On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee warned that Lebanon’s telecommunications and internet sector is on the verge of collapse in a week or two due to fuel scarcities.
“The quantity of diesel at Lebanon’s state-owned Touch and Alfa mobile companies and the state-run telecommunications company Ogero, which operates fixed lines and fixed internet, is enough to run for only a few days, otherwise telecom services will crumble,” the Lebanese Parliament’s Media and Communications Committee held.
Telecom companies in Lebanon have joined the long list of industries and institutions at risk as the national financial and economic crisis alleviates.
Electricité du Liban has been incapable of securing electricity for institutions and households in recent months, particularly after the government’s subsidy on diesel was lifted. Diesel prices, which were set in US dollars, consequently doubled.
Telecom services, including the internet, have been intermittently suspended in several regions in the past months.
MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, who heads the committee, said: “The dilemma is not limited to the inability to secure diesel, but also the inability to purchase spare parts, whose prices have become exorbitant. In addition, we have thefts targeting telecom networks in Lebanon. Some stolen pieces of spare parts and transmission poles are being sold online.
