21 August 2008

BEIRUT: Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil said on Wednesday that the ministry and OgeroOgero, the state-owned land-line company, are planning further cuts on the fixed telephone charges.

"The ministry had previously cut the rates on the fixed telephone lines and we intend to reduce these rates even further," Bassil told the heads of departments at the ministry and OgeroOgero.

The minister added that the new rates may encourage many Lebanese to subscribe to the land-line system.

But the minister did not explain when the land-line rates will fall and by what percentage.

At present, there are 750,000 fixed telephone lines in Lebanon.

However, according to experts, the land-line system has not seen significant growth compared to the cellular networks which have nearly 1.2 million subscribers.

The previous Cabinet promised to privatize the cellular networks in 2007 or early 2008.

But the sharp political debate between the government loyalists and the opposition groups in addition to the numerous security incidents have torpedoed efforts to sell the lucrative cellular lines to the private sector.

Bassil also said that he was still committed to the creation of LibanTelecom, which will group the ministry, and OgeroOgero under one umbrella.

He admitted that the previous governments did not name the committee members for LibanTelecom for political reasons.

"We hope to overcome all the problems and name the members at LibanTelecom. If the government manages to name the commander of the Lebanese Army soon then it will not be impossible to name the members at LibanTelecom," Bassil said.

He added that the ministry launched a big workshop to improve the services in cellular networks and increase the number of subscribers in order to reduce the rates in the future.

Bassil stressed that he was not against the privatization of the cellular networks provided it was done in a transparent manner and brought in good revenues to the treasury.

The previous government had been hoping to generate more than $6 billion in revenues from the full privatization of the cellular networks.

"Until privatization is done, we will give LibanTelecom every chance to compete with other cellular companies by granting a third license to a third cellular firm," Bassil said.

According to the telecom law, LibanTelecom will set up a third cellular firm in order to sell it along with the fixed line to the private sector.

Many politicians view the telecom sector as a cash cow because of the significant revenues it generates each year to the treasury.

The total income from both the cellular and land-line phone networks is more than $1.3 billion, representing more than 27 percent of the total government revenues.

But observers rule out the possibility of selling the telecom sector because the opposition ministers are unlikely to take risks before the parliamentary elections. - The Daily Star