Kassem wrote2) And the quote by Nokia Siemens representative made me laugh really really hard.
النمو الضخم الذي تشهده صناعة الاتصالات في لبنان،
Either this representative is an idiot, or he's full of marketing bullshit that we always here and read about....
No, he is right. Just compare today's internet to what it used to be prior to Bassil's rein.
I have to disagree. The only thing that I noticed during Bassil's rein is the controversial decrease in charge per minute for cellphone calls. I say controversial because, for prepaid users, while you're paying less for recharging your cellphone with credit, you're at the same time receiving less minutes to call.
Anyways, what did anyone of the ministers do? Nothing substantial in my opinion. So the talk of an enormous growth is very wrong. Examples:
DSL quality: same shit as always. Horrendous ping times, slow speed packages for outrageous prices and limited quotas. Promises of increase in international bandwidth and fiber optics have been said too many times and nothing has been done yet. Na77as promised that by May of this year that we'll start seeing new things. A while back, they delayed their promise to somewhere by the end of the year or the beginning of next year. I won't be surprised if we'll see a glimpse of improvement until next summer.
Cellphones: bad coverage of the mobile networks. Average EDGE connections. High prices despite last year's decrease. Government monopoly on the matter makes things even worse.
Internet: Ogero monopoly. No comment. Fixed IP???? Nope. Pay more and you'll get that.
International bandwidth: we're still on the same low disgusting bandwidth. Last I've heard that we had 2.3 Gbps. What happened to the IMEWE? Why is it landing in Tripoli? Isn't it easier for them to land it in Beirut and then go from there to the North and South and all over Lebanon? (I don't have anything against Tripoli, its just that Beirut is in the middle of the sea front of Lebanon and it would have been more logical)
Fiber optics: Promises. Promises. Promises.
ISP interconnectivity: this is one of the most bewildering things I've ever seen. Example, for me to connect with someone in Ogero's network (using IDM), my data travels all over the world and comes back. I mean, WTH?
And the list can go on and on and on....
It saddens me that countries like the UAE where they're providing FTTH tech to every home, apartment, school and university, we're still struggling to provide even decent DSL connections to the consumers. We're a smaller country and we do have the resources. Just look at the numbers coming out from the MoT and you start to wonder where the hell is all that money going.
......................... One word: TI3TEER.......
