Lebanon began the month of July with the implementation of the Cabinet's decision to raise telephone and internet service tariffs, which have severely impacted the wallets of Lebanese citizens. The Minister of Communications in the caretaker government, Johnny Karam, explained that "the new bill for mobile services is calculated by dividing the previous bill by 3 and multiplying it by the Sayrafa dollar rate, and for Ogero, it is calculated by multiplying it by 2.5, but it will be higher for companies." He emphasized that "the new tariffs for Ogero and the mobile sector are a necessary step to prevent the collapse of the sector."
Since the decision came into effect, mobile companies ceased operations and recharge cards disappeared from the market. What is the reason for this? When will things return to normal? Minister Karam reveals to "Al-Markaziya" that "the shortage of cards in the market was due to the change in the work system, and we had to suspend all services because of the substantial internal workload. The staff has made continuous efforts to improve the work system." He points out that "the cards have now become available. I received a report yesterday on the distributed quantities, and it has been confirmed that starting from tomorrow, the cards will be available in the required numbers to meet demand without any issues, and it is expected that deliveries will start improving today."
Regarding the repercussions of these changes on the telecommunications sector, especially with discussions about many Lebanese burning their lines or at least stopping subscriptions for internet packages, Karam highlights that "the issue is somewhat exaggerated. When communication prices dropped significantly, consumption rose. Today, we estimate that consumption rates will return to what they were in 2018, and it is too early to provide accurate numbers as they are based on marketing studies. It can be said that consumption declined by 8% in the first two days, which is acceptable, but it is not conclusive since some who had multiple lines kept only one or reduced the duration of phone calls."
As for price manipulation, he confirms that "it will decrease and stop automatically because it was expected that prices would rise, prompting some to buy and stock up on cards. However, everything has become clear today, prices are officially set, and quantities are available, leaving no excuses for hoarding and making subsequent profits." He concludes, "All we are doing aims to ensure the continuity of communications. I have previously stated that the path the sector was following would not lead to sustainability without the adjustments we have made."
