Alfa (Lebanon)


Alfa is one of the two operating GSM networks in Lebanon, the other being touch.

History

Alfa is the network name for the Mobile Interim Company 1, founded in 1994 under the name of Cellis, managed by France Telecom.
In 2004 the Lebanese government signed a management contract with FAL-DETE to operate the MIC1 network for 4 years. FAL-DETE renamed the Cellis network as Alfa. In 2009 Orascom took over management of MIC1.
In March 2010 Marwan Hayek became the CEO of Alfa. From October 2011, Alfa launched Lebanon's first 3G+ technology, and subsequently were also the first operator in Lebanon to introduce 4G-LTE and 4G+ LTE-A technologies.
According to a report from Zain Group in June 2014, Alfa is reported to have 1.8 million subscribers, the numbers having grown significantly with the influx of over a million Syrian refugees in the previous two and half years.