8 Megabit DSL FINALLY comes to (parts of) Jordan
Internet access in our office (and also at home) has been ranging from “somewhat bad” to “unusable” for the past 2 weeks. My trust in the country’s telecom providers is at a low point..
BUT.. There is some good news I can share. 4 and 8 Mbit is coming to town. Actually, only part of town: Dabouq, Abdoun, Irbid, Fuhais, Aqaba. Yet I am sure that eventually other places will get the service in the future.
We’ve been waiting for YEARS for this.
Both Orange (click for price list) and Zain (nothing on their site yet) announced this in newspaper ads today and I immediately called both companies to check out the offers.
8 MBit is JD 646 JD per year at both companies, inclusive of connection fee, bandwidth and sales tax. In other words that’s all you pay.
4 MBit at Orange is JD 538 per year (15 Gigs of download per month) and 2MBit is JD 430 (10 Gigs of download per month). All of this is under a service called Bitstream which combines connection fee with bandwidth fees, as I mentioned above. Notice that under this service the 2Mbit connection now has less download Gigs (it is 12 Gigs under the current offer I am on).
Zain give you open, unmetered download at night, from 10:30 pm to 7 am.
Orange sell extra bandwidth FFFFIIIINNNAAALLLLYYYY at JD 3 per Gigabyte. Expensive but convenient.
Unfortunately, Orange used some misleading advertising to get people fired up today. They say “unlimited download” in their ad.
When I inquired about this, the sales rep explained that this applies only to the first month! COME ON! When are big companies and ad agencies realize this is a bad practice.
So where does this put Jordan..
I checked a few US and European DSL providers and also checked out what Etisalat was doing in the UAE.
I found out that European and US providers also use all kinds of marketing tricks to obscure the real monthly price. But, for example, the aggressive Alice DSL in Germany charge only 25 Euros per month for flat rate access which goes up 16 MBit.
The US has SERIOUSLY fallen behind in the world of internet access. Not all ISP even have 8Mbit. At Speakeasy DSL a 6Mbit service costs US$ 99 per month. Yet AT&T sells 6Mbit at US$ 35. Check out this site for comparisons.
On the Emiratemac forum, I found a discussion about 4Mbit access in the UAE, which apparently cost 450 Dhs (almost JD 100) per month. Very expensive! A poster from Sweden says that he uses a 100 Mbit LAN connection in Sweden for the equivalent of JD 30 a month.
Another user on the forum reported that South Korea has a residential connection of 18 Mbit downstream and 6 Mbit upstream for roughly around US$ 39 (JD 28).
At Dubai other telecom provider, Du, an 8 Mbit connection cost Dhs 599 (that’s JD 120). The highest speed at Du is 12 Mbit (costs Dhs 750).
When we compare ourselves to Europe and Korea, high speed access in Jordan is expensive. But we can at least compare ourselves to the UAE (and even the US) and see that prices in Jordan are moving in the right direction.
The important issue is not just speed but quality of service. As I said, the past period has been pure hell. My business was definitely badly affected by the outages and slowness. The new speeds should come with more serious attention to quality of service. Data access is not a luxury but a lifeline to many people and businesses.
Needless to say, I hope that coverage also expands from those few areas to the rest of the country.
Most probably, I will be going for the 8Mbit connection at home (I live in one of the lucky areas). If it works out, I will post my experience here. So stay tuned.
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November 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I was fast scrolling waiting to read about Japan, but you have missed some major news here..
KDDI has just launched the 1Gbps connection here. Yes, internet our homes. And guess what? thats only for 50$/month, with ofcourse, unlimited downloads.
Check my blog, I have a funny entry describes the situation when I tried to ask KDDI ISP about how much download limit they put on my 100Mbps connection!! lool!
November 12th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
It is really amazing to see that Orange internet is meeting our demands with higher speeds, unfortunately i live in un-covered 8M area, but Orange took my details and they will contact me again once enough applications received from my area (this is excellent step!!), but the good news is my office within the covered area!! Business 8M for 79 JD is incredible price with 22 GB download limit, thats more than what I need even! I wonder why Zain do not offer it high speeds for business, but anyhow I am happy Orange didn’t put high prices for Business 8M although they are the only ISP offering high speeds for business.
i hope they will extend the unlimited download for 8M more than 1 month as mentioned on Orange website.
I wonder what is the next step after 8M? I am curious
November 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Many users in the US have cable internet instead of DSL. My cable connection offers me 8Mbits for $30 per month. The good thing is that it is fast and reliable. I could pay more for faster service, but 8Mbits is a standard package and is fast enough for me.
My frustration with my internet in Jordan was that I was paying for 2Mbits and rarely received more than 1.5Mbits. And then once I exceeded my download limit, my speed was cut significantly for the remainder of the month.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:10 am
in Romania, not a much developed country, at least not more than us, 20Mbps costs 39 Euro/month (its 78 euros but they have a 6months free for 1 year down payment) without any bandwidth limitation and with a static IP address, a .ro domain name and 50 MB hosting, and 10 email addresses
http://www.clicknet.ro/ro/promo9
November 13th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I am really disappointed that Zain is not transparent about the download limitation! when you exceed the 10 GB (that you will definitely exceed it in less than a week with 8Mbps speed!) your speed will go down for 64 kbps until the end of the month!!
lets take the bright side though, Orange internet will give you 20 GB downloads and 2Mbps after exceeding the 20 GB, that’s what I call AMAZING! it worth paying little more for a better speed at least, hope i will be on 8M today, 24 hours it needs to upgrade Orange promised.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
This is a pleasant news indeed but I still can’t understand the bandwidth cap limitation, I mean in worst case scenario they shouldn’t limit our consumption to less than 80 GB a month for 8 MB, however I’d be very happy for half of that but not sure about 20GB a month with 8MB.
Buffering couple of Google or Youtube Video would consume all of my bandwidth even if I don’t want to watch all of the movie, do we have to shape our own Internet now to avoid consuming the bandwidth limit?
November 13th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Ya Zalameh you scared the hell outta me! the first page I read in your blog was by a search about the Apple iSystem store, I felt so behind since it was written somewhere near 2006. then I read this one. I REALLY FELT LIKE A CAVE MAN.
but then I realized it was written during the past week.. poooof!! LOL! keep it up i like your blog (which is something I rarely say)
November 14th, 2008 at 1:07 am
A “normal” DSL speed in Italy is 8-12 Mbps and the cost is 25-30 € per month, including unlimited local calls by phone. The “top” offer is a 24 Mbps for now. No download limits for any type of contract.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:19 am
I wonder how two supposedly competing companies end up proposing the same thing (almost) at exactly the same price (646 JOD per year according to your post. Where is the competition? It does not sound like a coincidence that both companies end up with exactly the same price. In theory, Orange should be more expensive as their offer is better but Zain does not seem to really want to compete but just follow Orange. If the competition was working then Orange would/should propose the same package as in France. 29.99 Euro for ADSL uptil 18 MB (no strange download limitation), national calls for free, and up to 60 free tv-channels. See offer here ( in French) http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/accueil/accueil.aspx?idb=1. If competiotion was better Orange would also be required to provide better service – considering the fall outs during the last two weeks.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Orange will provide 4 and 8MB internet to the rest of West Amman parts on the 20th of December 2008.
From inside sources in Orange!
November 14th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
This is great news , I will consider upgrading to 8Mb when my area is included in the service.
November 15th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Zain 1st to launched it but with less GBs, but they have amazing serivce where you can recharge your account with extra GB just by sending SMS. coool
November 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I wonder when they will offer 16mgbit in Jordan. It really doesn’t matter as even the 2 mbit lines don’t work at 1 mgbit speeds half the time. This is like the wild west when people sold medication like “snake oil” to cure a broken leg. The Jordanian people are getting ripped off by the telecom companies when it comes to internet. The connection stinks, the service is attrocious and they constantly over bill you.
I’m announcing now, exlusive 100 mgbit service in Jordan, 30 GB limit for 200 JD. Just don’t check the download speed or quality!
November 19th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Rumor is that Umniah are going to release 20mb or 30 mb connection early 2009
November 25th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
In the USA we have an internet service called FIOS (Fiber Optic Service) which provides 20 Mbps, a free wireless Router, free installation, unlimited Bandwidth usage, unlimited WIFI, first month free, for only $53,000. Also, you have the option to upgrade to 50 Mbps with no limited Bandwidth usage for $140 a month. DSL is still an option in the USA but is no longer popular. What I don’t understand is the limited usage of 20 Gigs in Amman.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Sorry, that was $53 per month for 20 Mbps (not $53,000).