Fiber Optic Network to Transform Beirut Business District

BEIRUT - The company responsible for redeveloping Beirut's central business district is deploying a fiber-to-the-building network there, according to Lebanon's Daily Star. Solidere, the development company, hopes the 100 Mbps network will help transform the district into a technology hub.

Both businesses and residences will be able to benefit from the network, which will support high-speed Internet access, high-definition video via IPTV and other services such as home automation and online data backup. Although the network was constructed earlier, Lebanon's recent Internet upgrade made it usable for the first time, according to speakers at the "Smart Connected Life in the Beirut Central District" event.

However, most Lebanese Internet users still cannot get the speeds their access networks are capable of because of congestion on Lebanon's international Internet links and because OGERO, the incumbent telco, will not complete the national fiber backbone for another two years.

Solidere general manager Mounir Douaidy said the new communications technologies enabled by Solidere's network were key to boosting the central district and enouraging investments in the IT sector. Partners in the project include Cisco, Microsoft, the French telecom provider Orange, and ActiveMania, a systems integrator that works with real estate developers in the Middle East.