Alfa, one of Lebanon’s two state-owned mobile operators that is managed by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Media & Technology (OTMT), has finished Lebanon’s first live network test of voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology, TeleGeography reports, explaining that it involved a direct VoLTE call between the minister of telecommunications, Nicolas Sehnaoui, and Alfa’s CEO Marwan Hayek, with a call setup time of under one second.

The operator is expected to continue expanding its 4G network, which, it claims, now covers around 40 percent of the population, with LTE high speed data available across the greater Beirut area as well as major cities such as Tripoli, Jounieh, Jbeil, Batroun, Metn, Chouf, Sidon, Tyre, Nabatieh, Jezzine, Faqra-Kfardebian, and Faraya.