Broadband’s Roadblock

Being stopped at an army checkpoint is a regular feature of Lebanese life, largely endured without complaint as a necessary condition for maintaining the country’s semblance of security. These checkpoints are normally benign: more often than not the officer in charge will give the vehicle a cursory glance before waving the driver through to go about his or her business. Lebanese Internet, on the other hand, has been pulled over at the same roadblock for more than a decade, leaving the country and its economic development held up behind, while the vast majority of the rest of the developed and developing world passes by Lebanon in the broadband fast lane. In the past year there have been financial wheels set in motion to move the country past this Internet impasse, but when, or even whether it will be waved through is far from certain. Political and vested interests have attempted