Free Internet in Bahrain in May!
أعلن العضو المنتدب لشركة (2 كونيكت) فهد الشيراوي أن شركته ستبدأ بتوفير خدمة الإنترنت مجاناً للأفراد في البحرين اعتباراً من مايو/ أيار المقبل كمرحلة أولى، على أن يتم تغطية مناطق البحرين كافة مع الربع الأول من العام المقبل 2008 بحيث تكون خدمة الإنترنت المجانية متوافره للجميع في البحرين. وقال: إن ” اختيار هذه المناطق تم نظراً إلى أن أعمال التوصيل للخدمة قد تمت فيها”.
وأوضح الشيراوي في الاجتماع الأول لمشغلي الشبكات الشرق أوسطية (منوج) الذي بدأت أعماله أمس الأول وتختتم اليوم (الخميس) أن ذلك يأتي ضمن خطط الشركة لتوفير خدمة مجانية لهذه الوسيلة المهمة وهي الانترنت وتوفيرها، للجمهور، خصوصاً الفئات التي تكون في أمس الحاجة اليها ولا تتمكن من الحصول عليها نظراً لارتفاع رسومها الحالية، بالإضافة إلى الطلبة وغيرهم إذ إن شركة (2 كونيكت) قادرة على تقديم هذه الخدمة من خلال أعمالها، حيث تمتلك الشركة الرخصة العالمية لتقديم هذه الخدمة.
إيلاف :: ٥ أبديل ٢٠٠٧
Fahad, where do I sign? The sooner I get rid of Batelco the better!
What the snippet of news above says is that 2Connect will be providing FREE Internet access to individuals in Bahrain starting in May, that’s in about 3 weeks time. It does poke at Batelco’s exorbitant pricing, obviously, there is no love lost between the two companies and I frankly don’t care; as long as real competition is provided to Batelco in order to force it to break up the monopoly it has over our lives, the better.
So yes, I shall be the first to switch to any carrier that strolls into my neighbourhood.
Let’s see if 2Connect actually now delivers, and there is no reason for it no to.
Any more details about this is very welcome.
update: Bahrain Tribune coverage in English
:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: Very good very good i like free internet infact i like everything FREE FREE totally FREE :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:
:w00t: Sounds great, but like everything else, “I’ll believe it when I see it”! :getlost:
i must be slow. i don’t understand, how would they make their money?
“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”
Lucky me :biggrin:
CWT
Not only that, what about our friend BATELCO, do you think they will keep silent? What about TRA? Hold your horses and wait until tomorrow
How would they make money if they provided free Internet? The service will surely be a poor one. Or maybe it will be better than Batelco’s service for you.
Anyway, I’m happy for you guys. Hope one of the two telecommunication companies we have here in Oman does the same. The action of 2Connect will arise a hot competition between them and Batelco.
we have 2connect business internet at the office for the last month or so and it’s extremely fast and reliable so far.
so where does their income come from? it’s not as if they can get it from advertisers, etc. what am i missing? is there a limit on usage? what is the catch?
CWT, well there are many free wireless networks in the U.S, Europe, etc. I’m not sure how THEY get their money from, but they do exist, and they are entirely free.
Personally this is hard for me to buy because it sounds too good to be true. But let’s wait and see what comes of this. Maybe it’s a scam. “FREE!…. For the first day.”
Their income would come from forcing the incumbent’s hand.
Most of the “free” ISP’s in the US rely on annoying banner, floating and pop up ads for their revenue. And these ads are EVRYWHERE including your email. Data mining and the reselling of customers personal information is also common. Still it is “free” for the user. .
I assume this new company has done their market research and feel the business plan is workable to some degree. The rates they have for “business” users seem very very high. Nothing is better than a little competition and it looks like Batelco is getting some. Still for real competition you need 3 or more players in the market all hunting for a bite out of the apple.
Ahh freddy made it in !
good news !
Is it April 1 again?
but wouldn’t you keep using google/yahoo/all the other websites and mail? are we talking about irritating pop-up things that you actually to close to get back to whatever you were doing?
sorry to keep going on about this, i just want to understand.
Mr. AlShirawi only said that they “will be providing it for free”.
“Free” does not necessarily mean with no charges, but could be with no registration charges henceforth making it available for free right?!
i have a feeling this is just a trial period, just like they did in jufair a few months ago..
YES! It will be available to A’ali, Riffa and Sar !!
My antenna is ready and waiting :biggrin:
Best news this week!
CWT: but wouldn’t you keep using google/yahoo/all the other websites and mail? are we talking about irritating pop-up things that you actually to close to get back to whatever you were doing?
Yep you nailed it. Also the FREE ISP’s I have seen offer ZERO tech support. You must pay for TECH support. I am not saying this is going to be the case in Bahrain but that is what I have seen on my end.
Pardon my ignorance but this sounds like a cheap publicity stunt. If this is going to be Ad supported then we all know that such models depend on “click through” figures to generate revenue. In other words, you need tons of people clicking on the advertisements so that they get paid. Do you think economies of scale work here compared to the US?!
Anyway, let’s wait and see.
Buzain.. MY HERO!
They could limit the “FREE” portion to say 10 hours a month and then you pay for any usage after that. Similar to what JUNO.COM does in the US. I am very curious as to how this will pan out.
But you are correct the economies of scale can’t be compared to the US/Bahrain. 800,000 people to 300 million is much to wide of a gap!
The offer is too good, since its through wifi, I’m guessing that they would have popups/banners. Well, I wouldn’t mind that if I can use free wifi at every spot at saar/riffa/etc
can’t wait for this and for MTC-Vodafone’s wireless adsl service. 
Good news!!!!! :biggrin: :biggrin:
I just subscribed for BD10 Internet connection 2 weeks ago.
If I had got the news earlier I would had waited for it.
:alien: :alien:
SpeedNet 1024/256
Monthly rental of SpeedNet 1M for Batelco Employee is BD20!.
For Which local residents pay BD 40.
—————————————————————
SpeedNet 2048/512
Monthly rental of SpeedNet 2M for Batelco Employee is BD30.
For which local residents pay BD 60.
———————————————————-
How Cool!!!
Whats a difference!!! 50% off for Employee..
many of my batelco friends get unlimited inet too, batelco pays for anything over the threshold.
My Friends,
If history is to be learnt from, anything that sounds ‘too Good to be True’ usually is just that.
I’ll be taking this news with a pinch of salt.
2Connect’s free internet is just a promotional thing, for a couple of months.
I really don’t know if they can cover the entire country…
what i heard is that the registration will be free, since its new ISP it will be like telewest back in uk. if u dont have the line they charge u somthing like 80-100qued to install …. this installing fee thingy i think will be free from 2connect. so i hope their monthly charges are lower than batelco with better quality.
according to alwaqt newspaper, the chairman of the TRA said that no ISP asked to provide ‘free’ internet in bahrain…..gets me to think that it was actually too good to be true
I guess in response to this Batelco have gone back providing unthrottled connection? I’ve been over my 15gb limit for around 3 days and I’m still cruising at high speed… Anyone else experiencing this? Otherwise I hope its a bug that lasts until my account resets :ninja: !
They forgot to send a memo to my account exec then as my connection was throttled.
Took a screenshot of what I’ve been seeing these past days in my e-services account. Speed is definitely at max just downloaded something at average of 85KBPS (yep bytes not bits I’m sure)
so what happened are people in those areas using free internet?
Not sure but I got this link earlier today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S_Xx5Lczcg
nice! a bit too long but when polished, I’m sure it will kick ass
i think this is a foolish thing going on, how this telephone company can allow to install the free wifif spot with free internet access, i dont think so it will be success, and if it is success i will be happy too. best luck for them who had this intelligence.
For all of u nagging so much about the net and its quality and going onnn and onnn, ppl, its FREE if u dun like the quality or the idea of it just stick to ur net haha, but rest assure many ppl cant afford internet and this shud be good for them ^^
ok….Im late on this bit of news…so all I want to know is…does anyone have free net in Bahrain that I dont know about….what happened to this company? I dont remember hearing anything about it…then or now.
Thats because it failed miserablly. 2Connect offer free turtle speed internet access provided you can establish communication with their wifi antennas erected ontop of NBB Tower in Manama.
I have heard if you park in the multi story car park, you’ll get good reception if you take your laptop with you – apart from that you aint gonna get connected – unless you want to invest 120 dinars or so in expensive wifi apparatus!