Tag Archives | speed

Ogero Super Ultra Fast Speeds – It All Started But When The F*** Will It Be All Done?

When I started facing interruptions with my internet connection last summer, I never expected the problem to persist for a whole year with no solution in sight so far.

Although I am an IDM customer, the problem was attributed to some faulty cables/equipment on Ogero’s side, and the latter claimed they cannot do anything about it until the active cabinets project that was promised in the beginning of 2017 reaches my area. Come to think of it logically, the thing is similar to owning a car with the manufacturer simply refusing to repair it for you because they have a new model coming out next year!

But guess what, more than a year later the situation is even worse with the below poor readings on my modem for more than a week now.

So it’s 2018 and I am getting less than 0.01 Mbps as a download speed.

We have been hearing promises for much better speeds ever since a new director general was appointed at Ogero, and except for the publicity stunts they stage every now and then to show us 100 Mbps speeds around some places in Beirut, I personally haven’t seen any sign of real progress. If anything, my experience shows short sighted vision and a lack of proper planning from their side, I mean how on earth can you cease support on your existing infrastructure when you have hundreds of thousands still connected to it?

Ogero have been trying to change their image for a while now starting with the rebranding work they did, getting more active on social platforms, and getting engaged with so called “influencers”, but nothing will really change it unless they put their words into actions, and until then they will always be regarded as one of the “daweiyir dawleh” that simply work by the “daweiyir dawleh” standards!

1

PM Hariri Vows to Make Internet in Lebanon 20 Times Faster

 

Speaking at the third edition of the Global Business Summit yesterday, Prime Minister Hariri claimed that one of the priorities he set for his new government is to increase the internet speed in Lebanon by 20-fold.

His promise is a bit vague to be honest and no further explanation was given for us to know what exactly is going to increase 20 times, is it the average internet speed that households are currently gettings (20 x 2Mbps) or is it the overall capacity provided to ISPs in order to enhance our connection quality?

We all know there was a plan by minister Harb in 2015 to overhaul the current infrastructure in order to allow us to benefit from better speeds, but the upgrade was set to be completed in 2020… and knowing that Hariri’s government is supposed to only serve until the next parliament elections in 9 months, I’m not really sure how is he going to fulfill his promise while slow-speed copper wires are still used to connect us to central offices.

Anyway, when it comes to internet, I prefer to remain a bit optimistic because we really need a better connection so bad, not only for personal use but because the infrastructure upgrade will definitely have a positive impact on our economy. And in all cases, no matter what the government plans are, I hope they start by getting rid of Abdel Menhem Youssef first!

0

Cool 350Z Drift Video at Beirut Harbour

xavier massaad beirut harbour drift

I just saw this video of Xavier Massaad drifting a Nissan 350Z at Beirut Harbour and thought it’s worth sharing.

I’m not really sure when was it video shot, but Xaview definitely pulled some cool moves and aside from the ones made by Abdo Feghaly we rarely get any good drifting videos here.

0

Lebanon Is Finally Getting The Much Needed Internet Infrastructure Upgrade

lebanon internet speed june 2015

I just stumbled upon this really good news about the Ministry of Telecommunications’ plan to upgrade the internet infrastructure by using fiber-optic cables to connect Ogero switching centers to residential and business premises.

The current infrastructures utilizes a fiber-optic network to connect centers together but relies on old copper wires to carry out internet data to the subscribers. The problem with these old wires is that they can handle transferring a maximum of 8Mbps depending on how close to the switching center you live. That’s why 1/3 of internet users in Lebanon cannot get more than 2Mbps to their homes since they simply live too far away from a central office!

The upgrade project will take 5 years to finish as per minister Harb and should allow internet speed to reach 100Mbps. So until that time, expect to encounter a lot of digging around the streets and just pray for the whole thing to finish on time without any major interruption.

6

Why is our internet getting worse?

Following the ministry of telecommunications’ announcement two month ago about the broadband internet packages upgrade and price reductions, you would expect the average speed across the country to be significantly better and our global ranking to improve a bit. But unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like the case since a lot of ADSL subscribers are complaining about their connection!

netindex lebanon

The chart above from netindex.com proves people are right. While July was supposed to witness the new plans taking effect, it is instead turning into the worst month for our internet with the lowest speed in over a year!

If Boutros Harb knew the upgrades were not feasible then he should have simply just reduced the prices instead of messing the speeds for the sake of coming out better than his predecessor Nicolas Sehnaoui.

It’s very clear that the top priorities for the minister right now is to work on upgrading the infrastructure to provide households with better speeds as well as supplying internet providers with more E1s to cater for their subscribers.

1

Here’s to launching the 3G service in Lebanon!

Last day I got a phone call from a gentleman in MTC Touch telling me that I will be granted the 3G service for a 1 month free trial period, and so right now I’m among the lucky people who got to participate in the pilot testing of this service in Lebanon. An yes I’m so excited about it!!

The service got activated at around 1PM today on my phone and didn’t require any special configuration to run. I randomly started loading websites and found the connection to be pretty fast compared to home ADSL and the crappy GPRS. Below are two tests done using speedtest.net after I shared the connection with my laptop.

As you can see, download is @ 1.7Mbps which is superb compared to the current internet speeds, while upload is varying between 0.11 and 0.22Mbps. Ping is of course higher that it is supposed to be, and I hope it’ll improve soon. Note that I was in Beirut central district at the time of this test, and I guess speed might vary depending on your location.

3G subscriptions will be available for both postpaid and prepaid lines, and data transfer will be limited to 4GB/month. It isn’t clear tough how much will the operators charge for it.

I’ll hopefully be posting more updates on the connection quality and speed throughout this trial period.

30

Internet prices going down next month

Internet prices are finally going down by the end of next month after the cabinet approved the new price list yesterday!

The good news for consumers: Today a 1 Mbps connection, the second-fastest available, costs 115,000 LL ($76.67) per month. Under the new regime, 1 Mbps will be the slowest connection sold by Ogero, the state-run telecom company, and will cost 24,000 LL ($16) per month. (Both price figures exclude the 10% value added tax.)

Packages will range from 1 Mbps with a 4 GB download and upload cap (it’s not split; you get 4GB for each) to around 8 Mpbs with a 30 GB cap. Imad Tarabay, CEO of the Internet provider Cedarcom, told NOW Lebanon that as soon as the new packages are implemented, customers with packages below 1 Mbps now will automatically receive the lowest-level new package from their providers (assuming Ogero releases bandwidth to the private sector). Customers can then decide if they want to switch packages or not.

We’re still way behind what people get in nearby countries but it’s still a good step forward, I just hope there will be enough capacity to accommodate the demand when everyone is automatically switched to 1Mbps next month, and I wish they would reconsider amending those bandwidth cap because one would consume them so fast with the speeds they’re promising.

7

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes