The Lebanese caretaker government has implemented new prices for telecommunication and internet packages.
As scheduled, the new prices were applied today, and let’s just say that it hasn’t been quite what the Lebanese expected.
To put things into perspective, if you had 75,375 LBP in your phone balance, this equaled $50 at the old official rate of 1,507.5 for one dollar. After the change in prices, this today shows in your balance as $2.99 according to Sayrafa’s rate of about 25,200 per dollar.
Not only does this mean that you have to now pay at this new rate to recharge your line, but you also have lost almost 94.02% of your balance before you could even do anything.
This goes on to the other sectors like the internet and all phone services – texting, calling, etc…
Not strange that the Lebanese are reacting to these unfair and unjustified increases in prices, and they have taken to social media to express their rage and frustration.
These are the most notable ones:
Sarcastically speaking as in the voice of the telecom ministry, this Lebanese tweeted: “Dear subscriber, we stole your balance…, we stole your bank account and you didn’t move a bit, …you deserve to be robbed.”
This person expressed how he was ripped off by the decrease in his existing package size knowing that he didn’t receive any prior notice of this happening.
Others felt that the people are part of the problem and so shall not be bothered.
Some of the expressions mentioned in this tweet are related to people who brag about their leaders in Lebanon and follow them without thinking. This is ironic as it portrays that people are part of the problem.
Amid all this, some had a funny take on the situation.
Translates to: “You even deprived us of ‘Dear Subscriber’.”
Translates to: “You have been successfully robbed quietly.”
For the internet packages, Reddit had its share of the reactions:
And the struggles of the Lebanese continue… with more added as they go on.
