Reminder: Batelco Broadband Open Discussion TONIGHT.

I would like to remind you all of the event tonight in which the BIS and Batelco leadership will discuss the new Batelco offerings in broadband which we object to.

It is important that you are present, please. The more there are the more we will demonstrate to the powers that be that we are serious about our consumer rights. We have to make our voice heard, but in a civilised manner.

So let me beseech you all to please respect the occasion, do not go into personal attacks, do not get too emotional, and be very subjective and be on time! I am sorry if I sound condescending here, I do not intend it and I do not presume that I speak with your voice collectively. I would be honoured to of course.

Above all please remember that courtesy is contagious! We are going to be present at the meeting tonight to show everyone that we care, not for selfish reasons only but for the good of the country.

If I may suggest, it would be a good idea to coordinate our efforts so a quick meeting would be a good idea. I know all the points have already been raised amply in this site as well as the two main boycotting sites: boycottbatelco.com and batelco.info, I shall spend some time summarising them and shall print out leaflets with the summaries to be distributed at the event tonight. I need your help and your support. If you wish to raise points tonight at the discussion and you are more than welcome and highly encouraged to, please call me on xxxxemail me so that we can arrange a meeting at my office at 4PM this afternoon before we go to the Open Discussion. To be effective, we must coordinate our efforts, acting singly will not achieve much.

Please be there: The Crowne Plaza Conference Centre at 7PM.

update 10 Jun, ’06: please don’t call me in this regard but feel free to email me. I did not public my phone number for anything BUT the meeting mentioned in this article. Thank you.

Comments

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  4. Bubz

    Hiya,

    Tried calling you a moment ago, but didn’t get through. Is this meeting happening at 4PM? If there are a few people coming I’d like to join – I don’t have anything new to add but it’s like you said; I’d rather have a better idea of the points we are raising and the path we shall take during this discussion.

    An update here would be great, or I’ll try calling back later.

  5. Bubz

    Also, the petition has been removed on the grounds that the author chose to remain anonymous.

  6. Post
    Author
    mahmood

    Bubz sorry I was on another call. I guess we talked and you are more than welcome to come over this afternoon at 4.

    I’ve emailed the authors of the petition to try to get them to register it under my name in order to print out the more than 1000 signatures.

  7. Nawab of Kabab

    Most people do not understand all the technical-jargon involving bandwidth and so our main task is to explain to the general public in plain English the exact implications of these treshold limits. If these points are clarified, then, it will be easier to get a lot of support from a large number of people. Sometimes technical jargon can confuse and mislead, and for this reason ‘clarity’ always helps.

  8. Yousif

    I tried convincing petitiononline.com to use my details but they refused. On a brighter note, today’s meeting (the BIS one) is on every paper this morning. Hopefully that will make more turn-ups tonight.

  9. angelo

    I’ll be there at 4pm at your office and at 7pm at crowne plaza.. also am printing out the 600 entries in the guestbook 🙂

    BTW, I found this document on the TRA’s website which says that the TRA development panel consisting of the former general counsel of the FCC advised teh tra not to withold batelco’s 10 dinar/256kbps offer on the grounds of the RAO:

    http://www.tra.org.bh/en/pdf/panel_2006_report_final.pdf

    “During the week that the panel was engaged in consultative discussions in Bahrain, Batelco proposed to offer a 256 kb/sec DSL service for 10BD
    representing a significant reduction of the existing price for such an offering.

    The panel considered that approval of such an offer, could lock up many users to contracts prior to imminent entry by new fixed line operators, which itself depended on the pace of release of spectrum for wireless access as well as on the implementation of an effective RAO framework.

    On that footing the panel recommended that regulatory approval of the offer be withheld on competition grounds pending:

    • fixed service entry possibly through completion of FWA 3.5 Ghz fast track
    procedure (see section 8), and
    • implementation by Batelco of wholesale business unit reform outlined
    above with demonstrated provision of effective equivalent wholesale
    services.”

    >> The TRA Development Review Panel (the panel) visited Bahrain from 29 January to 5 February 2005 and met with a range of industry participants on 1 and 2 February. (document was poublished on april 29th)

    Interesting.. so the TRA knew all about this way back in Feb this year and decided to blindly let it go, what’s more interesting is that in the TRA’s press release, they say:

    “We will be studying the Panel’s report in detail, in order to identify the most appropriate ways of addressing the priorities recognized by the Panel in our Plan for the next 12 months.”

    http://www.tra.org.bh/en/pdf/Press_Release/2006/2-5-2006/Panel_Report2006_Release_English%20Final_2.pdf

    In the next 12 months? Excuse me?
    then what about the need to complete an effective Reference Access Offer (RAO) that ensures effective equivalence as soon as possible and no later than 30 June 2006 as raised by the panel??

    No wonder Batelco.. got away with it… the TRA have been sleeping on this!

  10. KoOKiE

    Agree with nawab

    well i would be coming at 4pm with couple of friends who are skilled with the bandwidth process even i am but we need more and more who could talk about this issue.

    I just printed the discussion between the batelco people and between which is on the BB website and printed a list of Registered ISP’s so we have a proof and few details and flaws about TRA which i would bringing along with me.

  11. KoOKiE

    Oh nice angelo i am just reading the link pasted above that realy shows
    tht TRA is a sleeping beauty nuthing else.

    Do print it and bring it these are things every1 shoud know.

  12. angelo

    I uploaded the first 600 entries on the boycottbatelco.com guestbook to my personal server here:

    http://dr.qoozz.com/bb guest book in pdf from page 1-600.zip

    That zip files contains 12 pdf documents, each document consists of 50 entries from the guestbook. Feel free to print it out, pass it around if you must..

    I’ve also uploaded a backup copy of the petition.. to about 600 signatures i think… the reason i backed it up 2 days ago was to take the comments and mail it off to the ceo.. anyways…. here it is:

    http://www.dr.qoozz.com/petitononline.com/

    I noticed that the petition is still deactivated at petitionline.com 😉

    🙂

  13. Moody

    oh yeah one more thing be4 i Leave …

    would 2 Mbps be a real Mbps ? u know Batelco got arround 4 ip spans , once u get the 84.x.y.z or 82.x.y.z your lag x 2 your original lag lol !
    done my home work regarding that , but when u get the 217.x.y.z u still lag but better than the other ips … prolly cuz its sat crap dunno really , did’nt do my home work for that 1 …

    ciao and good luck …
    c u @ 7 …

  14. KoOKiE

    Well there are 600 but the total strength of the signatures are i guess above 1000.

    and the above BB link is not working.

  15. KoOKiE

    Im really surprised that none of the bahraini citizens showed up there

    really disappointed

    Please people come at the conference at crown plaza 7PM

  16. angelo

    So what are you guys impressions of the meeting today? They should’ve told ppl how long the meeting would be so each person could’ve judged how much time they’d need voice their doubt/question… that way everyone’s questions would’ve been answered.. i’ll blog on the meeting soon. But apart from that.. I’d like to hear what others will be saying. Mahmood will do a blogposting for sure…

    BTW.. Mahmood’s blog was quoted at the start of the evening 🙂 and was the CE stated among all the blogs/websites.. it was the best one that offered an intelligent debate… 😉

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  18. Anonymous

    Andre Avgoustos of the TRA has been fired, and has anyone noticed that the switchover didnt happen yesterday? Something could be up in the dungeons of Batelco!!!!!

    Peter K next, he is the one who started this mess in the first place.

  19. Post
    Author
    mahmood

    Don’t make claims like this without giving references please. This could be interpreted as nothing more than malicious.

  20. angelo

    Dunno’ why but this reminds me of 2Connect’s pointe 2 pointe MAN 🙂 using the same tech sorta’ i guess… dust-resisitant in a way….. 😉

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