State telecommunications provider Ogero services were not functioning in Sour, Saida and Nabatieh in South Lebanon on Wednesday, according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area.

Here’s what we know:

    • Ogero employees announced on Monday an open-ended strike starting Tuesday to demand better wages. “We are suspending maintenance and operating work without exception on the whole territory, until wages are paid in proportion to current living conditions,” the Executive Council of the Syndicate of Ogero Employees and Workers said in a statement issued at the time.

    • Ogero employees have gone on several strikes since the economic crisis in 2019 unfolded, the most recent being in July, citing “salaries that are too low” and the fact that employees have to pay the cost of transportation to work from their wages, which “remain aligned at unacceptable levels,” the employees said in their statement.

    • Alfa and Touch mobile operators are also not working in Saida, Sour, and Nabatieh, according to our correspondent.

    • Ogero could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday morning.

    • Alfa, Touch and Ogero increased their rates on July 1, a measure seen as a necessary step to ensure the survival of Lebanese telecoms, given the sharp depreciation of the lira.