The Bahrain Internet Society will be hosting Fahad Al-Shirawi, the managing director of 2Connect at the BIS’ premises in Umm Al-Hassam tomorrow evening (18 June) from 1900 - 2100 to talk about his company’s offering Internet for free in Bahrain.

The BIS’ telephone number is 1782 2099 and their email is club@ic.org.bh for more information and directions.

Bahrain-based telecommunications firm 2Connect is to offer free Internet access to residential customers as it starts the roll-out of a wireless service it hopes will soon cover the entire country.

The company has already launched the service in Riffa, with A’Ali and Juffair to follow within days, says managing director Fahad Al Shirawi.

“We are going to deliver free Internet access to everyone in Bahrain - to anybody that wants it. We will obviously start area by area and we will take it form there and cover the whole country,” he said.

Mr Al Shirawi said 2Connect was offering a 256kbps speed with a 2GB threshold for free, in the hope that some customers who want a better service will later pay the firm to upgrade to another package.

“Obviously I am not going to give unlimited Internet access free of charge - what I am going to do is offer Batelco’s BD10 package free of charge. A BD120 a year saving for a family that can’t afford it is a lot of money,” he said.

Mr Al Shirawi said the only “minor catch” for a customer would be that they would have to buy their own modem, but after that there is no further cost and users simply log-in each day using details provided by the firm.

He also stressed that the service would not be like other free Internet services that depend on frequent ‘pop-up’ advertisements for revenue - with just a single advertisement for 2Connect when a customer logs in and then uninterrupted browsing.

“It is not going to be one of those annoying multi pop-up advertisements, none of that is going to be there,” said Mr Al Shirawi.

How quickly the service advances from its initial launch districts to cover the whole of the country will depend on demand, he added.

“The quicker people sign up, the quicker we will expand the network,” said Mr Al Shirawi.

He admitted the firm stood to make a loss on the project and revealed it would be exclusive to Bahrain and not be repeated in other regional markets in which the firm is active.

“This is a gift to Bahrain - we will offer attractive Internet connectivity to other parts of the region but at the end of the day we are not a charity, we are a business. We want to make money so we can’t really give it free to everybody,” he said.

Mr Al Shirawi also called for other telecom companies in Bahrain to follow 2Connect’s lead and offer free Internet to residential customers.

“I would like to see all my competitors do the same and give free Internet to the users,” he said.

“At the end of the day competition should make money from other avenues of business - from the person’s phone-line, from other value-added services that they use such as IPTV and the like. There are so many channels out there that are still not even broadcast here.

“There are so many ways to make money, there is no need to charge for everything.”
GDN - 12 June, ‘07

The MENOG meeting concludes today after the discussion of various proposals designed to shape the future of networking in the Middle East. Presentations were given by various key speakers and members of the networking community to try to redesign the future of the Internet as well as the hardware and software in the Middle East.

Peering was first on the agenda as currently in the Middle East the only IXP available in the Arab league is in Egypt, leading to an increased cost for the Middle-Eastern countries when sending traffic whilst peering. In Europe and the USA there is an average of between 80 – 95 IXPs, so tackling the installation of more IXPs in the Middle East is on top of the agenda. Peering involves network-to-network traffic, which can be handled for free if peering mechanisms are included, rather than using IXPs from abroad installing a efficient peering network will lead to a more cost effective Internet, and with more exchange points the progress made will help the maturation of the Middle-East as well as many other things.

Also discussed was the updating of the Internet from Internet Protocol version 4 to Internet Protocol version 6. The difference between these is the number of addresses available. Whilst Ipv4 can only handle a total of 2 to the power of 32 addresses, Ipv6 can handle 2 to the power of 128 addresses. Ipv6 will be the new instrument to deal with networked home appliances such as dishwashers, toasters and other Ipv6 capable technology such as 3G phones. A taskforce has been assigned to ensure that the Middle East region’s infrastructure is ahead, advanced and absolute, when dealing with the installation of Ipv6.

The final proposal was from the host, 2Connect. 2Connect have made it official that they will be providing free residential broadband WiFi internet access, first to the areas of A’ali, Sar and Riffa, but then eventually to the whole of Bahrain. Full details will be released later but from the presentation given yesterday the understanding is that after nodes have been initialised and customers have registered with 2Connect, free Internet access will be available to all subscribers in an effort for 2Connect to maximise coverage.
Bahrain Tribune :: Reyadh Hussein :: 5 April, ‘07