Disclaimer: The notes below are provided as is from the meeting, without fact checking. These notes reflect - verbatim - the answers to the questions asked during the meeting.

� Meeting 1

� Ministry of Telecommunications

� May 12 2011

� Vision: make Lebanon the Arab World�s internet hub, building an internet �surplus� (not deficit, as currently is the case), which will be sold to the Arab World

� Current Projects:
o IMEWE (done, pending signature of Ogero to launch)
o National fiber backbone, connecting major cities (in progress, started 2 months ago)
o 3G � 4G
 HSPA+ covering Lebanon
 LTE covering Beirut
 Huawei � MTC Touch
 Ericsson - Alfa
 Contracts acquired in open bidding process at half original cost of (35M USD vs 75M USD)
o International fiber links
 JADI (Jeddah, Amman, Damascus, Istanbul)
 Cadmous
 Tartous
o Local fiber
1. FTTx: made a call for requests by large institutions who need fiber now for at least 100 Mbps, only received 12 applicants!
2. FTTh: 2012

� Pricing:
o New pricing matrix has been drafted, awaiting government formation and Council of Ministers to implement
o Pricing matrix aims to reduce prices by at least 40%
o E1 pricing should come close to 600 USD
o Pricing reductions are always slowed down by the Ministry of Finance (as is currently the case, and was the case during the pricing reductions on the cellular services a couple of years ago)
o Ministry of Finance is not willing to reduce prices due to fear of loss of income that is being used to finance the public debt.
o FYI: Telecom revenues finance over 40% of the public debt

� Services:
o Planning Triply Play via new infrastructure

� Speed:
o Aiming to raise the average internet speed to 10 Mbps by end of 2011

� Privatization:
o Privatization is not in the best interest of the government, as it needs the telecom sector to continue financing its public debt.

� Law 431:
o The law is outdated, and needs to be revised, for example voice is separated from data, which is the reason behind most of the VOIP crackdown we�ve witnessed in the past few years
o The law has never been implemented fully, and thus is problematic in that it is being used by the Shura Council to selectively pass or block specific decisions

� TRA:
o Previous TRA head was at odds with MoT
o Current TRA head is working together with MoT
o TRA self-financing target not met, MoT still finances TRA

� Ogero:
o Is the execution �arm� of the MoT, and thus without the cooperation of Ogero, many projects cannot be executed, including turning on the IMEWE
o Many projects, services, installations, and activities are on hold due to stalemate between Ogero and MoT
o Ogero Head is appointed by the Council of Ministers

� LBN OGERO Mobile 41505
o 2G network built with donated Huawei equipment in 2008/2009
o Operating without a license, purpose and activities unknown to MoT

� People to Talk to:
o Mr. Tony Hanna
o Dr. Chebaro
o Mr. Imad Abi Rashed

� IMEWE: yes, flipping the switch will result in immediate increase in quality of service, even if there is no government to reduce prices (need for Council of Ministers)

� MoT financing: Ministry of Finance has limited financing of MoT projects, and thus MoT is self-financing most of its new projects, seeing as it is a cashflow positive ministry

Priority Next Steps:
 Increase awareness about open call for FTTx requests for large entities needing over 100 Mbps
 Increase awareness about MoT activities, projects, vision, and mission