Lebanese telecommunication was severely damaged by a Lebanese Civil War that lasted a period of 17 years. The inner-office trunks lost 85% of their previous capacity.

    Intelsetís three IDRs were completely destroyed. Marine cables to Marseille, Cyprus and Egypt were also partially destroyed during the Civil War.
 
 

    325,0000 telephones lines exist ( 95 telephones per 1000 persons)1
Domestic traffic is carried mainly by microwave radio relay and in some areas cable is used.

    International traffic is carried by satellite- 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT earth station
- 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT earth station.

    Lebanon has some coaxial cable to Syria, there is also microwave radio relay to Syria but it is inoperable beyond Syria and Jordan.
 

    GSM network currently operated by France Telecom and Telecom Finland, the GSM system currently has a capacity of 250,000 subscribers and is almost operating at full capacity currently.

    There are currently 19 Internet hosts in Lebanon and this number goes up on a monthly basis since businesses are realizing that the Internet is going to play a big role in Lebanonís information technology development.

Internet Service Providers

    There are currently 6 main companies that are Internet service providers but there exists smaller companies across the country. The main ISPís are

• Cyberia
• Data Management
• Inconet
• T-net
• Bignet
• Businet

    Internet rates have plummeted ever since Internet access was introduced in Lebanon. The rate has gone down from $600 a month to $10 dollars for students and $25 for regular consumers, these rates also include an E-mail account.
 

    Internet service providers in Lebanon provide added value networks such as IBM information Exchange, General Electric Information Services, CompuServe.

    On-line services have impacted Lebanonís information technology in a very positive way since it has made the world wide web available to the Lebanese people. The market is still not saturated but if growth of on-line services continues at the current level, Lebanoní market will soon be saturated which will bring more competition and demand for value-added services.

    Mainframes have not yet penetrated the Lebanese market in high numbers since only a few entities currently use them. The users of mainframes are the Department of Defense, In the private sector all banks in Lebanon have mainframes and many computer related businesses such as Internet service providers also use them. All universities currently have mainframes and their numbers are on the rise in the academic fields.

PCís per 1000 people
There are no available statistics on this figure but the number has been estimated at no more than 25.9
 

PCís per 1000 in business
There are no available statistics but the number is much larger in the business sector.

Size of domestic hardware production
Lebanon currently does not produce any hardware

Size of domestic software market
    Lebanon does not produce any software but Educational Institutions produce software on a very small scale for use in certain applications. Pirated software is very common and all software titles can be found in the market place.

Major Players in IT sectors
    The major payers in It sectors are currently educational institutions and private industry, There are some shops that install used components and sell computers but production is very limited and the quality of their products are usually poor. The sale of computers is on the rise and there now exists computer stores in Lebanon that sell brand name hardware and software.

    Lebanon does not export any hardware, software, telecommunications, chips, boards and software services. The 17 year civil war crippled any potential it had to be productive in that area of technology, with the destruction of Lebanonís infrastructure it was not possible to build up an industry to compete in technology. With the revitalization plan for Beirut, industries are expected to begin manufacturing of such products in the near future.

    The government is aware of the fact that they lack in the exporting of products and services and they are behind countries such as Egypt that have become recognized as regional players.

    The Piracy market in Lebanon is thriving and many individuals pirate software and sell them abroad, these illegal practices have caused western countries to pressure the government to pass laws to stop the illegal manufacturing of software.

    Lebanon does not have a high-tech Technopolis similar to Silicon valley but Lebanese six universities are working on a project called the Lebanese Academic and Research Network(LARN) that will be a general computer network dedicated to universities and research institutions in Lebanon. The project has a few guidelines were no commercial use, political or religious activism will be allowed. The network will consist of:
 
 

• 2 Name Domain Servers
• 1 Mail host
• 1 News Server
• 2 Gopher Servers
• 1 Anonymous ftp server
• On-line library Access

    LARN membership will be available to all academic and research institutions in Lebanon . The goal of the Network will be to strengthen the sharing of information technology in Lebanon.

    It is also important that government funding for Lebanese universities does exist since the Universities have most of the research and technical know-how for future projects and plans.
IT Usage

    Lebanon before the Civil War was the Financial center of the Middle-East which demanded for it to have and maintain its IT growth. Currently Lebanon is trying to recapture its post-war position in the region to be the financial center of the Middle-East. With the introduction of the Internet, Lebanon is realizing that in needs to be connected to the Information Super Highway in order for it to compete in the global market.

    Within the private sectors Restaurants, hotels, car rental places and banks use Information Technology. Lebanonís private sector is becoming very successful in the use of information technology and the only factor slowing it down is the countries poor infrastructure.

    Military use of information technology is very limited and there are no central command centers that are connected to the rest of the armed forces. The governments role in Information technology is growing since many plans include the storing of information about citizens birth-certificates and other information such as driving licenses, The government has a few web pages on the Internet but they are very limited.
 

    Competitive advantage of country in IT is the fact that the university systems are actively involved in bringing Business and Government and the private sector up to speed with the rest of the world in building the countries infrastructure. Lebanon posses a unique advantage over other countries, the Civil war destroyed most of its infrastructure and Lebanon was faced with rebuilding the countries telecommunications infrastructure using the latest in technology such as fiber-optics to interconnect the country together. Upon completion Lebanese infrastructure will have the latest that technology has to offer in connections that will facilitate the information flow in the country.

    Since Lebanese people are among the most educated in the Arab World, it is possible to invest in new IT manufacturing since skilled labor is available for bargain prices. Lebanon also enjoys the fact that most all of its students are fluent in three languages which are Arabic, French and English which make it ideal for communicating with both French and English speaking countries around the world.

    The demand for information technology is sharply on the rise and since Lebanonís goal is to reclaim its title as the financial hub of the Middle-East, IT manufacturing will play an important role in moving the country ahead.

    The nation is still far behind information technology since there always exists a risk of war with neighboring countries, Multinational companies will hesitate to set up shop in the region. Another factor why the country is lacking is because of the simple fact that it came out of a 17 year old Civil War that severely crippled its ability to compete with the rest of the World. Lebanon also suffers from the lack of money to build its IT industry since most of the funds are currently allocated in building an Infrastructure. If definitive peace in the region can be established with its neighbors, Lebanon will have no reason for not to compete in the global environment.
 

Arab Desktop -website containing downloadable Arabic software and files.

Cyberian Café -website of Internet cafe in Lebanon.

Welcome to Cyberia -huge website containing news and technology information in Lebanon.

Lebsearch - Internet, The Lebanese Way -Lebanese search engine website.

Libanis, The Arab & Middle East Portal -huge Lebanese web portal.

Lebanon.com Online Resources -a large website containing news and information about Lebanon.

Welcome to Lebanon online -a massive website containing information on news, tourism, and other data concerning Lebanon.