redbyte wroteI am really tired of people in this country complaining about anything good that comes their way. The 4G LTE launch is a great achievement. You talk about DSL, but here are a few things you need to keep in mind.
1) 4G LTE can replace your DSL entirely. Lets take Ogero for example.172.000LL for 8Mpbs and 30GB. The most expensive package for 4G is 149 dollars which gives you 40GB and much faster downloads. I have tried LTE in my area and get 20Mbps on average. Why would I pay 172,000LL for 8Mbps and 30GB when I can get 20Mbps for 149$ and 40GB (for example) or 20GB for $119 ? Also, 4G speeds will increase further as time goes on.
2) You do realize you can get a dongle or tether your smartphone (once its open to the mobile network next month) and completely use 4G instead of DSL? I personally require significantly better upload speeds as a run a small company, and I now get around 5-8 Mbps upload. Yes this varies from place to place and how to the tower you are, but coverage will improve.
3) As for DSL itself, the Ministry of Telecommunications sent out new pricing, speed and quota to be approved by the council of ministers. DSL would have seen significant increases in speeds but the government resigned which meant that this could not be approved by the council of ministers.
Conclusion: Progress has been made. 4G in Lebanon is a step in the right direction forward. Quotas, prices and speeds will continue to improve in time. We must not forget that this ministry was neglected and corrupt only 3 years ago. The infrastructure was old and poorly maintained. I think we have come a long way in 3 years.
Hello redbyte, I hope you're enjoying this happy weekend afternoon. To start, no one complained about 4G! They, in fact, we asked for more concentration on DSL improvement. Having 4G in Lebanon is
AMAZING!!! Our mobile data technology is now the best you can get in this world (not the pricing of course). Hence 4G launch is welcomed by everyone who posted, and who didn't post too.
We talk about DSL because it's more important, we have 3G with a slow DSL connection, why going 4G while we can spend our resources(Budget, workers, stations, abilities, and so on) on improving the DSL services. Just to make the idea a little bit more simple:" What we did in this step is like buying the latest i7 Laptop that we use for business and studies (and we already have an i3 laptop that is more than sufficient for our work), while we still have a Core2Duo desktop in the back, when we're really into gaming and enthusiast media..." Got it?
Thanks for your 3 arguments, but excuse me, they are not valid for Lebanese users (International users anyway):
1)That was a punch in the nose for me!!! Mate you really want me to pay hundreds of bucks for an equivalent 8Mbps ADSL service, when the world averages at 13.6Mbps download speed??! What you said is absolutely correct, and applicable, but paying for ADSL services as much as paying for mobile service is just not on anybody's agenda. Not even the most wealthy rich people in this country, because it's quite irrational. After all 4G wasn't made for home or office usage, it's a mobile data service. That's why we have fiber optics.
2)Argument invalid for preceding reasons. But still I'll accept you're argument controversially, what should those who didn't got even 3G services in their areas do?
3)There is nowhere in the whole world where people just sit, and watch their politicians do wrong for 4 years, and then go and reelect them again. We are suffering from a narrow minded society that needs complete brain washing and re-flashing of a modern Frimware. I'm not allowed to discuss this in this forums, but I'll try to pull it off, people are stuck in wrong beliefs even about their own religions and faith, and even their philosophical view of life. If we could really pick up the right persons for the right jobs, we could have achieved extraordinary results in the internet sector, we have a main internet cable (I forgot it's name :S) passing next to us in the sea, linking Europe to India I guess, we can easily and for a low price get a huge bandwidth, and be one of the leading countries in the DSL domain. Why I'm saying all this, is because the way you (and most of us) see the situation, as a government saying no to more of the good stuff like something usual, pulled my triggers. I'll stop here, that was more than abundant.
Conclusion: You're trying to seek the bright side, that is what we're all trying to do. But the way you're seeing it is plain unaccepltable for the majority of the Lebanese people, maybe those who have 200-300$ to spare every month and living in the capital city can go with your options. But what you suggested is not applicable at all what so ever.
I respect your opinion, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm just giving my point of view(that might be the wrong one).
Regards mate...
*Edit* Bunch of typos :-)