TRIPOLI – For the first time, the Libyan government has indicated that it would issue local private sector companies with full Internet service provider (ISP) licenses to offer online access across the country. Pyramid Research said that several other organizations had been awarded concessions to provide local internet access, including IT services company Al Falak, Bayt Al Shams (BsISP) and Tripoli-based Modern World Communications. However, the details on the status of these companies' Internet access operations were scarce, the report added. State-run Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT) – a subsidiary of Libya Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Company (LPTIC) – is the country's only ISP with an international gateway license, and also acts as a moderator for the Internet sector. Libya's civil war in 2011 has crippled the country's economy and disrupted its telecommunications sector. It is estimated that more than $1 billion worth of telecom infrastructure has been destroyed, including about 20 percent of the country's cell sites. Reconstruction efforts are underway, and at an estimated 76 percent GDP growth, the country's economic output is expected to return to pre-war levels in 2012. Several international telecom carriers are preparing to enter the Libyan market following the elections in July 2012. In addition, an initial public offering (IPO) of the country's two mobile network operators is planned for 2013, and new operator licenses may also be issued. Despite having an old style state-owned monopoly player for the provision of postal and telecommunications services (LPTIC, GPTC), which also operates the country's only Internet service (LTT) and two mobile networks in parallel, Libya's telecommunications infrastructure is superior to those in most other African countries and services are available at some of the lowest prices on the continent. Libya's fixed-line teledensity is one of the highest in Africa, supported by extensive rollouts of CDMA-2000 wireless local loop technology (WLL) technology since 2006. Massive investments have been made in the past into a next generation national fibre optic backbone network, the expansion of ADSL and WiMAX broadband services, new international fibre connections and upgrades to existing ones, and one of Africa's first Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) deployments. The first terabit international fibre optic cable landed in the country in 2010. Investments into telecommunications infrastructure totaling $10 billion were earmarked for the 15 years to 2020. – SG
