BEIRUT: The telecommunications minister expected Internet rates in Lebanon to drop and the speed to become much faster after the ministry bought part of the Alexandros marine cable that connects with Cyprus, Egypt and France.

Nicolas Sehnaoui made the announcement Friday after signing an agreement with Stathis Kittis, the chairman of Cyta Global.

Sehnaoui also announced a nonbinding memo of understanding to launch the Europa cable, which would replace the current CADMODS cable.

Sehnaoui said the acquisition of 24 percent of the Alexandros cable would allow Lebanon to have an additional 700 gigabytes in addition to the current 200 GB that is supplied by the IMEWE cable.

“This acquisition is very crucial to attract international companies to invest in the telecoms sector in Lebanon and this will enable us to become a regional telecoms hub,” the minister said.

According to Sehnaoui, the ministry will be now able to lower the prices of E1 for Internet providers and this eventually will induce these companies to reduce DSL rates for subscribers. He also said a special package for heavy Internet users would be announced soon.

“The next step is to move to the fiber optics and allow all users to benefit from high-speed Internet,” he added.