Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications launched the 3G service officially today at the AUST University in Achrafieh. Aside from the babbling and the false hopes given to the Lebanese about becoming the leading Tech country in the world, here are the 3G rates as announced by Minister Sehnaoui:
– 19$/month for 500 MB
– 10$/month for 100 MB
– 60$/month for 1 GB ( Not confirmed though)
The prices are reasonable but the caps are honestly ridiculous specially if we are planning to use the 3G connection as a wireless connection. You can barely check your email, upload few pictures and play few YouTube videos with 500 MB!
3G services will be provided as of November 1st in Beirut and its surroundings before gradually becoming available all over Lebanon.
If you Call MTC Hotline 111, they will inform you that the prices and quotas are not yet official and nothing is final regarding this information.
There should also be a rate for unlimited GB…
@Ralph, DSL are limited so do you really expect they will give unlimited 3G packages ? I never think so.
Prices and caps are very good. Don’t compare this to DSL or other wired connections, this is a mobile connection meant to be used with your phone. Mobile will always have worse caps when compared to wired connections thats a fact.
Currently I pay $19 for my 500MB connection here in Kuwait and I rarely use the full 500 and this includes downloading a ton of emails, tweets and web browsing plus an iphone app every now and then.
Even in the US they don’t have unlimited 3G (read their fine print) so don’t expect unlimited 3G anytime soon in this part of the world.
btw najib do you get 3G in seheili?
Mark,
Yup I got 3G in Sheili and in Jeita but this is for MTC only. I don’t know about Alfa. I will know hopefully on November 1st.
As for the caps, I am saying it’s very low because they are expected to launch supplementary Sims to use on laptops and iPads and other devices, and maybe USB dongles as well.
Unless they plan on releasing them with different packages, it’s a crappy offer.
Ma if you look deeper as to why Sehanoui is blocking Mobi modems from getting in the Lebanese markets, you’ll know hes planning on releasing similar ones with 3G to blow them off the market.
I don’t think that the 1 GB will be for 60$/month. If you do some mathematics:
10$ –> 100 MB
19$ –> 500 MB
Then 1GB is for max 38$ but I am sure they will discount it the way they are discounting the 500 MB package, so it may become for 30$.
Dears, please i ask u to think again are we getting high speed internet in lebanon??? HSPA can reach up to 21Mbps per user can you please test this on ur 3G phones?? I’m sure u’ll find that ur getting a maximum of 13K… same shit it happening with Ogero and their updated plans… we are still at the same point there is no increase of the internet Gateways and to ur info because this is what cost most not a network upgrade….kindly rethink this we need to stop their lies asap!!