Mobile phone boycott met with mixed response

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

BEIRUT: Mobile phone users across the country boycotted the countrys two telecoms providers Sunday by disconnecting from the network to protest the cost of service, while calling on the newly appointed telecommunications minister to take action. Mobile phone users were encouraged to put phones into airplane mode or otherwise bar network access for the whole day Sunday to put pressure on touch and Alfa, the countrys two mobile operators. They advised users rely on Wi-Fi to communicate via free messaging and calling applications. This would therefore deprive the telecoms providers of revenue from calls, text messages and data services.

Hashtags translating to Close your line and I will close my line were trending on Twitter Thursday.

Our goal is to cancel the mandatory monthly recharge requirement and to reduce the cost of internal and international calls, a post on the campaigns Facebook page read. The Daily Star was unable to directly contact anyone behind the movement for comment on Sundays action.

In Lebanon prepaid phone users are forced to buy a recharge card for a mobile line every 30 days. If the line is not topped-up, it will expire and the company confiscates the line, credit and any remaining service packages. The mobile number is then recycled.

Newly appointed Telecommunications Minister Jamal Jarrah questioned the methods of the campaign.

Why was this campaign not launched before if this has been the situation for many years? Jarrah asked Al-Jadeed TV Sunday evening.

Jarrah also asked why activists did not go to the ministry and file a complaint instead of taking direct action. Very simply, I would have called for a joint meeting between the companies to bring forth the concerns of the citizens, he said.

One of the campaign leaders, Abbas Zahri, refuted claims that any political standpoint was being taken. This is not politically motivated and it happens to be that the Future Movement currently heads the Telecommunications Ministry, Zahri also told Al-Jadeed TV.

Zahri also tweeted Sunday night that the decision to launch the campaign was taken long before Jarrahs appointment. Minister, the campaign was launched on Oct. 3 and was postponed on Nov. 3 until a Cabinet was formed, which means we did not know who would be minister, he tweeted.

A song was created and spread across social media while some Twitter users poked innocent fun at the campaign.

Mazen Masalkhi, a truck driver from Sidon, sat at a local cafe where turned-off phones could be seen on tables. Today, we closed our phone lines and we do not need a mobile phone, he told The Daily Star.

Mobile phone fees are cheap in all of the countries of the world expect for [Lebanon] ... There is no harm if we stop using it for a day, he said.

We should stand in solidarity with this campaign.

However, not all mobile phone users agreed with the campaign. This is without a doubt a joke, a lame one too, Fayez Chami, a fava beans seller, told The Daily Star.

Why should I turn my phone off when I wait for Sunday to take my clients orders on my mobile phone, he asked.

Are the current economic conditions not enough, he said. Besides, former Telecoms Minister Charbel Nahhas said yesterday that the problem was that the Lebanese state collects taxes from the cellular [network] revenues. Let them reduce the taxes, Chami suggested.

Several studies have concluded that Lebanon has some of the most expensive mobile phone rates in the region and the world.

Lebanon operates a telecoms monopoly with the only two service providers being touch, operated by Kuwaiti provider Zain, and Alfa, operated by Egypt-based Orascom Telecom Holdings. Collectively they provide the second-largest source of state revenue after taxation.