The TRA has ordered Batelco to stop advertising its BD10 ADSL package immediately, appologise to those who registered, refund any monies collected and issue a press release saying:
“Batelco has today been ordered by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to cease to offer a BD 10 per month, 256 kbits/s DSL package. This is because Batelco failed to meet its obligations under the Telecommunications Law and its License. Batelco apologizes to its consumers in that it has misled them through the advertisements issued that it could offer such packages when it was aware that it could not do so legally. This announcement is issued persuant to the order to the Authority.”
TRA Order 1/06 :: 14 May ‘06
It would be quite nice and appropriate that Order 2/06 would tell Batelco to remove the threshold limits on the other recent packages it introduced.
other referencesTRA blocks Batelco package :: GDN 15/06/06
June 15th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
FINALLY,
TRA takes action
June 16th, 2006 at 12:32 am
lol…whats going on y did batelco did it in the 1st place…thanks TRA u made me happy
June 16th, 2006 at 10:11 am
But Batelco has hit back and refuses to cow down… check this morning’s GDN. It’s there in the front page and, oddly enough, the ‘apology’ news report is in the second page. It amazes me that THIS news garnered front-page treatment whereas the ‘boycottbatelco’ movement has not registered even a blip in their radar. If the papers wanted to be Batelco’s poodles… why do they have to be so obvious about it?
June 16th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I guess Bat-elco now is in their deserved place for their greed.. TRA aginst them.. people against them.. even emploweez against them sometimes..
that’s what happens when u become selfesh and think of ur benifits and forget your loyal customers.. if batelco have provided us with fairly priced .. reliable .. fast … and unlimited account .. we would be satisfied customers … who would support the company which provide them with service.. we wouldve lobbied against anything that would harm a company like that…
but since batelco went to the path of money worshiping .. i guess we have no choice but to despice it.. and its choices.. and every unsatisfied customer (who has no choice) .. will be more than happy when this company recieves blow after blow…
[Peace]
[ZoDiaC]
June 16th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
It’s very VERY clear what Batelco is aiming at. They are try to make the public attack TRA, and make the public beleive that “We -Batelco- are with the poeple, we care about the poeple but TRA won’t let us”. That’s a Bad game you are playing Batelco and everyone know that you are one big greedy company. If you want to do something good for the poeple, then make your packages cheaper and without any thresholds.
I’m glad that the TRA has responded and hope Batelco will pay big time to them.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
today boycottbatelco.com was mentioned on the lettes to the editor page.. please keep sending those letters not just to the GDN but to mideast media and mewspapers as well. One of them is ITP — very much interested in hearing the other side than batelco’s lame take.
June 17th, 2006 at 10:23 am
The boycott batelco movement was mentioned in an AFP news report on Gulf bloggers. Different bloggers across the Gulf were mentioned, and this movement received special mention when it came to talking about Bahrain. Interestingly, Bahrain Tribune deleted the paragraph on Bahrain when they reprinted the same news report.
June 17th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
I LOVE U TRA, BATELCO break the low, it’s time to break them
……………
TRA #1
June 19th, 2006 at 1:11 am
we are happy the TRA clamped down on a 10BD package ? OK, if you say so.
June 19th, 2006 at 7:47 am
Loki, here’s just a glimpse of why we’re happy with this clamp:
1. It has the worst threshold level (2GB). Targetting it to people who are aiming to lower their bill is even worst, because it will be too difficult to work within 2GB for a whole month, in the end of the day, you will have a higher bill.
2. It’s lesson on Batelco to not abuse its powers. What good is the Law or the TRA if you have the main operator twisting and going around or above the Law? Hurts investments, and hurts competition.
3. Batelco is launching this just when operators are coming into the market, when in fact the operators have NO way in accessing or reaching people’s homes (Wired or Wireless) whether it’s a DSL service or a leased line. By them blocking or slowing down the very obligations mandated by law on Batelco and slowing down competition, they deserve to be shaken. In fact, I don’t believe they even respect the competition model anyway. As you saw on the order, they see all operators in Bahrain as ‘Distributors’ or ‘resellers’ of Batelco’s exact offering.. that’s simply plain anti-competitive and wrong.
..We expect more from a National Telecoms Company which was in existance since 1981. They should have the real strategies and real investments in making Bahrain comparable to much more developed countries. Ask yourself what internet connection does the country you may be travelling to. you will realize that in fact when you go back to Bahrain and surf over the Internet, you’re in fact going back in time where Internet was a luxury and ADSL speeds used to 256K and 512K only.
I just hope things change veryy very soon.
June 19th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Loki maybe you’ll get it if you look at it this way:
The 10 BD is just a connection charge.
The average usage according to Batelco is 7 GB. So you pay 50 BD extra (that’s even though their figure is a lie and the actual is much higher)
So you are paying 60BD for 256 connection… forget the package connection, it’s worthless for an intelligent developed community.. maybe if we are living in the dark ages it is good.
June 19th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
all what everyone does is whine whine whine whine whine and whine
if you realy want batelco to give you unlimited packages then STOP USING THERE SERVICE !!
if they see you stil using it then why whould they stop the limit thing????
BOYCOTT the service completly
and dont tell me you cant live without internet
because you can
June 19th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
what’s all the fuss about? this was an enhancement to the BD 15 package which was 128k and 500 MB/month threshold, now it’s 256k, BD 10 and 2GB/month!
again, what a bunch of hicks.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Citizen A-
1 - not so, this package is PERFECT for many users. My mother, for example only uses email and browses the occasional news paper or library. Her traffic usage will never exceed 2Gigs a month and its far more convenient than dial-up. The average person using 7Gigs is irrelevant to the non-average users who use far less than that. Whether you think 7Gig average usage is a lie is even less relevant.
2 - According to the newspapers the TRA gave Batelco a list of T&Cs to able to launch this service. Batelco satisfied these and went ahead with the launch. The TRA’s problem seems to be that Batelco did not re-apply first. All a bit silly really.
3 - TRA’s problem not Batelco’s. I want competitors to access Batelco’s network but I don’t expect Batelco to hand it over to them! This is purely the TRA’s remit. On the one hand you want Batelco to offer the efficiency of a company in a competitive market and on other hand you expect it to make life easy for its competitors. Wishful thinking.
I know a lot of people who are gladly willing to pay 10BD for 2gig rather their former, erm, less than legal ways of accessing internet.
June 19th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
someone needs to find a bug or exploit to use bandwidth without it geting detected from batelco
June 19th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Well pop, let me put it this way…
the account gets charged to the username you loging with, not the actual line..
you can share usernames, and use multiple sessions..
The problem is nobody has an unlimited user account… or..
Business accounts are unlimited.. try getting one and using it at home.
Reminds me of 1996 again.. except the companies won’t be charged any extra and nobody would be the wiser…
June 20th, 2006 at 11:33 am
It won’t work, cuz business accounts are run on different ADSL port settings than the residential ones. Already tried it and when it didn’t work I enquired about it and I was told that the port settings for business accounts is different than residential ones, they don’t leave anything hanging loose, do they?
June 20th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
well cant we open the port?
June 20th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
unfortunately pop, no, cuz by port I meant was the port in the exchange itself, not a network port :/
June 20th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
As much as I would be happy to see Batelco losing some of the money they legally steal from us. I think the BD10 package is a good thing for many.
2GB is enough for 4 users connected at the same time surfing the net and nothing else.
My account usage over the past 4 months averaged at 2GB and we’re 4 in 1 building sharing the same connection!
I am with the move against limiting connections thats no question. But it would be better for me to at least pay Batelco BD10 instead of BD40 for something I don’t need.
June 20th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
well, i tired the biz acount i got today too and it didnt work because of the port thing
Hussan u say 10 bd is good and i agree but the problem is if batelco offer 10 bd the competitors who are coming in 2 months wont have customers left
first let the competitors come and offer 10 bd.. then let batelco offer 5 bd if they want to compete
June 21st, 2006 at 9:11 am
i complitly agree with the_bug ,, let other companey come first then let ( fashalco ) give there offer.
June 23rd, 2006 at 8:28 pm
The Access Offer is due by the end of the Month. Its amazing I hear that companies within Al-Moayed Tower pay very little for 10MB ADSL because the Bahrain Internet Exchange and several ISPs are in that building, now imagine if these same companies can sell bandwidth to everyone else!! … It is very important to break the monopoly, and the only way that can be done is if Batelco provides Bit Stream DSL at a competitive rate! … This is the link between an ISP and the customer.. and this is all likely to happen very soon… We should be expecting something next week!
June 24th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Looking forward to the release of those RAO papers
June 24th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
The TRA replies to Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry invitation to an open meeting regarding internet services:
http://www.tra.org.bh/en/pdf/reply_to_Chamber_translation.pdf
key points:
From Andreas to Dr. Fakhro:
Thank you for you letter to our Chairman H.E. Dr Mohammed JK Alghatam and to my self
inviting the TRA to participate in the meeting to be held by the Chamber of Commerce &
Industry regarding internet services scheduled for 28 June 2006.
As a matter of fact, we note that the BCCI was one of the first organizations to respond to the public consultations of the TRA which reflects your keenness in playing an active role in voicing out the business sector views with respect to
telecoms.
Regretfully the TRA will not be able to take part in your meeting, the reason for this being
the fact that Batelco has started legal proceedings against the TRA on the matter of the
emergency order issued by the TRA on 14 June 2006.
As we are sure you are aware, now that the matter has been diverted to the courts we have to
ensure that public statements and participation in public forums by the TRA are not used to
affect our case.
To this end and to protect our legal interests the TRA has decided to refrain from such events until the case comes to an end.
Finally, we would like to stress that as the telecoms regulator in the Kingdom of Bahrain we
take our responsibilities to uphold the Law very seriously. The TRA issued this emergency
order after careful consideration of all the relevant aspects, and we are prepared to argue our
case in the courts or such other appropriate legal forums and defend our position.
Furthermore, TRA has and will continue to provide the public with the information in a
transparent manner. This recent emergency order is no exception, as we have provided the
full text of the non confidential version on our website which contains our reasons for issuing
this order.
Needless to say once all legal
proceedings relating to this issue are finished the TRA would be happy to attend any public
meeting to explain its decision and answer any questions that may be raised by your members
or the public.
—–
interesting eh!
June 24th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
When is Batelco’s end will come? Is there any competator coming soon in Bahrain to provide us home/mobile and internet services and get rid of Batelco?
June 25th, 2006 at 10:34 am
there wil be no unlimited internet in bahrain even if 500 new companies arrive take for example what happend to orbit
June 25th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
pop
light speed says there offer wll be unlimteed pls call them yr self and check it out 17 581503
June 25th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
khalid, but when will they start? Im tired of talk, I want to see real products/services being offered!
June 26th, 2006 at 1:27 am
techz
the problem is in batelco and today i calld them and they say maybe end of june or july
call them and get some from them am waiting for any compay offer unlimited ill be happy same as u :0)
June 27th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Guys.. there is something we are missing here.. yes removing the unlimited option is an act that high volume internet users do not accept BUT what about people (like me) who can’t afford to pay much. I spend minimum time, browse, chat and don’t download much.,, what am i benefiting from this?
Why isn’t t there any support from the community here for low income people. Whether what is said here is true or Batelco is actually genuine in offering the BD 10, we need to applause them for being brave enough to address the needs of people..
If Batelco is actually changing, lets give them the benefit of doubt ad try to support them in acts that are good for us and we can also stand against them or ask to boycott them in another acts
June 27th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
pumkin
use prepad card if u r useing internet light its not 2000 people problem and yes i agree 10BD is nice but not limited will be the best
June 28th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Indeed, how would it feel if you got one of those decent internet offers with something like 20 or so dinars for around 4-10 Mbps included with it is unlimited VoIP telephony, and TV as well….
how does that sound?
think about that…
then think some more, Batelco can do better than this…
June 28th, 2006 at 10:38 am
What happened to the site?
any updates or insider info?
June 28th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Well friends,whatever we say or write here Batelco is not going back to previous packages and seems now dumb.
None of any organizations e.g Batelco,TRA,or anyone else,are interesting to look after the customers.They are here for making profits!! We are here for suffering by them,so suffer but with decent style.:)
June 29th, 2006 at 8:32 am
yes, I have some insider info, Batelco bribed the owners of the site with big CASH to shut them up. But I dont know how much money they gave them exactly. But I am sure of this insider info they gave them a lot of money plus unlimited bandwidth.
June 29th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Pumpkin, U underestimate ur usage of the ent. What u just mentioned it self is enought to make u cross ur threshold in no time. Trust me.
Any ways…
What is the current state of affairs? How come nothing new seems to have happened?
I hope we have not cooled down. I think we should take this fight out of the net and into the physical world… If we can get a few sposors for banners and sheets it would be best I believe… Not every one can be influenced by the net alone.
I don’t think the TRA can do anythign about this. Cos being a private organization, lawfully batelco has not done anything wrong. But in the name of progress its the government who has to provide us with the required infrastructure for unlimited, cheep and fast internet connections.
manekz
June 29th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
what next ?
June 30th, 2006 at 4:56 am
Thank you for that Ramesh. I also have insider information, Batelco was responsible for the titanic sinking.
Keep it real people.
June 30th, 2006 at 9:23 am
hehehehe loki thats true
June 30th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
keep creating… Kris
June 30th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Ramesh and Loki .. i just hope that what u’ve heard is not true because i know that the father of mr mahmood has just passed away..
look here..
http://mahmood.tv/?p=2554
plus there has been nothing new under the sun.
July 1st, 2006 at 12:39 am
Hussain, May God rest his soul in Heaven. My point was that Ramesh’s post was nonsense.
July 1st, 2006 at 10:23 am
Well,if TRA has issued orders to Batelco to stop offering BD10 package,and apologise the customers,then Dear TRA,why you are still silent on others monopoly of Batelco e.g unlimited package removal,high cost of internet services,etc? Imagaine,where only one command is to enter in computer to provide or disconnect service to customers and charge BD10 to BD20,then what’s the hell profit they are making of?
July 1st, 2006 at 10:17 pm
I had a discussion with an ex-batelco staff and I was surprised to hear that when TRA first established, they reviewed all Batelco’s products and services and their costs, and they have rejected several times some internet reductions.
My friend told me that TRA not only stops Batelco from offering lower and better service to customers, it also asks for so much details that delays the product launch hence effect the customer especially if the service is good.
This brings me to wonder, is TRA with the consumer or against them?
July 2nd, 2006 at 12:49 am
With them Pumpkin because the idiots in Batelco can’t follow orders written in black and white. It simply takes too long for any data to go through from one office to another in there and having this 30 day thing is too short for Batelco’s way of handling information and providing it to the TRA. Although I can sympathize with Batelco a bit because quite frankly they have never received such strict orders in their lives before. The process is perfect, however it simply does not fit Batelco ‘timing’
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:06 am
Well pumpkin…
I’ll put in this way… Batelco is no “angel” nor it is a “villain”. Its just a company that wants to make money from every possible product it provides. Having said that, I totally understand its acts of ignoring all its customers calls (the so called 14% minority) for keeping its unlimited packages. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again people; Peter doesn’t care what customers think or feel as he’s here ONLY to make more money.
What really pisses me of is Batelco’s “waiting game”. They never come up with new things that could change customer preception about them as they tend to “copy” their competitors all the time.
Unfortunately, when Batelco tried to be “creative” they came up with those “stone age” packages, ignoring all calls and attempts by its “minority customers” to stop that from happening. Batelco and its staff are just to “blind” to see the long term implications of what they did switched their mind sets on reaching their “targets”.
Peter knows well that what he did was “wrong” for the country not only the so called “minority”, however, no way he’ll come up and say “sorry I was worng” because if he said so, then he has to look for a new job.
Last week a read an article that countries like Taiwan, Korea Republic and Hong Kong are moving towards “digital homes” and I LMAO. I wonder how this will be implemented in Bahrain
Beside I’m so amazed about the whole the “FUTURE SCHOOLS” project. As some of you already know that the government wants to implement this project in few years time, and Batelco will play a major part in it as it is “supposed” to provide intenet access to Bahraini families. Now you people tell me how are they going to do all that!!!!