DSL exasperation

So finally DSL was supposed to arrive in Lebanon and save a lot of people (including me) a lot of frustration created by painfully slow internet connections. Introducing DSL has been talked about in Lebanon for the past few years, but recently the government stepped up the ante by actually naming a date for this endeavour, March 2006. Well, let's see. What is happening: yes, DSL will arrive in Lebanon. However, this will not bring the promised improvement in internet enjoyment for the population at large. Initially (that is, for the duration of the next six months), only 360 internet users will have the privilege of using DSL connections. Three-six-zero. This is called a 'pilot phase'.

The government maintains that this has something to do with a bottleneck in access to the international cable that is necessary for DSL use, and that they're working on 'augmenting capacity'. Not only does this sound like they're firmly stuck in the oil pipeline age and conjures up images of workers in protective clothing and with heavy tools working on those pipes that carry a fluid called 'information', it also seems to be a plain lie according to people who work in the telecoms sector and who talk to newspapers about this. They say that due to the delay in introducing reasonably fast connections to Lebanon (which already function in most neighbouring countries: Lebanon is really lagging behind here even if we leave aside the fact that there are of course a lot of people here who don't even have electricity or are able to read anything on the internet, being illiterate), a lucrative market has been created for wireless access. There are a bunch of wireless providers here who can give you fast access at the hefty rate of about $50 a month. And these people don't like the idea of competition, so they lobby the government to slow it down....presumably providing them with enough time to hedge their bets and become involved in the DSL business too. Whatever the case, the government is certainly happy to comply with their wishes, because high DSL rates - initially monthly rates will come up to, uh, let's see....$50/month... (btw about twice as high as in Jordan) - mean higher revenues for the state treasury. And they need the money.

Is anybody up for intiating a world-wide letter writing campaign that would convey to Lebanese government and business how see-through their corruption really is and how badly they need to stop it if they want to be credible....?