Starlink in Lebanon: Elon Musk's satellite internet to launch nationwide

Beirut. Lebanon has granted the Starlink satellite service a license to provide internet coverage throughout the country. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos announced this at a cabinet meeting Thursday evening. The satellites used for this purpose will be operated by tech billionaire Elon Musk's space company SpaceX. Just a few months ago, Musk expressed his interest in projects in the country's telecommunications and internet sectors, which suffer from a dilapidated infrastructure, in a phone call with President Joseph Aoun.

At the cabinet meeting, the government also established regulatory bodies for the electricity and telecommunications sectors in Lebanon. This step was a key demand of international organizations in light of the corruption in these sectors. The regulatory bodies should have been established more than 20 years ago, but their establishment was repeatedly delayed by Lebanese governments.

The state-owned energy utility Electricité du Liban (EDL) is considered one of the country's most inefficient institutions and is heavily influenced by political influence. Since the end of the civil war from 1975 to 1990, the company has cost the state budget the equivalent of approximately €34 billion.

After taking office at the beginning of the year, President Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promised to pursue reforms and combat corruption and mismanagement. For decades, Lebanon has suffered from hours-long power outages, which worsened with the economic collapse beginning in late 2019. The 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended at the end of November, also severely impacted electricity supplies in parts of the country. In April, the World Bank announced a $250 million (approximately €213 million) loan to help the country mitigate the extent of the power outages.

RND/AP