Our supporter Joop has shared an email he sent to Mr. Peter K and copied the TRA and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Batelco which he has agreed to share with us.
Thank you for your efforts Joop! The more people that contact the concerned parties the better for us all.
From Joop de Wit
04/06/2006 02:37 PM
To: Peter Kaliaropoulos , Hassan Juma
cc: “A. Andreas Avgousti” , Dana Al Rayes
Subject: New ADSL Plan
Dear Sir,
this letter is a reaction on your decision to change our agreement for the supply of ADSL services to my home.
To cut a long story short: I am not happy. You managed to set a reasonable modern communication network back by about 10 years. I use the word ” reasonable” as it was not exactly at the forefront of technology to begin with, but it was acceptable for the moment and is well positioned to grow with the times.
But now you changed the rules, most noticeably you introduced capped up- and downloads. In your letter to me you present this change as a step forward, while really this is a not just a step, but a journey; back in time.
If I just comment on some of the statements in your letter:
” We are delighted to inform you that in just a few weeks your inet broadband service will be radically improved”
Radical: yes, improved: not for me. You might be delighted; I am not as it gets worse for me.
” moreover, to make life easier we will be automatically upgrade you etc…”
So the choice is: take or or leave it. You have decided that this it what you are going to do and I have to accept. The fact that I signed up on different terms and conditions is irrelevant, you change them at your convenience to tailor your needs. My needs are not taken into consideration.
” your speed will be increased by 100% to 1 Mbps and now it will be subject to an enormous threshold of 15 GB for a lower monthly rental of BD 40″
Well, 1 Mbps will not exactly set the world on fire and that for BD 40 per month (plus line rental) . This is not enough for real-time streaming TV, only for narrow-band, so the4 advantage for me is negligible.
And this “enormous threshold” of 15 GB. Now,what can that give me. I listen quite a lot to internet radio, so me and my family can use it for 8 hours a day and that’s it, I am at my limit at the end of the month. Or I can buy 3 DVD’s online, however I cannot listen to the radio and buying the CD’s in the same month.
So that leaves nothing for all the other nice things: on-line chat (with or without video), swapping photo albums and video’s with my kids, MyTube, iTunes, podcasts, eMusic, downloading (purchased) software, the list is endless. The whole world moves to online multimedia services and distribution of software, we are exactly doing the opposite. We are deliberately limiting the available infrastructure. And the brilliant move to count uploads as well, include data downloaded from Batelco’s own cache and you have a winner on your hands: and I am the loser.
And the lower rental? This is immediately eaten away by your charge of 10 fils/MB. That is 10BD per GB!
To put things in perspective: I just come from France: I had 12 Mbps for less than BD 15 per month, unlimited. Plus very cheap international VOIP phone calls, free inside France.
I was at my limit (plus 1 GB) at the end of May. No idea how much I have downloaded as I do not know exactly on what day the scheme was introduced, but now the whole system is coming to grinding hold. It is claimed that the speed is throttled back to 64 kbps. I wish that was true: effectively for the last couple of days it is about 35 kbps. Add the annoyance that the data transfer often stops for no apparent reason, so all podcast downloads stall and have to be restarted, and my life has taken a turn for the worse. So now there is mostly no new podcast in the morning, no radio, no swapping of photo albums or video’s with the kids, just some some emails and surfing at snails pace. I am back to the dial-up times.
If we want to move Bahrain forward, give it a real presence in the world, we need to have world class infrastructure, especially communication which is not a luxury anymore, but a necessity.
If Batelco would offer fast and unlimited connections, you will endear everyone:
- the people (= customers) as they will expand their view and start using the internet for more services.
- the companies as they will see Bahrain as a attractive place to do business: they can communicate all over the world for a reasonable price. And they can offer new products, distribute them quickly and perhaps invent new uses for the net.
- the government as a world class communication system will stimulate knowledge and growth.
So please, reconsider this introduction of capped downloading.
Alternatively move me back to the old system, the one I signed up for. 512 kbps or 1Mbps, the difference is irrelevant. Waiting 1 or 2 hours for a video to download, I do not care. If you really want to make a difference, go to ADSL2+ speeds. This opens the internet to a whole new range of services and business opportunities. But first of all, re-install the unlimited option. You will make a lot of people really happy.
BTW, it was mentioned that only 14% of the customers are heavy users: please do not forget that the people with new ideas, especially the young ones who are pushing technology and devising new ways of doing business and using communication tools, are part of this group. And our future depends on them.
Yours sincerely,
Joop de Wit
Saar
To which he received the following reply from Mr. Peter K:
From: Peter Kaliaropoulos
Date: 5 June 2006 14:09:27
To: Joop de Wit
Cc: “A. Andreas Avgousti” , Dana Al Rayes , Hassan Juma
Subject: Re: New ADSL Plan
Dear Mr Joop de Wit,
I acknowledge receipt of your email. We appreciate your views and we will take them into consideration as we are reviewing our internet packages. We do offer unlimited access albeit at very low speed which does not meet your requirements.
Regarding the previous package you were on, we have given notice to customers (and we are acting consistent with our contractual terms and conditions) that the “unlimited download” service is no longer available.
Infrastructure requirements vary country by country and the small domestic market in Bahrain results in specific challenges when it comes to pricing services, including the internet. There are many countries, in advanced markets and telecom operators, offering “fair usage” policies with internet packages which means they do throttle after specific threshold levels. Batelco, at this stage, has accepted a “user pays” principle (similar to that of other countries) best applies to the internet services. With the average download being 7GB, we have offered customers 15GB for the same price and at faster speeds which we believe is fair and reasonable.
Over the coming weeks we will address the needs of very high users and I hope we can bring to market better packages - assuming they are approved by the TRA when we submit them - which will go some way to satisfy your needs.
Peter K
