Alfa and Touch employees gather on the first day of an open-ended strike. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT – Residents of Hasbaya on Tuesday requested that the Telecommunications Ministry intervene and restore state-owned telecom provider Touch’s cellular and internet coverage in the area, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Touch’s cellular network and internet coverage have been “almost continuously interrupted for more than a month,” the NNA’s correspondent in the area reported.
• Residents of the area complained of a “lack of care” from officials and called on the Telecommunications Ministry “to intervene and resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
• Cellular network coverage in Lebanon has been interrupted in some regions of the country. The outages are sometimes attributed to the unavailability of fuel, without which transmitting stations are forced to shut down, or the theft of equipment necessary to maintain coverage.
• On Dec. 13, employees of telecom companies Touch and Alfa began an open-ended strike to protest tariff increases and to secure better employment contracts.