Lebanon is switching on 5G, seven years after South Korea launched the world’s first nationwide commercial network. Touch and Alfa, the country’s two mobile operators, announced last week that they are expanding fifth-generation services in coordination with the Telecommunications Ministry, part of a three-year project to install 150 base stations split equally between them.

Alfa made the first move by permanently restoring the 5G stations it originally activated for Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon in late November 2025, bringing coverage to downtown Beirut, Antelias, Dekwaneh, the Beirut Port area, and the vicinity of the Presidential Palace in Baabda. The timing is deliberate: summer brings a wave of Lebanese expatriates home, and internet consumption spikes with them. Stations in Dbayeh, the airport area, Adlieh, and Jounieh come next, followed by 75 more across the country.

The Touch network is close behind, according to its chairman Karim Salam. “Today, we are moving from the preparation phase to the actual implementation phase ahead of the commercial launch of the service,” Salam stated, as the first batch of equipment arrived in Beirut.

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Touch, which selected technology from Huawei and Nokia, plans to activate 15 5G sites covering key areas of the capital before the end of August, with 60 more due between September and November in Beirut, Greater Beirut, the area around Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, Batroun, Jbeil, Jounieh, Tripoli, Zahle, and several other areas outside the capital. A second phase will extend the network across the rest of the country, including the south, the area most affected by the war between Hezbollah and Israel since October 2023. Touch also intends to upgrade 75 sites to 4.5G and build 75 new rural sites before the end of 2026.

A Telecommunications Ministry source told L’Orient-Le Jour the project’s total cost is around $1 million, covering installation, license activation, and network upgrades. The first 150 stations are expected to reach 20 to 25 percent of subscribers; in later phases, the ministry says, that could rise to around 70 percent of the Lebanese population.