LebGeeks

bermudapineapple

Member

Net neutrality in Lebanon

We all know from the news that it's going out the window pretty soon in the US. From what I've read, the EU has some strong regulation on the internet, so they're keeping theirs. What of Lebanon? We all know the ISPs and certain political figures here in Lebanon are hand in glove. Also I can't help but feel the ISPs here are money-grabbers and will do anything for another buck. Does that increase the risk?

rolf

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

Something I don't understand about this whole net neutrality thing, beside not fully grasping the whole concept, is why fix something if it's not broken? Of course beside the obvious motives of self interest and having power and influence and excuses for charging money where you're not really needed.

Joe

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

In a nutshell: Internet as we know it today is neutral, however its neutrality is under attack by corporations. What's neutrality? It means that operators give all Internet traffic the same importance, and not give any special treatment to those who can afford it.

Imagine a data plan with a quota of 2GB per month but unlimited traffic to Youtube. That would be analogous to having exclusive roads for people who can afford it, while the rest of us suffer in traffic.

rolf

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

In a nutshell: Internet as we know it today is neutral, however its neutrality is under attack by corporations. What's neutrality?

Says who? I don't see it.

Joe

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

random link that summarizes the situation. Europe was going through something similar, but the European parliament rejected an unneutral law proposal recently.

bermudapineapple

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

Think of electricity, rolf. Internet is supposed to be treated like electricity. You pay your bills, you get your electricity that you can use in ANY way you want. But imagine the electricity company comes to your house and says, "okay, if you want to light up your pretty garden, you have to pay a little more. Oh, you want to power your elevator? Pay this much more." Of course, you have to pay more for more electricity if you need it, but let's say you and another house have the same electricity delivered. But with your elevator and your garden, the electricity company just decides you're going to pay more because they have the right. That's ridiculous. Now just substitute electricity for internet. "Oh, you want to browse YouTube without buffering? Get our supreme package! Lagging in Facebook? Get this package!" It's not about paying for more bandwidth. You'll have the exact same bandwidth as me, but you'll pay more because you want a lag-free connection to YouTube whilst my connection to YouTube will be throttled.

Net neutrality is basically the idea that no matter what you do or what I do, the speed of your internet and its connections to ANY website should ONLY be judged by your bandwidth. They're taking that away in the US.

And it just got me thinking of Lebanon since the ISPs here seem like money-grabbers.

MrKeuner

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The time has come. 20 cents per day, $6 monthly, for Whatsapp et al. data calls. They're not only considering doing this on cellular, they're also considering implementing the same through Ogero and ISPs.

Source: Al-Akhbar, "حكومة الواتساب: 6 دولارات على كل مشترك زيادة الضرائب على الاتصالات والبنزين والدخان... ولا مسّ بالأثرياء," October 17, 2019.

xazbrat

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The time has come. 20 cents per day, $6 monthly, for Whatsapp et al. data calls. They're not only considering doing this on cellular, they're also considering implementing the same through Ogero and ISPs.

Source: Al-Akhbar, "حكومة الواتساب: 6 دولارات على كل مشترك زيادة الضرائب على الاتصالات والبنزين والدخان... ولا مسّ بالأثرياء," October 17, 2019.

These rumors come up once a month--I would advise ignoring until you hear other factual news.  The last news item I saw was from LBC too, so just ignore and move on.  People like believing these kinds of items.

Johnaudi

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The time has come. 20 cents per day, $6 monthly, for Whatsapp et al. data calls. They're not only considering doing this on cellular, they're also considering implementing the same through Ogero and ISPs.

Source: Al-Akhbar, "حكومة الواتساب: 6 دولارات على كل مشترك زيادة الضرائب على الاتصالات والبنزين والدخان... ولا مسّ بالأثرياء," October 17, 2019.

Will never work, free VPN exists.

duke-of-bytes

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The time has come. 20 cents per day, $6 monthly, for Whatsapp et al. data calls. They're not only considering doing this on cellular, they're also considering implementing the same through Ogero and ISPs.

Source: Al-Akhbar, "حكومة الواتساب: 6 دولارات على كل مشترك زيادة الضرائب على الاتصالات والبنزين والدخان... ولا مسّ بالأثرياء," October 17, 2019.

Will never work, free VPN exists.

not when dpi is implemented

Johnaudi

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

not when dpi is implemented

I'd love to see DPI-SSL on every packet sent over the network, as if our latency wasn't enough.

vengeance666

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

It has been approved by the government. All the ministers approved it. It was suggested by the telecom ministry on the 2020 budget plan. Other things which were approved were 12% VAT rate and 15% on luxury items, more taxes on petrol products (750LL increase on بنزين if my memory serves right), 2000 LL increase on imported cigarettes and 750LL on locally made cigarettes.

Last edited by vengeance666 (October 17 2019)

xazbrat

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

wow--they are serious about this.  Let's see what exactly they are proposing.first because the details seem sketchy.  I also would like to know how they will impose this---people in UAE can't use calling services and still use VPN's without many issues.  I do think this will fail though---the telecoms have to evolve and try to get income from other sources than phone calls.

Hybrid

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

Still DPI can be bypassed in many ways

lasho?

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

Just FYI with the upcoming events, slightly off topic, but aruba.it has Italian VPS server for $1 a month, I've setup an *IPSec/l2tp with a simple script, took few minutes, and got the best pings to valve(steam) and torrent performance. I could not find any other ready to use VPN service that do ~50-60ms to most European servers (tested in Lebanon), NordVPN behaved very differently in KSA with much better results in comparison. Would appreciate a recommendation for one click setup to be used for gaming.

*android/ios/windows support is native without any installation.

I would be surprised if they can block VPS based VPNs, KSA does block most popular VPN services.

Last edited by lasho? (October 17 2019)

Tech Guru

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

Nothing will happen. After the strikes & mass movements due accumulated tough economical situation:

Either  government will resign or all tax hikes suggestions , including the whatsapp one, will be pulled from any further discussions.

rolf

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

All Tax hikes suggestions , including the whatsapp one, will be pulled from any further discussions.

This is great.

If the people keep blocking attempts to increase tax, and if the IMF and other international institutions block loans (like they are doing now because the government has not passed a budget yet) then hopefully they will be forced to look into and solve corruption and mismanagement which are causing so much money to be wasted.

Sorry, going off topic, but you started it!

Also, I don't want to go any further into "politics", I just think this is important. This comment is more about policies than politics, BTW.

Last edited by rolf (October 19 2019)

Tech Guru

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

All Tax hikes suggestions , including the whatsapp one, will be pulled from any further discussions.

This is great.

If the people keep blocking attempts to increase tax, and if the IMF and other international institutions block loans (like they are doing now because the government has not passed a budget yet) then hopefully they will be forced to look into and solve corruption and mismanagement which are causing so much money to be wasted.

Sorry, going off topic, but you started it!

Also, I don't want to go any further into "politics", I just think this is important. This comment is more about policies than politics, BTW.

I agree.

The Tax issue is the tip of the Iceberg that caused the whole mass strikes. The rotten 30+ years of political structure that has been  controlled by ex war lords need to be changed to decrease corruption and money leakages in Million USDs. Other wise , the country budget  deficit & public  debt(mainly domestic debt that is the primary cause)  have been and will always  increase. Taxes will always be imposed , regardless of any proposed policies they structure. It is like a a water tank that has a hole in it.

Last edited by Tech Guru (October 19 2019)

eWizzard

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The rotten 30+ years of political structure that has been  controlled by ex war lords need to be changed to decrease corruption and money leakages in Million USDs.

You mean the same structure that got you your well-paying government job at the NSSF? ?

Tech Guru

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The rotten 30+ years of political structure that has been  controlled by ex war lords need to be changed to decrease corruption and money leakages in Million USDs.

You mean the same structure that got you your well-paying government job at the NSSF? ?

You need at the end institutions.  A change in the political structure will enhance the NSSF institution as a whole. 1050 emoylees providing services for 2 million + citizens , part of it is the employment deficiency & rejections to employ people. By the way NSSF generate its own money , not government related.

Last edited by Tech Guru (October 20 2019)

rolf

Member

Re: Net neutrality in Lebanon

The rotten 30+ years of political structure that has been  controlled by ex war lords need to be changed to decrease corruption and money leakages in Million USDs.

Agreed, that would be great but it will take times, there needs to be elections, people need to be prepared, new candidates prepared, the the new parliament needs to elect new faces (hopefully).

For now I am happy that they cannot use their old tricks anymore.