BEIRUT: Lebanon saw the opening of its first free-of-charge Wi-Fi space in the Sioufi Garden Monday, with former Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas hailing the project as the first of many more to come.

The garden’s Wi-Fi servers are equipped with +ADSL technologies, affording users speeds of up to 20 MB per second.

Nahhas said the initiative would achieve the double effect of making the Internet more accessible to citizenry, while encouraging those citizens to visit public gardens.

The Telecommunications Ministry has already laid the groundwork for 12 more Wi-Fi garden in Beirut and Tripoli, said Nahhas, whose tenure at that ministry ended last Monday.

During his stint as Telecoms Minister, Nahhas waged some bitter battles with various officials, including former Finance Minister Raya al-Hasan and Ogero chief Abdel Monem Youssef. It was a bid, he professed, to break through a political establishment that he claimed had kept the sector stagnant for many years.

Nahhas presided over the building of 3G infrastructure, set to be available for public use in September, as well as the refurbishing of Lebanon’s fiber optics networks, which many believe will catapult the country’s languishing IT sector into the 21st century.

During his speech at the launching of the garden’s Wi-Fi service, Nahhas said that Youssef had sought to stop the project from happening by attempting to deprive the garden of cables needed.

Nahhas has filed several lawsuits against the Ogero chief for allegedly overstepping the bounds of his powers.

Nahhas said he expected Youssef’s days in the government to be numbered, adding, “or maybe he’ll spend his days in jail.”