Internet speed slows down despite growth of industry
Internet speed in the Meadows, one of a highly populated residential area in Dubai is slowing down despite the growth of the internet usage.
I am a tenant of a house in the Meadows, a highly populated residential area in Dubai just opposite of Dubai Internet and Media city and thanks to Emaar Properties, every room in my house is connected via LAN cables to a central switch that provides Internet, TV and phone (voice over IP) services to me.
Since I moved in 2 years ago, I had quiet reasonable access speed and upgrade about a year ago to a 2 MB connection through local TECOM provider which was previously known as Sahm Technologies and is now operating under the new telecoms operator DU.
Since the upgrade and a couple of complaint calls to the customer service center (04-390 5555) which is open 24/7 technical staff apparently unthrottled my line speed as the download speed was much higher than the upload speed. They also confirmed to me on the phone, that sometimes a few or even quiet a few broadband users share the same line which will result in lower speed.
Since the Meadows, Springs and neighbouring Greens are connected via the DIC/DMC network, no proxy prevents social network sites, Skype and music/video peer-to-peer sharing and in the evenings and on weekends (when I would like to rely on my highspeed 2 MB line), I am hardly getting 25% through-put of what I am paying.
Today is one of these days and hence I made the effort to actually measure the line speed through external sites (and even sites within the TECOM network).
Despite paying AED 349,00 monthly for the advertised service for a 2 MB broadband line it should take only 2.5 seconds to download a 5 MB large file. On their site it reads:
“How does DIC Telecom do this? Through broadband. Broadband is a fast connection to the Internet that’s always on. Our broadband network uses a “fatter” broadband cable compared to a conventional telephone network.”
Let’s have a look at some of the independent speed test providers and their results:
All of them and internal traffic test between neighbours and DIC/DMC offices clearly show download (and some upload) rates far below the 2 MB promised speed from my provider despite my bill being the same AED 349,00 month over month. By the way, their terms and conditions on the website do not talk about sharing, they simply advertise a service that is not fully delivered.
Links to some internet speed check sites can be found here:
It’s a pity that a 100 US$ monthly fee does not even buy you a simple 2MB connection despite rapid growth of the Internet in the UAE and in particular in Dubai. Madar Research recently announced growth rates of 100% in broadband connection and double digit growth rates in internet usage in the Middle East and the telecommunication industry must really consider to not only support business users but also consumers that are willing to pay deep from their pockets (a 10 MB connection un-shared in Europe costs as low as 15 US$ per month).
A very good example of future thinking can be found in India, where government proposes to offer free, high-speed broadband connectivity to all Indians by 2009 , through state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL.
comments
Imthiaz
May 11th, 2007 at 5:13 pmI was checking the same after reading you post. Etisalat is much better in speed. I have a 1 Mbps line this is my result
670.9 kilobits per second
Communications 670.9 kilobits per second
Storage 81.9 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 12.5 seconds
I am able to download to redhat iso files 2.4 GB of data in a single day
Mazen Abou Hatab
May 12th, 2007 at 5:38 amVery pathetic indeed. I got a 1 MB, and i got 700 kbps as a result to the test at 6:00 AM in the morning on a weekend (when everybody is asleep). By the way, Egypt has been offering free internet connection as well since 2002 (Dial Up, however it is a good initiative).
Joe
May 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pmI think one of the main misconceptions here is the difference between a 2MB Line and a 2Mb line. If this is not communicated properly to the consumer, such requests will always come up.
On Etisalat’s website, all packages are advertised as Mbps which corresponds to MegaBITS not MegaBytes. That’s what people seem to forget reading.
I have a 2Mbps line at home which provides me with 215KB/s 24/7. If I was to expect a full 2000KB/s (2 Megabytes), my line would have to be a 2MB line which is equivalent to (in Etisalat terminology) a 20Mbps line.
Just a thought. Etisalat’s service has been great lately. Full time online gaming with Emule and Torrents running in the background has been quite a breeze.
Martin Diessner
May 15th, 2007 at 6:57 amHey Joe - totally agree. However TECOM is advertising 2.5 sec download time for 5 MB file that is clearly a 2048 kb per sec connection, no?
Haytham M.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:37 amI’ve got the 512MB connection at home on Sheikh Zayed Rd. I always have torrents running in the background, my brother surfs the wireless LAN at the same time, and the results seem to be ok. The only problem is when we’re both using P2P software.
Otherwise I can’t complain much.
Joe
May 15th, 2007 at 10:09 amYou’re right Martin. If they’re actually saying that, they’re creating the false illusion of a 2 Megabyte connection. tsk tsk tsk. Bad Tecom.
Chris
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:59 pmMartin, I live in Meadows 6 and have noticed in the past 2-3 months a substantial drop in speed. I have the 1M connection and my upload speed has dropped to practically nil. Frustrating! I’ve tried all kinds of tweaks to my client, but not much improvement. Too bad there isn’t a satellite internet provider available.
Martin Diessner
May 27th, 2007 at 12:46 amTECOM - this is a bloody nightmare weekend - I can’t even browse properly and I only have one computer connected straight to your LAN connection.
I was instructed by your service team via phone to SHUT THE WHOLE MAIN POWER SUPPLY IN MY HOUSE to reset my lines - that is incredible advise if it would work.
I am sick of having my line shared with people when I need to work.
Can I please have an Etisalat line in the Meadows?
*argh* !
Chris
May 27th, 2007 at 4:23 pmMartin, did you try the reset? Seems to me it would make more sense to just reset the system power internet/tv/landline at the head end where these come into the house. Mine is located in the maids room outside….I might try that. I am so frustrated. I wouldn’t want to be stuck behind the puritanical proxy filters at etisalat though. The gov’t. has been hinting that TECOM/du will have to flip the censorship switch soon though.