Alcatel to build $60 mln Libya WiMax network

TRIPOLI, April 23 (Reuters) - Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) will build a WiMax network in Libya costing 70 million dinars ($59.68 million) to bring wireless Internet to the north African country's towns and cities, company officials said on Wednesday.

Work will begin immediately with the aim of launching the services for an estimated 300,000 users by the start of 2009, the officials said at a signing ceremony in Tripoli.

"We aim to carry out this project in order to overcome the obstacles for network infrastructure inside cities," said Mohammed Gaddafi, head of Libya's state-owned General Telecommunications Company and eldest son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Years of sanctions left Libya with an outdated and undeveloped national infrastructure. Foreign governments and companies have been jostling for lucrative contracts there since the sanctions were lifted. (Reporting by Salah Sarrar; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Andrew Hurst)