Tax.

Some analysts are wondering if Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati will push ahead with the privatization of the telecom. – The Daily Star