Tag Archives | mobile

MTC Touch slashes calling rates for prepaid lines

By Rami on June 14, 2011 in Lebanon

It turned out that the price reductions I posted about yesterday are really coming and will be targeting owners of prepaid phone lines. According to this article from The Daily Star, MTC Touch is releasing 3 new recharge cards tomorrow for its Magic prepaid lines:

Start: Priced at $10 and has 30 talking minutes (Rate is $0.33/min)
Smart: Priced at $16.6 and has 60 talking minutes (Rate is $0.27/min)
Super: Priced at $30 and has 120 talking minutes (Rate is $0.25/min)

Given that there will be no hidden charges, MTC Touch is offering up to 36% reduction over the current rates ($0.39/min) and Alfa is supposed to follow a similar pricing. Pretty good in my opinion though the calling rates are still considered very expensive compared to the rest of the world. I just hope some day our government stops relying on this sector to fund its treasury and leaves the two operators to really compete on prices and services.

Next on the list is launching of the 3G service, let’s pray for it to arrive on time too!

Update:

Alfa also published the new rate plans for their prepaid lines which are now called “Waffer”. Thanks to Bechara.

Nokia E7 flash mob at City Mall

By Rami on April 5, 2011 in Lebanon

I personally liked the one performed by the Beirut Duty Free more. I salute the efforts made by the organizers for Nokia’s flash mob, but I would have preferred it to be more natural. It’s not like I’m an expert in making viral videos and stuff, but there’s really no need to perform sophisticated dances, keep it simple like the Dabke in the airport, and allow people to join instead of stressing on the security guards to keep them away of the dancers.

Huge fire somewhere around Dekweneh/Sin El Fil

By Rami on September 23, 2010 in Lebanon

I just took these two photos from my workplace for what looks like a huge fire in the area of Dekweneh or Sin El Fil. I’ve checked news sites and so far no one mentioned anything… I hope it’s nothing serious.

Update:

A tweep (@jackoppy81) just mentioned it’s a fire at a plastic factory near Bassoul-Hneine, and the civil defense are working on putting it down.

ArabNet goes live, and global!

By Rami on March 26, 2010 in Events

The long awaited and highly anticipated ArabNet conference kick started today, with over 500 participants attending the opening ceremony, including internet and tech leaders from around the world, investors, media, entrepreneurs, bloggers and professionals from the tech industry.

The opening ceremony and the conference activities that followed were broadcast live online, giving an opportunity for everyone who couldn’t attend to be part of this unique and first-of-its kind event to ever happen in the Middle East.

Under the direction of Samer Karam and a dedicated team of geeks and coders who worked 24 hours a day for the past week, a custom-designed, cutting-edge system was developed that allows for live broadcast of video, illustrations and tweets directly from the conference. The platform also integrates a voting mechanism to allow attendees to vote for their favorite startup or idea via the live website – live.arabnet.me

Throughout the past couple of months, ArabNet has been able to nurture a grassroots movement, an online community of enthusiasts through an outreach program intended to engage young entrepreneurs and techies across the Arab World. In less than two months, we have gathered over 1,000 followers on twitter and more than 600 fans on facebook.

40 top-notch speakers, 11 supporting partners, 18 media partners, 35 startups, 50 ideas, 25 ambassadors, 12 official bloggers, and over 300 decision makers, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the MENA, Europe, and Silicon Valley have come together gather today at the Habtoor Grand Hotel to network and discuss emerging opportunities in Arab web business. Even before the conference started, the #ArabNetME twitter feed was overwhelmed with tweets from all over the world from people who believed in ArabNet’s mission. And just a few hours later, following the opening ceremony, ArabNet was trending globally on the site!

A huge thanks goes to Beshr Kayyali and Mohammad Saleh Kayali from hyperlinkpodcast.com, an ArabNet media partner, who have helped in setting up the live micro-site, as well as Maya Zankoul, the famous Lebanese illustrator who is live illustrating the conference, as well as to official ArabNet bloggers and ambassadors, and the millions of tweeters and enthusiasts from the world over who tweeted, messaged, and voiced their support in more ways than one.
Without them, ArabNet could not have gone global!

Wisdom on the fly

By Rami on January 7, 2010 in Funny

Trucks “distributing” wisdom in Lebanon are pretty funny, like this one I was stuck behind today.

Noah’s Ark? Seriously?

Orascom & Zain: Welcome to Lebanon!

By Rami on January 14, 2009 in Lebanon

I assume you all know it by now, the 2 new mobile operators to replace Alfa and MTC Touch will be Orascom and Zain (formerly MTC).

We have been promised since Gibran Bassil became the minister of telecommunication that a third operator might be introduced to the market and hopefully impose competition, which will result in lowering prices (happy us!). I was surprised though that this didn’t happen…

Anyway, while checking the Tayyar.org website today I came across this flash new:

“The contracts between the new operators and the government are different now, the two companies will be profiting from the working phone lines, which will help in lowering prices and providing a better service” (It seems like Alfa and MTC Touch were previously getting management fees only).

Well, let me tell you something Mr. Bassil, what we have in the mobile telephony sector right now is a duopoly, it’s actually a monopoly since the two operators are controlled by the government, but let’s assume it’s a duopoly. Do you know what kind of pricing strategies are followed in such cases? ANYTHING but price wars!

Seriously, come to think of it! They both have almost the same prices, and they’re sharing the market almost equally. Why would they want to go into price wars and risk lowering their profits? In case there will be a price decrease, they will BOTH agree on it. No marketer will ever work against the good of their firm. I doubt there will be a significant decrease in price by the way, we will never reach what’s set in Egypt and other Arab countries for example.

So, Mr. Bassil, you seem to be just like all the previous ministers (until time proves me wrong), you promised us the stars and delivered nothing until now. We’re being robbed and we will always be robbed!

Ya3neh we’re getting raped and might as well like it! Otherwise we get no phone line!

← Previous 1 … 4 5

Navigation

Tag Archives | mobile