Mobile network for landlines

Service to benefit two hundred remote villages

A new service offering residents of remote villages a landline connection through mobile networks was launched by the mobile operators Alfa and Touch, in cooperation with the Ministry of Telecommunications (MoT). This will allow outlying regions to benefit from enhanced telecommunications and Internet services. Around 200,000 residents from two hundred villages in the Bekaa, the North, and the highlands of Keserwan will benefit from the service.

The service is offered by Touch under the commercial name ‘Dari’, and by Alfa under ‘Beiti’. Talal Assaf, Media Advisor at the MoT, said the new service provides a phone line connection through a wireless network instead of the underground copper wires typically used for landlines connection. “The ‘Fixed Mobile’ service will allow people living in remote villages where there are no underground copper network installations to have regular landline phones at their homes,” Assaf said. Residents of such areas often have landlines connected via Wireless Local Loop (WLL) to a neighboring substation through which all their calls are transferred. These connections are subject to many defects, including frequent blackouts during bad weather conditions, and they do not benefit from the services offered with regular landlines. The new facility offers the same DSL Internet benefits as landlines, for the fees of a regular landline phone subscription.

Around 15,000 households use WLL connections through substations in 34 villages. “The new facility will increase the number of users and ultimately raise the telecoms services penetration rate,” Assaf said.

In order to activate the service, a user should provide the operator of his choice, Touch or Alfa, with an ID, a certificate of residence, and the most recent WLL phone bill, if available. The relevant service provider will then install a new wireless connection at the user’s residence. The new line is operated through a special handset with an embedded SIM card and can make and receive local and international calls just as a regular landline. According to Assaf, the phones only operate within the geographic area covered by their local substation. The handset costs $60. Call fees are similar to those of a regular landline. The lines will have a new three-digit code, ‘010’, replacing the initial area code, 07 or 08 or 09.

Assaf said the project was completed within just nine months. “This approach has saved time and money because installing underground copper wirings is a costly project,” he said.

The substations (centrals) that will offer the service to neighboring villages are: Rafid, Srire, Kaa, Laboue, Laqlouq, Yammoune, Bijjeh, Baalbeck, Bintael, Bouarej, Mraijet, Jib Jinnine, Jdeidet El Kaa, Hadath Baalbeck (Shmestar), Hrajel, Deir El Ahmar, Ras Baalbeck, Rashaya, Zaboud, Shaat, Shlifa, Talia, Obeidat, Ersal, Ammiq, Ouyoun El Siman, Fatri, Faqra, Kartaba, Kfardebian, Kfarselwan, Libbeya, Maad, and Mairouba.