Khaled rambles technology, tea/coffee, consumer rights and other interest from Saudi Arabia

11Jan/107

STC & Mobily wrongfully claim to be the first HSPA+ carriers (Updated)

Update: Last time I ramble uncaffeinated! fixed facts! Sorry Mobily.

Both the Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) and Mobily has announced yesterday that they are the first to offer HSPA+ (Evolved HSPA with download speeds up to 56Mbit/s!!!). They announced the same thing in at least 2 different Saudi newspapers: AlRiyadh and Al-Eqtisadiah simultaneously!

Here are STC's "news" articles: on AlRiyadh newspaper and Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper (Arabic links). The two articles are identical, in fact they are most likely a press release by STC. STC claims to be the first in the country, however...

Mobily had the same thing: on AlRiyadh newspaper and Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. In addition, the news was also announced in Saudi Gazette English newspaper. The first part was identical to the Arabic press releases however it did include some info about the new Mobily Connect modem promotion. Mobily claimed to be the first in the region, makes no sense because...

STC was wrong!Both were wrong!

At least one telecommunications company had HSPA+ with 21Mbit/s available in the region. Zain Kuwait had HSPA+ since September 2009 (Kuwait News Agency link) and is called e-GO. Isn't Kuwait party of the "region"? So why is Mobily claiming to be the first in the region when Zain Kuwait clearly had it first and who is bringing it first in Saudi Arabia? STC or Mobily? Both claim to be the first. Zain Kuwait actually released an HSPA+ device (Kuwait News Agency link). I found nothing about Zain Kuwait updating their network.

The Big Question

Two major Arabic speaking newspapers (AlRiyadh and Al-Eqtisadiah) published conflicting articles, each claiming to be the first. Why didn't the newspapers verify the information first? How can the readers take them seriously?

Image source: www.sequence.cc/SMS_main.php

Related posts:

  1. STC and Mobily ad wars (part 2)
  2. From STC: 100 megabyte fiber? wait, MEGABYTE?
  3. STC issues 35,000SR bill by mistake (updated)
  4. STC’s new, overhyped logo and ad madness
  5. Updated: STC bribes billing system victims with a lot of free minutes

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  • Abdul

    Hello khaled, it’s my first time visiting your blog, it looks great btw As for the newspapers, It has been and will continue to be the norm for them. I can not count how many times I have found an article that does not make sense or about ridiculously trivial things. Don’t get me started on copy rights also …

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    [Reply]

    Khaled A. Reply:
    January 12th, 2010 at 11:03 am

    welcome to the site! it’s funny, STC considers Mobily’s “Region” to not include Saudi Arabia :p

    the streets has been full of mobily ads for the new service, I saw nothing from STC. I think that STC is leeching off the hype this time.

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  • Waleed Alzuhair

    Hmm… Can I inquire about something: Who cares who was the 1st? The performance by both is shameful.

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    Khaled A. Reply:
    January 12th, 2010 at 11:02 am

    I would like to see Mobily releasing a map of HSPA+

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  • Alex

    Hello Khaled… Why does the news appear unverified? Because newspapers in KSA will run anything from advertisers. It’s as simple as that.

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  • finklestein

    Anyone tell me what the actual download/upload speeds are for these HSPA+ connect sticks in Riyadh? I don’t believe it’ll be anything like 21Mb…..

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  • allan

    my concern is now on zain’s promo.friends package. i subscribe to it hoping to enjoy the package which i am charge a 5sr per week to enjoy my local call at a rate of 15 halala/min. but since i started this promo, i was always cheated by their system. so many times it happened that i was deducted 5sr from my account but i am not enjoying the 15halala/min rate. i always maked a call and complain to their customer service. sometimes, it takes w week to solve my complain. but after solving such problem, i may enjoy it again but later the same problem occurs, and i have to make another complain again. im suffering this problem for maybe 8 months now, and i have lost a lot of 5sr from them, after it was deducted from my account but not enjoying the benefirs of it. is it not a kind of cheating? maybe im not the only person who encountered this kind of problem from them. they must have corrected their system showing concerns to the lossing parties like me.now that ive suffered too much from this issues, i have to voice it out i here, hoping for some other parties to show theit concern and have zain correct their system.

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