July 9, 2004
Lebanese Call for Cellular Boycott
After France, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and South Africa, Lebanese consumer advocates, business leaders and even politicians are calling for all citizens to boycott mobile phone use on July 15 in protest of high prices, reports TheFeature.com.
"Subscribers in Lebanon pay at least twice what their neighbors pay for minutes. The Consumers Lebanon Association was left with no option to fight this after negotiations with the government, which runs the cellular networks there, rejected a proposal to reduce rates.
Lebanon isn't just paying more than its neighbors. Lebanon pays two operators $4 million each per month to run the national network, bringing total revenue to about $800 million per year on 850,000 subscribers. This means ARPU is about $950 per year, that's high for any country, not just the Middle East."
For related articles on (outrageous) pricing issues around the world, check out this category in Textually.org.
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