• Lobby

  • 3G Price and MB Changes for Touch & Alfa

Effective May 7,2013

3.9G Old Offers 3.9G New Offers (effective as of May 7, 2013)
$10 – 100MB $10 – 150MB
$19 – 500MB $19 – 750MB
$32 – 1GB $29 – 1.5GB
$79 – 3GB $49 – 3GB
$99 – 5GB $69 – 5GB

https://www.touch.com.lb/autoforms/portal/touch/39g-new-offers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfa

@maulader yep mtc is still better alfa unless you are a university student, nothing beats uchat 17 for university students
about uchat: what happens if you exceed the 40 MB quota perday do they let you or charge you?
also this is the first time i notice that alfa has something that touch doesnt have
Gamer wroteabout uchat: what happens if you exceed the 40 MB quota perday do they let you or charge you?
also this is the first time i notice that alfa has something that touch doesnt have
Bro, as an alfa personnel, I can tell you that alfa has a lot of things that touch doesn't have!
Although I'm not in that department, I'm a technical engineer but I do have a little idea about the offers and other stuff:
-Alfa had the special military line that sold beyond expectations by far and is still a success! I guess touch doesn't have that!-
-As you said this Uchat offer for university students is amazing!
-I don't know if alfa2alfa or such similar stuff exist in touch offers!

One thing I can insure you, is that we at alfa are much much more professional!
I'm not saying this coz I work there! No!
Let's talk about what my field of work! I'm a civil engineer and I make the implementation plans for new radio sites or transmission sites that will be built! I wish you can see our implementation plans and touch implementation plans!
With all do respect, it's like comparing Messi to me let's say! They draw like a baby kid without any details, annotations, levels, no layers, etc... and many other things!
Besides, we make design and verification for buildings that would host these sites! They usually don't! They tell contractors please implement the same construction that alfa uses in their sites! (the contractors told us that!)

I know this is mostly useless for most people! People don't see that! In the end it's sales/revenues that talk and good marketing! (That's main touch strength).
But I'm trying to make a point here! At the end, I think/hope these additional efforts should pay off!
Each duck quack for his swamp :)
LifeEngineer, i don't know about professionality, but in Bsalim where i live Alfa coverage is worst for years. Touch works perfect.It is valid for all my neighbours, who is swearing at Alfa.
In Embassy (Baabda area) where i works sometimes also Alfa doesn't work at all at most places in building, while Touch works perfect.
I have seen also in office, Dora, Touch 3G base - it's done pretty well, i can't judge it's bad, it's a solid installation.
That's a facts i seen personally.
nuclearcat wroteEach duck quack for his swamp :)
LifeEngineer, i don't know about professionality, but in Bsalim where i live Alfa coverage is worst for years. Touch works perfect.It is valid for all my neighbours, who is swearing at Alfa.
In Embassy (Baabda area) where i works sometimes also Alfa doesn't work at all at most places in building, while Touch works perfect.
I have seen also in office, Dora, Touch 3G base - it's done pretty well, i can't judge it's bad, it's a solid installation.
That's a facts i seen personally.
You're right but that proves nothing! In many other areas Alfa coverage is better than Touch! I know that coz we do make site visits to many locations in Lebanon and we hear the feedback! Sometimes it is swearing as you said and sometimes it is compliments! So it depends!

However, this year and next one, many new sites are planned and coverage in whole Lebanon should improve especially 3G!

You know current 3G frequency in Lebanon for alfa is 2100MHz! This gives great coverage but only at short distance and has low penetration while the standard 2G is 800/900 MHz and has great penetration and travels much more distances! Now we are working on installing additional 3G antennas at 900MHz! This will give also better 3G coverage! Far better!
You will start feeling the difference by the end of the year, I hope!

Peace!
3 answers have been written, none answers the question that gamer asked. I'm gonna answer it then, if you exceed the 40mb quota per day, you'll be using the Mb that you have (250mb per month).

See when you subscribe to uchat, they give you 250mb per month, and then if you apply for the university offer they'll give you an additional 40mb per day, so when you need more you'll be using the 250 that you already have as far as i know, i'm applying to the university offer today, i'll update my answer if it wasn't correct.

And if you need more than 40mb and you ran out of the 250mb you had, they'll charge you, i don't know how much, but the fees are more expensive than the fees for the normal alfa prepaid services.
LifeEngineer - i never heard about significant areas where Alfa better.
I am not talking about 3G, i am talking about basic voice, it is not working properly and it was not working properly. And even if coverage good, my calls often cut in the middle after 2-3 minutes of talking. Sorry guys, it's 2013, it's SUCKS, and it's highly unprofessional. Don't call yourself professional please, before you fix basic issues of telephony on your network.
Yes in some areas with good coverage 3G internet became somehow a bit faster, but thats it.
Ah yes, and about 3G. To compare with KSA, where i was able to put my phone in car, run Skype with video and show my family camera view while driving, here it is not even close to run clear voice call skype to skype while standing still in location with good coverage.
One sidenote, i hacked a little bit in their network, and checked QoS settings, it was very clever way done. Here i didnt notice QoS at all.
@LifeEngineer i'm an alfa subscriber, i have uchat 17, you guys let me have 20 calls from monday to friday and 40 calls in weekends, assuming that each call is <= to 1 min.

i already used most of those 20 calls. While mtc gives you 2h and you can spend them whenever you like, they didn't say 1h from monday to friday and...

mtc is still better, and yes thank you alfa for giving us plenty of mb and sms, but who uses sms these days? you either call or whatsapp, and i guess the 300 mb limit that mtc gives is more than enough, every place you go has wifi these days, and if you weren't a university student, mtc will give you more mb.

If and only if you would have given us, the alfa subscribers, more time to talk, then you'd be better than mtc, besides mtc charges 14$ you charge 17$.
LifeEngineer wrote
Gamer wroteabout uchat: what happens if you exceed the 40 MB quota perday do they let you or charge you?
also this is the first time i notice that alfa has something that touch doesnt have
Bro, as an alfa personnel, I can tell you that alfa has a lot of things that touch doesn't have!
Although I'm not in that department, I'm a technical engineer but I do have a little idea about the offers and other stuff:
-Alfa had the special military line that sold beyond expectations by far and is still a success! I guess touch doesn't have that!-
-As you said this Uchat offer for university students is amazing!
-I don't know if alfa2alfa or such similar stuff exist in touch offers!

One thing I can insure you, is that we at alfa are much much more professional!
I'm not saying this coz I work there! No!
Let's talk about what my field of work! I'm a civil engineer and I make the implementation plans for new radio sites or transmission sites that will be built! I wish you can see our implementation plans and touch implementation plans!
With all do respect, it's like comparing Messi to me let's say! They draw like a baby kid without any details, annotations, levels, no layers, etc... and many other things!
Besides, we make design and verification for buildings that would host these sites! They usually don't! They tell contractors please implement the same construction that alfa uses in their sites! (the contractors told us that!)

I know this is mostly useless for most people! People don't see that! In the end it's sales/revenues that talk and good marketing! (That's main touch strength).
But I'm trying to make a point here! At the end, I think/hope these additional efforts should pay off!
-
I can certifie that in Zahle area, Touch 3G is much better than Alfa. I Had to switch to Touch in order to get reliable connection and coverage.
@LifeEngineer, I am sure that in your field, you are very professional, and is really great to see someone who works for a company being so enthusiastic and energetic, (if only all employees could be like that). But saying that alfa is professional is just not true, if they were professional for, let's say, the last 3 years, we would be able to give a normal standard voice call without interruption today (the least we can expect, especially for what they charge us !)

But let's try to be constructive here, as you work for alfa, could you give us update about the 4G program ? ( when will it be available, which areas first, is the work well done, ect...)

Off topic: i remember when Touch started their first 3g testing with something like 5000 people, we had a temporary antenna to cover my university (ESIB mansourieh) but after the testing they removed it and now half of my uni is not covered with 3g anymore, i mean like, manousrieh, USJ campus, not covered by 3g, if you were looking for something unprofessional i just gave you an exemple. :p
Haha guys! Calm down!
You answer me as if I'm alfa owner or something! Believe me I'm under-paid and not so happy tbh...

As I said I'm not defending alfa, I was just stating some facts, that's it! I never said alfa is better! I'm not kidding myself, yes touch is still better! However alfa is making progress and future will prove that!
On another note, alfa is working on connecting sites by fiber optic! In fact, that's a government decision and both alfa and touch are abiding to it! So no heroism there!
About Ads and creativity, yes they have better marketing team/ideas but in my opinion I just hate those Ads! Most of them are not ethical! (funny, cool but not ethical). They consider bashing the opponent (alfa) as a primary point in all their ads and I just disgust that! Alfa never did that and never will! They just concentrate on the service/product!
About the offers, MBs, sms, calls times and etc... I really don't have any idea! I have a postpaid line!
One more thing, we are not comparing to any other country! In fact we (both alfa and touch) barely reach maybe 5mbps download speed while HSDPA+ can reach 21mbps easily! So it's no real 3G and the upcoming LTE will be the same!
I, for instance, prefer a good working 2G and 3G (with real HSDPA+ speeds) and I couldn't give a shit about LTE!

@Draguen Thank you for those nice words! 
I don’t know a lot about LTE. All I know is that it will only be available in Beirut, at least in the first phase.
Now it’s testing phase and LTE antennas are being dispatched in many sites in Beirut and big malls.
LifeEngineer wrote-Alfa had the special military line that sold beyond expectations by far and is still a success! I guess touch doesn't have that!-
Actually, they do.
LifeEngineer wroteHaha guys! Calm down!
You answer me as if I'm alfa owner or something! Believe me I'm under-paid and not so happy tbh...

As I said I'm not defending alfa, I was just stating some facts, that's it! I never said alfa is better! I'm not kidding myself, yes touch is still better! However alfa is making progress and future will prove that!
Personally i hate such phrases:
One thing I can insure you, is that we at alfa are much much more professional!
In middle east there is a lot people who are very self-confident and they think they are pro, but in fact their knowledge is below zero. Scary thing, that people believe in their splurges.
You can say "i'm pro", after someone will judge your work, and say "wow, really this guy super".
poor LifeEngineer, i think you should delete your post.
anyway good luck with your career.
Out of curiosity, what kind of speeds are you guys getting from these services ?
mezin wroteOut of curiosity, what kind of speeds are you guys getting from these services ?


It used to be over 2 Mbps over one year ago, now days it never get past 500 Kbps. I thought about calling touch, but after my experience with them, I find it helpless. Can any touch 3g subscriber confirm this speed drop?

Edit:
ironman wrotepoor LifeEngineer, i think you should delete your post.
I consider this to be rude, excuse me ironman for saying this without actually knowing the real you, but you should improve your manners.