The numbers · 18 October 2026 · 7 min read
The state owns both of Lebanon's mobile networks and its fixed network, and the 2002 law that planned to open the market has not been carried through. We read ITU's prices and its regulatory tracker for Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus and Armenia. On price, Lebanon sits among its peers. On the rules, it is far behind all three.
Over the past week Club Cedro published two figures from ITU, the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies. One was a price: in Lebanon, the cheapest mobile data plan with at least 5 GB a month costs 3.03 percent of monthly income per person. The other was a score: 20.3 out of 100 on ITU's ICT Regulatory Tracker, which measures telecom law and regulation.
A post can carry one number. This piece explains how Lebanon's telecom market is put together, and then reads both figures against three peers: Jordan, an Arab neighbour in the same World Bank income group; Cyprus, a small Mediterranean market in the European Union; and Armenia, a small economy with a large diaspora. Every figure below was re-read from its source on 18 October 2026.
Lebanon has two mobile networks, alfa and touch. Both are owned by the government. When Reuters reported in May 2020 that the cabinet had agreed to take back the running of both networks from the companies that managed them, it described alfa and touch as government owned. alfa's own site says it is "managing the first Lebanese mobile network for the benefit of the Republic of Lebanon" and the Ministry of Telecommunications, and that it serves 2.5 million subscribers. touch says it holds over 53 percent of the market.
The fixed network is Ogero's. Ogero's own site calls it the "engine" of the Ministry of Telecommunications and the backbone for all telecom networks, supplying capacity to the mobile operators and to internet providers. ITU records Lebanon's main fixed line operator as state owned.
The regulator is the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the TRA. It describes itself as an independent public institution set up under Law 431 of 2002.
Law 431 drew a different market from the one that exists. It gave the TRA legal personality and administrative and financial autonomy. It provided for a state-owned joint stock company, Liban Telecom, to take over the fixed network's functions, with the government able to sell up to 40 percent of its shares to a private strategic partner within two years of the company's creation. Ogero was to be dissolved once its staff rights and assets were settled.
Twenty-four years later, Ogero's own site still describes Ogero as the launching platform for Liban Telecom under Law 431.
The regulator's board shows the same gap between paper and practice. The law sets each board member's term at five years, not renewable and not extendable. The TRA's founding board was appointed by decree in February 2007. Its own list of former board members ends in August 2015. The decree appointing its current board was issued in September 2025.
ITU's ICT Regulatory Tracker scores 50 indicators of telecom law and regulation in 194 countries, in four pillars: the regulatory authority, its mandate, the regulatory regime and the competition framework. Its latest data is for 2024. Here is how Lebanon's entry compares with its three peers.
| Economy | Overall, of 100 | Regulatory authority, of 20 | Competition framework, of 28 | Generation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lebanon | 20.3 | 2 | 1.3 | First |
| Jordan | 86 | 19 | 22 | Fourth |
| Armenia | 87.5 | 19 | 27 | Fourth |
| Cyprus | 89.7 | 19 | 25.7 | Fourth |
The world average is 73.0. ITU groups countries into four generations of regulation. Jordan, Cyprus and Armenia are in the fourth, which ITU calls integrated regulation. Lebanon is in the first, command and control, where 9 percent of countries were in 2024.
Behind the scores are line items, and they read like a description of the ownership above.
Independence. ITU records Lebanon's TRA with no autonomy in decision making, no enforcement power and no sanctions imposed. All three peers have regulators with autonomy for all decisions, enforcement power and strong sanctions.
Competition. ITU records mobile, fixed line, leased lines and the international gateways in Lebanon as monopolies, and fixed broadband as partly competitive. In all three peers, every one of those markets is recorded as fully competitive.
Sharing. Infrastructure sharing among mobile operators is not permitted in Lebanon, and site sharing is not mandated. All three peers mandate both.
Users. Individual users in Lebanon are not allowed to use internet calling, VoIP, ITU records. Mobile number portability is required by law but not available to consumers. In Jordan the same portability gap exists. Cyprus and Armenia offer it.
Planning. Lebanon has no national plan that involves broadband. All three peers have one.
Cyprus is the useful comparison here. Its main fixed line operator is also state owned, and it scores 89.7. ITU records full competition in every market it checks there, and a regulator that can enforce. On this tracker, a state owning a network is not what separates Lebanon from Cyprus. A state owning every network, with no rival allowed in and a regulator that cannot enforce, is.
ITU's ICT Price Baskets take the cheapest plan that meets a fixed allowance from the operator with the largest market share, at prices in effect in February 2025, and measure it against monthly gross national income per person. The Broadband Commission's target is 2 percent.
| Economy | Mobile data, 5 GB | Fixed broadband, 5 GB |
|---|---|---|
| Cyprus | 0.38 | 1.56 |
| Armenia | 0.82 | 2.61 |
| Lebanon | 3.03 | 1.88 |
| Jordan | 3.48 | 5.65 |
| World median | 1.38 | 2.53 |
So the price list does not single Lebanon out the way the rule book does. Jordan, which scores 86 on the tracker, pays a larger share of income for mobile data than Lebanon and three times as much for fixed broadband. Lebanon's fixed broadband is inside the target.
That does not make Lebanon's prices a success story, and it does not make the rules irrelevant. It means a regulation score is not a price forecast. Income, currency and the cost of running networks all sit between the two, and the basket method adds its own limits. It prices one plan from one operator. It says nothing about speed, coverage or what people actually pay. ITU measures Lebanon's prices against its 2023 income figure, the latest available, and its mobile basket in Lebanese pounds.
Where the structure does show is in what the tracker counts: who may build, who may compete, who can be held to account and who may sell a service over the network. On those counts Lebanon scores 20.3 and its peers between 86 and 89.7.
ITU's tracker is 2024 data. Lebanon's regulator has had a new board since September 2025, and it is working. On 1 October 2026 the TRA held a workshop on fibre to the home and on reorganising spectrum for fixed wireless access. It said its fibre consultation drew 15 submissions, and its roundtables discussed open access, barriers to private sector participation and separating Ogero's retail and wholesale activities. The TRA said three more consultations would follow, along with class licences for data centres and cybersecurity.
None of that is in the 2024 scores, and none of it is yet a change in the law or the market. The next edition of the tracker will show whether it moves Lebanon's line.
Answer the consultations. Fifteen submissions shaped the fibre consultation. Every company that depends on connectivity has a view on wholesale access, rights of way and licensing, and the TRA has asked for them. A consultation answered by operators alone will be written for operators.
Get licensed early. The TRA's data centre and cybersecurity class licences are coming. A company that sells hosting, security or connectivity can apply as soon as they open rather than find out later that it needs one. The TRA already publishes guidance on moving from unlicensed to licensed internet networks.
Design for the network as it is. 5 GB of mobile data costs 3.03 percent of monthly income per person, above the 2 percent target. A product that works on less data, or caches what it can, is a product more people can afford to use.
Watch the line items, not just the score. Infrastructure sharing, number portability, internet calling and a broadband plan are each a single indicator on ITU's card. When one changes, a market opens for someone.
We are not saying state ownership is the problem. Cyprus owns its main fixed operator and scores 89.7.
We are not saying Lebanon's structure explains its prices. On ITU's baskets, Jordan, with an open market, pays more of its income for mobile data.
We are not ranking. ITU publishes tables, but we give scores, as in our earlier posts.
We are not claiming a cause, and we do not say who runs the mobile networks day to day in 2026. The sources we read this week do not settle it.
What we are saying is narrower. Lebanon's state owns every network, the market the 2002 law described has not arrived, and ITU's tracker records the result: a score of 20.3 where three comparable peers score between 86 and 89.7. The price list hides that gap. The rule book shows it. We will re-read both when ITU publishes its next editions.
The full record of Lebanese AI companies, builders and events, each entry with its source, is on the register.
Sources
Written for Club Cedro. If something here is wrong, say so and it gets corrected with the correction left visible.
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