Category: Information

I had a meeting earlier today with a person that wants to remain anonymous. The person I met is connected to one of the local ISP’s and wanted to meet me so he can set some things straight regarding the internet caps.

First just a brief intro on how ISP’s get their internet. They have two ways generally, one is via satellite and the other by cable. Satellite is too costly and has limited bandwidth so most ISP’s go with cable. Now all communication coming in or out of Kuwait needs to go through the Ministry of Communications. They act like border immigration and this rule applies to both internet providers as well as telecommunication companies. The MOC charges the ISP’s for the various kind of lines that passes through them. You can check the documents at the end of post for details on this. Since 2007 the Ministry hasn’t decreased their prices and they also haven’t been investing in their infrastructure.

Now ISP’s have cables from their main headquarters to the MOC, and then from there they head to different countries. An example of a route might be ISP-HQ to MOC to Dubai to UK. Now the problem from what I understood is that because the Ministry of Communication hasn’t upgraded their infrastructure the ISP’s can’t get more lines and bandwidth into Kuwait. At the same time the amount of internet users in Kuwait is increasing. So if back in 2007 there were lets say a thousand people using 1 cable, the same cable today is providing to 1500. This is just an example and the numbers I mentioned are not accurate but just to help you visualize the problem.

So high demand and limited supply and add to that the price war that was taking place between the ISP’s and they all got to the point where they had a lot more subscribers than they and the MOC could supply bandwidth. The situation became critical and so for the first time ever, the ISP’s united and decided to increase and unify their prices during the last expo since the demand was was more than the supply. The ISP’s were hoping the increase in prices might also spark an outcry from the consumers which would in return put pressure on the MOC but that didn’t happen.

Since nothing changed after the expo and the ISP’s were still lacking bandwidth, they didn’t have a choice other than to set limits. The ISP’s came together for a second time and decided to place download caps on all their users and here we are today. The good news is that the caps resulted in an outcry that triggered the MOC to take action. I’ve also been told that both parties are currently in talks and it looks like everything is going to get fixed soon.

I’ve attached a few documents below related to everything I spoke about above. If anyone has any questions you can post them below and I’ll try to either to get you an answer. Here are the [Files]

If there is anyone from the MOC reading this, please contact me so I could get your side of the story.

Ahmadi Town from Archofkuwait on Vimeo.

If you’re a long time reader you will know I have a soft spot for old pictures of Kuwait. Right now I’m extremely ecstatic because Architecture of Kuwait have just posted what has to be the best Ahmadi post ever. They’ve posted a ton of incredible pictures of Ahmadi, nearly all of which I had never seen before and all of them are very good quality shots. They even posted the 20 minute documentary above! Check out the picture of Ahmadi at the bottom of this post, it just looks beautiful.

Here is the link to the Ahmadi post on AOK [Link]

Sidekick Academy, the local mixed martial arts training center just participated at the 2011 US Open Martial Arts Championships in Orlando, Florida. They ended up leaving with a total of 17 trophies and medals. This is how they ended up ranking:

MMA competition:
Nasser Alqattan 1st Heavy Weight Division
Abdullatif Alothman 1st Middle Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 2nd Heavy Weight Division
Mahmooh Geragh 3rd Light Weight Division

Continuous Sparring:
Abdullah Alameeri 3rd Over 170lb Division

Point Sparring:
Shaikha Alshuaib 1st Intermediate Belts Light Weight Division
Abdullah Almarta 3rd Begginer Light Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 3rd Intermediate Belts Over 170lb
Hamad Alnabhan 3rd Advanced Belts Under 169lb

Forms:
Abdulmohsen Albabtain 4th Master Black Belts Tradional Division
Hamad Alnabhan 5th Advanced Belts Division
Abdullah Almarta 2nd Begginer Belts Division

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:
Nasser Alqattan 2nd No-Gi Middle Weight Division
Nasser Alqattan 3rd Gi Blue Belt Middle Weight Division
Abdulrahman Aljasser 3rd No-Gi Heavy Weight Division
Abdulrahman Ajasser 1st Gi Blue Belt Heavy Weight Division
Abdullah Almarta 3rd Gi White Belt Light Weight Division

I think that’s an incredible accomplishment, for more information you can visit the Sidekick Academy facebook page [Here]

Tidbit Du Jour just posted about a new milkshake store that just opened in Al Kout Mall called Sblended. I hadn’t heard of this British chain before but looking at their website it seems they will blend any of your favorite chocolates into a milkshake. Sounds delicious. [Link]

Architecture of Kuwait have a new article up and it’s about the Shaikh Mubarak Kiosk pictured above. The kiosk which had a lot of important and historical value was turned into a samosa shop back in the 60s with the top floor also rented out to a photographer. Now it’s been renovated and turned into a historical building that looks very similar to the original. You can read more on why this kiosk was important as well as see more pictures on the Architecture of Kuwait website [Here]

The new Quiznos in Salmiya has finally opened up. The brand is no longer run by the same company that used to have the Baitak Tower branch, it’s now a completely new owner so hopefully the food will be closer to the American counterpart than the previous Quiznos was. They’re open in Salmiy right behind Olympia Mall on Salem Mubarek Street.

Remember back in May I posted about how Paris HIlton’s show My New BFF was being filmed in Dubai? Well the show ended a couple of days back and the contestant that won the competition is Kuwait’s very own Reem Al Alnezi (pictured above). She’s now Paris Hilton’s new best friend which I have no idea what that means. I guess they’ll go shopping together and partying together every time Paris comes to the Middle East? Not really sure… [Link]

Thanks Fatemah

There is a new Mexican restaurant that’s opening up tomorrow (Friday) in Mahboula called Lita’s. It’s a small place that’s owned by Khaled Mulla who is half Kuwaiti and half Mexican. From what I understood he wants the local community to experience real authentic Mexican food which currently is lacking in Kuwait. They’ll be making their own flour tortillas on the spot and the Chef is a family member that is coming in from Mexico to run the place himself who’s been in the business for over 30 years. This along with the announcement of a Mexican Embassy opening up soon should be great news for the small (200+) Mexican community in Kuwait.

I’m currently in Lebanon for a few days so I won’t be able to pass by and try it but if you’re interested the place is in Mahboula, Block 1 off of street 210. Here is the [Map]

Thanks Edgar

Marzouq over at Z District has just posted a full account on the current internet situation in Kuwait. It’s a pretty long post but a very informative one. You can read it [Here]

This is like the 3rd or 4th one this year. According to Al Watan breaking news they say the fire is in a garage. A reader sent in the picture above which he took from his office at Abyat. Looks like the fire is in the Behbehani warehouse and it looks huge. More pictures [Here]

Thanks urmania

Summer is here and my bakala guy just installed a brand new freezer filled with beautifully arranged KDD ice cream. Since the KDD packaging doesn’t contain any nutritional information I decided to get all the calorie information from the KDD website and list it over here in one easy to read list. Now Fahad is putting together an ultimate ice cream guide but until that’s ready the list below should be useful. These are just some favorites arranged from the highest calorie count to the lowest.

Lulu 257 calories

Silver 222 calories

Gold 185 calories

Burgan 126 calories

Sandwich 91 calories

Failaka 61 calories

Sarokh 53 calories

Raspberry Lolly 49 calories

If your favorite KDD ice cream isn’t here you’ll find it on their [Website]

They started putting up a fence around Safat Square today in preparation for the construction of the new large fountain project that will take it’s place. [Link]

Global Finance released the list of richest and poorest countries in the world for 2010 based on GDP data per capita. Kuwait came in 14th place while Qatar came in first. Congo on the other hand turned out to be the poorest. [Here]

Update: Here is the full list [Link]

A couple of readers emailed asking on more information about VPN’s so I figured I would do quick write up about it. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and to understand how it can be of use to you I will give you a quick example. There are some sites (mostly media) that require you to be a US resident to be able to either watch videos or listen to music. A quick example is Hulu.com. If you want to watch a video on Hulu you would get the message (screenshot above) that videos can only be streamed to US residents. A VPN would help you get around that restriction.

How VPN works is you sign up to a VPN service (I use StrongVPN) and then you access the internet through their servers. So instead of you visiting Hulu directly from your computer in Kuwait and getting the error I mentioned earlier, with a VPN based in the US you end up accessing Hulu through them so Hulu thinks it’s you in the US. I did a quick illustration above to better visualize this.

With VPN active all the websites you visit will think you’re based in the US. It’s that simple really. It also doesn’t require you to change your browsing habits and unlike proxy websites you don’t have to access the web through a website. Once you setup VPN on your computer you connect to it from your desktop and then just browse the web like you would usually do. The above screen shot is from my Mac, I just click on Connect VPN and that’s it.

I know it sounds a bit complicated at first and maybe hard to grasp but really all you need to know is that VPN allows you to access sites that are restricted to just the US (like Hulu, Netflix, Pandora etc..). As I mentioned earlier my VPN account is from the company StrongVPN. I’ve been using them for over a year now and haven’t had any problems. I’ve also got their cheapest package. Here is the [Link]

If you have any questions just ask below.

A recently graduated high school student decided to start a campaign to raise awareness on mental health issues and to try and put an end to the discrimination and “mark of shame” associated with mental illness here in Kuwait. The student set up a website with a ton of information on the different types of mental illnesses as well as information on how you can help. So please show your support by visiting the website [Here]