Alfa reports slowed network

Telecommunications company Alfa announced on Wednesday that its network services had suffered "slowdowns," while, according to the Lebanon Debate media outlet, a malfunction at a center in Fatqa, Kesrouan, led to the decrease in the speed of the telecommunications network.

In a post published on X (formerly Twitter), Alfa explained that some of its services "were experiencing slowdowns and coordination was underway with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."

Employees at the state-run internet and fixed-line telephone provider Ogero announced on Tuesday that they would be observing a "warning strike" on Wednesday. They have been demanding regular pay rises after Lebanon was ravaged by a severe economic crisis since 2019. Normally, Alfa's services run a higher likelihood of being disrupted when Ogero is on strike, as the company is more or less dependent on the public supplier.

However, a member of the Ogero employees' union, Abdallah Ismail, told Lebanon Debate that Alfa's slowdowns were unrelated to his company's strike. "Ogero employees have nothing to do with Alfa's failures, [Alfa is responsible for repairing] the failures of its network," he said. Ismail added that he believed the problem was not solely linked to the malfunctioning of the Fatqa center, "especially as telecommunications have been disrupted in the Beirut area and elsewhere."

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm told Lebanon Debate that there had been "an electricity problem at the Ogero center in the Fatqa area, which supplies the Adma center in Alfa ... this led to the Adma center shutting down, and as a result, communications were disrupted." He also explained that he had tried to contact Ogero to fix the malfunction, but that "Ogero's director, Imad Kreidieh, is not in Lebanon" and Ogero employees were unreachable. "The Fatqa issue will be dealt with," he assured.