A continuously battered infrastructure

Crumbling. Crippled. Delicate. These are some of the words used to describe the ailing state of Lebanon’s infrastructure for the past two years by experts, media outlets, and international and local organizations. On the operational side, telecoms in Lebanon are characterized by high usage fees and low fixed network quality. Fees for both data and voice services have sparked outrage, most notably in October 2019. While these fees have been dropping in comparison to other costs of living since the beginning of 2020, this welcome relief was attributable entirely to the depreciation of the Lebanese pound and decreeing a hike of tariffs was the last thing that the Lebanese Council of Ministers did before constitutionally reverting to a “caretaker cabinet” status after the May 2022 (yes, under the country’s convoluted state ownership of telecommunications operators, communication tariffs astoundingly are the cabinet’s business).  This political decision on higher tariffs, however overdue