The suffering of the Lebanese is becoming increasingly difficult as a result of the power cuts, especially the Internet, which paralyzes a lot of daily life. In this context, many complaints have been raised regarding the interruption and severe slowness of the Internet on mobile phones, despite the presence of the fourth generation Internet with 4G.
What are the causes of this problem? Is it just because of the power outage?
There are 180 transmission stations that have been suffering from transmission problems since yesterday, and the matter is due to 3 main reasons that the company faces with regard to its transmission, “The first and main problem that summarizes half of our problems is the generators that have been turned off in neighborhoods for a long time.” The problem is no longer in securing Diesel, as it is secured, albeit with difficulty. This is what a source in the “Alpha” company tells “Al-Nahar”.
The company also faces the problems of spare parts priced in dollars, as it still collects its income at the price of 1500 pounds, and there are 20 to 30 generators that need to be repaired and parts replaced, but the company buys them in a limited number as much as possible, but it is not able to buy them all at once.
As for the third reason, according to the source, it is the theft of transmitting stations. Last year, more than 80 of the company’s transmitting stations were stolen, and network theft is higher in the peripheral regions than others, and the company is unable to repair all these malfunctions caused by these thefts, because it needs a fresh dollar. It’s like investing in it.
According to the source, 10% of the network remains cut off during the day because of the aforementioned, in addition to the 180 transmission networks that make up between 18 to 20% of Alfa’s transmitting stations.
For his part, Minister of Communications Johnny Al-Qarm confirmed to Al-Nahar that “there is a problem in transmitting the network with one of the two cellular companies, a large number of them do not work.”
The many reasons for this hiatus are the same as those mentioned by Alpha’s source for An-Nahar. Al-Qarm added that “the network interruption is due to the same reasons that prevail during this crisis,” in addition to network theft, which limits the ability to provide transmission in a proper manner, in addition to the fact that 100 out of 180 transmitting stations stop transmitting due to the rationing of neighborhood generators. The two cellular companies resort to feeding their networks in some areas from the generators of these neighborhoods, and when these generators stop, the cellular networks inevitably stop sending, “the solution to resorting to batteries and UPS is no longer useful in this case.”
Therefore, the problem, according to Al-Qarm, “is a general and basic problem, which is electricity, whether in the provision of diesel for generators or through neighborhood generators, theft of networks or the absence of electricity. These factors affect the network, and the solutions are all in securing electricity, and when you are secure, the problem of sending networks is solved. “.
The deterioration of the currency is the deterioration of the sector in the first place
In an interview with “Archyde.com”, the Minister of Communications confirmed that “the longer the time goes and we do not change the infrastructure, we will witness more and more problems and they will increase with time if we do not find the solution in the long term and do not invest in the sector,” adding that “every day there is a theft that happens to the point that we We are communicating with the municipalities to ask them for help in this matter, because it has become beyond the capacity of the security services.”
The minister told Archyde.com that “fuel costs, which made up only 7 percent of the sector’s budget in 2020, are now eating up regarding 64 percent, while the salary budget has fallen from 34 percent to 10 percent,” noting that “the situation will continue to deteriorate with Servers are down and nearly half of the telecom operators’ workforce is out of work. For some, the salary isn’t even enough to cover the cost of transportation.”
He pointed out that “revenues have decreased twenty times. This is a major problem that we face in Lebanon as a whole and in the telecommunications sector in particular… What is the deterioration of the sector is the deterioration of the currency in the first place.”
Touch had made it clear to An-Nahar that “the telecommunications sector is not separate from the crisis of the long daily cut-off of hours of electricity supply and the scarcity of diesel. The crisis is reflected in most sectors, and the company faces some difficulties in sending it to different Lebanese regions due to the daily power cut, As a result, the owners of generators we deal with to operate our stations are forced to turn them off for a specific time to rest them, and therefore the work of some of our transmission stations is affected.”
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