For over an hour I have been staring at my Linksys DSL modem status. The DSL connection is “Up”, Downstream is 8190 Kbps, Upstream is 486 Kbps and QoS is UBR which I assume is UBER which is supposed to be good (since I’m offline I can’t even go and check). Everything seems to be okay yet somehow the gateway interface is “DOWN” and has been down for almost 2 hours.
The fact that DSL connection up means that the signal should be good, yet somehow I cannot “dial in” the beloved STC Afaq DSL servers. That’s the only assumption I have: STC’s servers simply can’t handle the load and they should buy some servers already!
Why did I reboot the DSL modem in the first place? Because the Upstream was only 100Kbps and it made accessing the web slower. That’s it: I won’t reboot my modem even if the Upstream was 1Kbps. It’s not worth being offline for that.
Now we have Mobily: the iPhones in some parts of Riyadh are having problems connecting to Mobily’s cell towers. iPhones simply lose the cell network and stuck on “Searching”. So now I can’t even use the iPhone to connect to the Internet, leaving me offline for this night.
Update on Mobily: disabling 3G fixed it. Thanks Tom Merritt!
I will probably post this by the morning and hopefully Internet connection should be back.
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?
Mobily’s iPhone 3GS will be sold in Saudi Arabia this Saturday November 7th 2009. The prices are out for the iPhone 3GS 32GB and 16GB models as well as iPhone 3G 8GB and can be found on SaudiMac.
Only people who reserved an iPhone 3GS on mobily’s site will be able to buy it on the first day.
Update: looking at Netcraft, the server keeps changing from WebSEAL/5.1.0.0 Build 031024 to IBM_HTTP_Server/2.0.47.1-PQ94389 Apache/2.0.47 Win32. So the Apache server must be temporary.
Mobily (second mobile carrier in Saudi Arabia and the country’s exclusive iPhone 3G/3GS provider) is using Apache/2.0.47 (Win32), an extremely outdated version of Apache! Running it on Windows is also a horrible idea!
That explains why is their site functions so slowly. Thanks (haythamkhouja, waiel and yraffah) for pointing this out!
Update 6: This could be the final update. iPhone 3GS in Saudi Arabia on November 7th. If you did not receive an SMS from mobily then you might have a problem with your pre-order!
Update 4: Mobily did not send an SMS regarding the iPhone 3GS until now, so there is a possibility that the iPhone 3GS won’t be released October 27th as expected. Did Etisalat UAE decide to abandon their Saudi partner?
I see a pattern here. STC’s newest ad makes fun of Mobily’s Broadband @ home slow Internet speed.
The ad is a parody of a Mobily ad (which I will post once I find it) where a guy wears goggles to face the “speed” of the Internet connection by Mobily.
Quick translation:
(preparing to download a file)
Guy: “Are you ready?”
Announcer: “Are you surprised by the truth?”
(on screen: 4 hours to finish download)
Announcer: “Your only solution is AFAQ DSL SHAMIL, fastest Internet in Saudi Arabia”.
Mobily attacks their biggest competitor, STC with their latest ad starring Saudi actor Youssef Al Jarrah “يوسف الجراح”. Here’s the ad (Arabic video) and and English translation:
Here’s the translation:
left: (talking to his new born child).
right: congratulations, what will you name him?
left: Nawaf (Neefo as a nickname) Oh yeah you reminded me (dials the phone) I will order Internet access for him.
right: Internet for the newborn?
left: It will be turn once he enters college.
ad guy: with Broadband @ home get the Internet immediately from Mobily.
left: God help them, “all our operators are currently busy”.
The ad takes a shot at STC’s slow support system and to be honest I had my shares of waiting for over 30 minutes for an STC operator. Mobily: Where’s my iPhone 3GS?
The ad war between the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Mobily continues. After STC’s response to Mobily. Mobily has aired the following ad on 9/9/2009. The Mobily employee warns against using inferior products shown by “their brothers”, meaning STC. In the end he said “beware of fake products”.
CITC is being quiet about it. But a few days later STC has edited their ad to remove the “fake device” and Mobily has stopped airing their ad mentioned in this post.
I found this interesting comic on Alriyadh newspaper:
The title is “ad wars” and the two women in this ad are dressed in the traditional logo colors of STC and Mobily. Guess the ad war is good for the consumer, no?
This is not the first ad war between the 2 companies. It happened before in 2006 and you can read about it on Arab News.
Starting this Ramadan Mobily has aired some ads showing their Mobily Broadband @ Home service. This ad shows a person installing a DSL land line, happily saying “they are finally installing the Internet”, he did not say “finally” but his expressions show that he is happy that he finally got his DSL Internet connection (from STC).
This second ad is about the wireless features of the modem, it reminds me of the good old days of dial up modems (oh wait, STC DSL still feels like a dial up modem sometimes). The third ad shows people screaming in frustration with their disconnected Internet connections (something I am sure everyone in Saudi Arabia has experienced).
So on September 6th, STC has aired a counter advertisement which ironically airs at the same time as Mobily ads:
The ad clearly copied how Mobily customer care desks looked like, the blue square logo on the modem and how the modem looked. The customers were trying to get a good signal by extending the modem out of the window. The guy using STC’s service said “they got screwed”.
I am no fan of Mobily; their billing system is inaccurate and they are ruining the iPhone 3G/3GS experience in Saudi Arabia (I got into the details at SaudiMac). STC isn’t any better; Mobily is truly the lesser evil of the two.
Make sure to visit SaudiMac for more iPhone 3GS news. تابعونا في موقع سعودي ماك لأخبار الآيفون.
Apple announced and released the iPhone 3GS last June. Saudi Arabia and UAE won’t get the iPhone 3GS until August 2009.
My theory (conspiracy theory) is because Mark Davis, Program Director for iPhone at etisalat was not quiet about the next iPhone. He said (in February 2009) “And the next version of the device, which is due out in June, will be launched in the UAE at the same time.” The next version of the device was released in June but it was not launched in the UAE at the same time, probably because you couldn’t make a real deal with Apple!
Another thing that annoys me is this, the iPhone 3G sold by Mobily is officially unlocked by Apple yet Mobily employees claim that it is locked until now! Here’s a message from a friend “the next iPhone 3GS would be locked As per mobily marketing team”. Locked?? against CITC’s regulations regarding locked devices? Mobily need to get a clue on what they are doing!
We are closely approaching the iPhone 3GS release month (Mobily hasn’t announced a date) and Mobily hasn’t mde any announcements or even decide to reduce the prices of the current iPhone 3G!
One more thing, a Mobily employee did show me his iPhone 3GS that the company gave some of it’s employees for testing purposes. But there is nothing to test really, the iPhone 3GS is fully functional under Mobily, tethering and MMS work fine. I think he was just showing off. He didn’t know anything about the exact release date or price.
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