How Telecoms Survived the Israeli-Lebanese War

Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) has published a report on how it's Lebanese operations were affected during the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in July 2006. The report contains unique insights in to the reliability of telecoms infrastructure throughout the conflict and examines the reasons why mobile communications played a pivotal role in ensuring that families stayed in touch, the population received food and medical supplies to the correct locations and emergency services could effectively plan their disaster response procedures.

In Lebanon, the company operates as MTC Touch through a four year management accord that commenced June 2004.

The report sets a benchmark by providing lessons in global crisis planning - most notably in less developed regions such as in Africa and Asia - and it establishes the role that mobile telecommunications can play in the marshalling of emergency resources and the co-ordination of rescue efforts. One practical example showcases how the use of SMS technology allowed embassies to evacuate their nationals in a fast and effective manner.

• Mobile phones played a vital role in communications during the Lebanon conflict of July-August 2006. Call volumes jumped by almost 40% in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak of hostilities.
• Mobiles proved essential in keeping people in touch during the massive movement of people from the south of the country to other regions and overseas. Call volumes fell almost 60% in the south and increased elsewhere.
• Call patterns also show the role played by mobiles in allowing Lebanese people overseas to stay in touch with friends and family during the conflict: the volume of these roaming calls reached a peak 85% higher than the average for the months before July.
• The increase in demand, coupled with damage to the network due to bombing, led to a sharp increase in call congestion, but this was relatively short lived. Re-routing of traffic and repairs and new investment took measures of congestion back towards their pre-war levels within a few weeks.
• Calls from mobiles to the emergency services not surprisingly jumped on several days. There was also a dramatic surge in subscriptions to an SMS news service for the duration of the war.
• Within a very short period of the ceasefire, the earlier trends of growth in use of SMS and voice calls seemed to have been resumed, which is particularly impressive in view of the movement of substantial numbers of people and the physical damage sustained by the network.
• The patterns of mobile use in Lebanon during the summer of 2006 confirm the finding from other emergencies of the importance to individuals of access to communication provided by mobiles, and the resilience of the network compared to other parts of the communications infrastructure.
• The contribution of mobile in Lebanon during this period occurred despite the country's relatively low mobile penetration rate and high call charges. An important policy question going forward will be how to ensure most effectively the spread of mobile use through the population.

Commenting on the research, Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEO of MTC Group, said "While the universal availability of mobile telecommunication services is now taken for granted in many geographies, our research on the Lebanese conflict shows that robust mobile telecoms can deliver cost effective and immediate relief in the most testing of circumstances - even where customer bases are relatively under-developed".

You can download the report (pdf file, 64 pages) from the MTCTelecom website."

Posted to the site on 3rd July 2007