by albawaba

The hashtag “turn off your phone line” has been
trending in Lebanon this morning as a nationwide boycott of the
country’s two phone operators begins. The campaign aims to target the local Alfa and MTC Touch networks in protest against their high fees for customers.
Activists have called for Lebanese mobile users to turn on “airplane
mode” on Sunday to suspend calls, messages and internet use and
therefore deny profits to the providers. “Our
aim is to cancel the mandatory monthly recharge requirement and to
reduce the cost of internal and international calls…that is it,” a
post on the movement’s Facebook page, “I Will Turn Off My Line,” read.

Lebanese mobile customers are required to top-up at the end of each month, or face their simcards being suspended. The companies targeted in the boycott enjoy a telecoms monopoly in
Lebanon, providing the second-largest source of state revenue after
taxation. This has caused some protesters to claim that the expensive
mobile rates are a symptom of government corruption.

Lebanese
prepaid users are charged the highest fees in the Arab world according
to research by Byblos Bank’s Economic Research and Analysis Department
from September 2015.

RA

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