Phoenicia Group Libya, a U.S.-Libyan diversified business and consultancy group, announced April 18 its plans to offer BGAN satellite Internet solutions to corporate and government clients across Libya, marking the deployment as the first time the technology will be used in the country.

“We anticipate BGAN target users to be oil, marine, and construction companies, government, and military institutions in locations in Libya with limited, unreliable, or non-existent telecommunications infrastructure, like most of the interior of the country and offshore, which would prove useful,” said Walid Mesbah, VSAT operations director.

Satellite Internet is widely popular in Libya, due to limited and expensive Internet infrastructure, download bandwidth restrictions on broadband Internet connections and slow speeds, and is closely regulated by the GPTC, the government telecommunications body.