Communications in Libya

Television

There are twelve television stations run by the government:

Radio

Private radio stations

• Allibya FM (93.4)

• Tribute FM: An English-language internet station broadcasting from Benghazi. Website

Government run station

The three radio stations are run by the government.

Printed media

There are four daily newspapers, all controlled and monitored by the government-owned press company General Press Corporation.

• Al-Shames (Al-Shames Daily Newspaper)
• AlJamhirya (AlJamahirya Daily Newspaper)
• Alhjadeed (Al-Fajr Aljadeed Daily Newspaper)
• Azzahf Alakhder (Azzahf Alakhder Daily Newspaper)

There are also a number of weekly newspapers.

Cellular and GSM

There are two GSM mobile telephone network operators, both owned by the government:

• Al Madar (Al Madar)
• Libyana

In the course of the 2011 Libyan civil war, the government severed the physical communications links between the rebel-held east and the rest of Libya. However, the newer and less centralised Libyana network held copies of the HLR and engineers were able to restore some local services. With some assistance from the international community, and funded by an expatriate Libyan, a limited international service became available in mid-April. NTC officials were reported to be negotiating with Qtel, the Qatari-owned service provider, to restore full service to the rebel-held areas. ^[1]

Internet in Libya

Internet and telecommunications are mainly run by the government through a semi-private telecommunication company Libya Telecom & Technology. The company moderates and controls the use of the Internet in Libya.

The four ISP's in Libya are:

• AlFalak
• Bayt Al Shams (BsISP)
• Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT)
• Modern World Telecom

The Internet and the civil war

See also: Free speech in the media during the 2011 Libyan civil war

On 18 February 2011, the day after the first protests that were to lead to the 2011 Libyan civil war, Libya appeared to have withdrawn all of its BGP prefix announcements from the Internet for a short period, cutting it off from the rest of the global Internet. The prefix were re-advertised six hours later.^[2]

There was no traffic for several hours on 19 and 20 February. Service picked up over the next few days to almost normal levels until, at 6:00am on 3 March, traffic effectively ceased (except for very limited satellite links). The government had severed the underwater backbone fibre-optic cable that runs along the coast, linking networks in the east and servers in the west of the country. Engineers reckon the break is between the cities of Misrata and Khoms, and may be a physical or electronic rupture.^[3]

From 10 July traffic began increasing again, and after a brief shutdown on 15 July, it was reaching about 15% of its pre-17 February levels up to 22 August, the day Tripoli fell to the rebels. Traffic began increasing again at that point, and (as of 2 September) was reaching daily levels in excess of 50% and often as high as 75% of pre-war levels.^[4]

Statistics

Telephones - main lines in use: 750,000 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 3,250,000 (2007)

Telephone system: telecommunications system is being modernized; mobile cellular telephone system became operational in 1996
domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, cellular, tropospheric scatter, and a domestic satellite system with 14 earth stations
international: satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat, NA Arabsat, and NA Intersputnik; submarine cables to France and Italy; microwave radio relay to Tunisia and Egypt; tropospheric scatter to Greece; participant in Medarabtel (1999)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 3 (2002)

Radios: 1.35 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 12 (plus one low-power repeater) (1999)

Televisions: 730,000 (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 4 (2005)

Internet users: 205,000 (2005)

Country code (Top-level domain): LY

See also

• Libya
• Media in Libya

References

1. ^ Details from Al Jazeera report, here
2. ^ James Cowie (2011-02-18). "Libyan Disconnect". Renesys. http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/02/libyan-disconnect-1.shtml. 
3. ^ Details from an Al Jazeera report dated 23 April 2011 here.
4. ^ For live graphs of Google traffic, which give a reasonable picture of all internet traffic, see here