Imad Kreidieh, chairman of state telecommunications provider Ogero, tweeted late Saturday that Beirut’s third district will be cut off on Sunday as its Mazraa Central has run out of diesel. Kreidieh has been warning for months that “sustained power-rationing will soon cause “disastrous” large-scale internet outages in Lebanon, and that Ogero’s services were crumbling under the weight of the ongoing crisis”.
Just like Lebanon’s mobile operators, Ogero is struggling due to the Lira crash and the lack of fuel to operate its stations. Unfortunately, there’s no solution in sight as fresh dollars are needed to operate and the state is broke and paralyzed; the only plausible solution is making internet a luxury and hiking the prices just like they did for the fuel.