'No money left': Lebanese telcos close to meltdown as cable thieves thrive

People queue outside an Alfa telecommunications store in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's telecom duopoly, once cash cows for the state, used to allocate most of their spending on wages, rent and infrastructure.

Now revenues have nosedived, and the biggest cost for Alfa and Touch is diesel for the power generators that - with the country's economic meltdown causing national blackouts on top of a currency crash - they use to run the creaking telecom network.