Lebanon's Telecom Costs: The Limits of the Available Evidence
An analysis of the sector's structure, with the unverified regional benchmark withdrawn.
Published · Updated
Executive Summary
This article discusses the relationship between telecommunications revenue and network investment. The previously claimed regional price and speed rankings have been withdrawn because the underlying comparison tables and dated data extracts are not available for verification.
Lebanon's telecommunications sector is a fiscal instrument that happens to provide connectivity. Both mobile operators are state-owned, and for two decades their revenues ranked among the treasury's largest non-tax income sources — a structure that made every dollar of network investment a dollar of forgone budget revenue.
The regional price and speed comparison previously described here cannot be reproduced from the material available to the Institute. Its quartile rankings and sample comparisons have been withdrawn.
The sector regulator envisioned by Law 431 of 2002 — like its electricity twin, Law 462 — has never been fully constituted.
Evidence & Sources
- Operator published tariffs — Touch / Alfa
- Ookla Open Data — Ookla
- Budget revenue tables — Ministry of Finance
Evidence Limitations
The previously advertised benchmark tables are not available. A verifiable comparison would require dated tariff and speed observations, exchange rates, income measures and a consistent list of comparator markets.
Where the Money Went
The previously stated revenue share and regional investment ratio have been withdrawn because the underlying tables and calculations were not supplied.
Methodology
This is qualitative analysis, not a reproducible regional benchmark. The Institute cannot substantiate the previously described March 2026 tariff collection, income normalization or speed comparison with a retained dataset. No benchmark tables or downloadable annex are available. The source list identifies references, not proof that those calculations were performed.
Corrections
2026-10-15 — Research evidence review (2026-10-15): Withdrawn the unverified regional benchmark, quartile rankings and revenue/investment ratios; removed claims of downloadable tables and completed data collection. Reclassified from Data to Analysis and revised the headline, summary and evidence framing. No replacement dataset has been created. Article images were preserved.