Achievers are keen to benchmark their performance and remain unafraid of comparing their accomplishments to the best. To measure the commercial success of Lebanon’s Internet Service Providers – the companies where speed, competitiveness, technological competence and service quality are crucial not only for their viability but for the entire online economy – with the aim of identifying the best performer on a national level is a task requiring the patience of a hero. ISPs themselves say they don’t know the exact size of either the legal residential or the corporate market and are unable to declare their market shares. Against this background of opacity, it is important to ask where Lebanon stands today in internet access by international and regional standards. But the answers are not pretty. According to consensus among providers, internet penetration of households this year amounts to 80,000 or so legal subscribers and anywhere between 50,000 and
