Categories
Information Internet Kuwait

Fair Access Policy – The numbers

Qualitynet and KEMS have both published their bandwidth limits. Strangely they both have the exact same limits which are the following:

Speed – Daily Download Limit
512 Kbps – 1GB
1 Mbps – 1.7GB
1.5 Mbps – 1.9GB
2 Mbps – 2.9GB
3 Mbps – 3.8GB
4 Mbps – 4.7GB
5 Mbps – 5.4GB
6 Mbps – 6GB
7 Mbps – 6.8GB
8 Mbps – 7.9GB

If you have the Qualitynet Nitro package your download limit is slightly higher. United Networks haven’t published their limits yet but I am assuming it would be similar to Qualitynet and KEMS. Fasttelco also haven’t published their numbers although I heard that they will not be instating limits but instead punish only heavy abusers. But, unless they publish some kind of numbers, a heavy abuser might be someone that downloads 2GB a day or 20, we wouldn’t know.

Thanks Dylan

Update: I think the current system in place is unfair. My line can only handle 2 Mbps which means I am stuck with a 2.9GB daily limit and no option to increase it. I know the Ministry of Communications wants to reduce the internet prices which is great but placing download limits is not the way to go about it.

77 replies on “Fair Access Policy – The numbers”

Proves whoever thought about it seems mentality retarded.

So for me if I download the latest Linux distro DVD I’m considered an abuser ! ROFL. Does anybody at these ISP’s know about computing and broadband connection for this age !

Boohoo ISP’s are out of bandwidth ! Kuwait is out of bandwidth. Time travel is possible with Kuwait’s ISP’s and the mighty MOC people we’re back in the 90’s or stone age for that matter !

so if you exceed the daily limit you will be reduced to 25% speed for the rest of the day only??
and then next day you will be back to normal speed and so on ??

What they did is really a shift in their DSL marketing strategy. instead of going with speeds , now they are selling DSL according to download limits.

I will not be surprised if we soon see a new line of “Unlimited download” packages , which will basically be the (same old) DSL packages but with the “outrageous” prices from 4-5 years ago. 300 KD a month?…lets wait and see…Summer holiday just started and kids want their high speed DSL

I have a feeling thats exactly what they are going to do which is another BS marketing tactic. But tbh if thats the only alternative to getting back some decent download limits then without a doubt people will pay for it which is the sad part.

Internet Fair Speed Pricing Policy
I’m sure I’m not alone in being upset with the deceptive practies of internet service providers in their not delivering the speed they advertise and now with the limits they put on useage amounts.
I am calling for implementation of a Fair Speed pricing system. You pay for the speeed you receive. For example my ISP advertises speeds of up to 21+ meg per second (mps) yet they tell you it’s really 7.1 mps in reality it’s between 1.5 mps to 2.4mps with a very rare 3.4mps. Hence they charge me 26 kd a month when I’m getting 21.1% to 33.8% of the speed I’m paying for. When I hit their magic self imposed data limit my speed drops to 0.985% of the speed I’m paying for. I should only pay for the actual speed I receive.
I purpose that all internet ISP provide a program that resides on the user’s computer and checks the speed randomly every hours and an average actual speed be recorded for each day and we pay accordingly.
Example if my average daily speed works out to 0.7mps per day and I pay 26 kd for 7.1 meg service then my monthly internet charges be 2.563 KD.
I would call on all internet users to demand this be implemented by the government and data limits be made illegal because nothing is fair about advertising one service and delivering something less without compensation!

You’ve got this wrong… Speeds are advertised in Mb/s = Megabits per second. Downloads are in MB/s = Megabytes per second. A byte is made up of 8 bits. So basically when they advertise 21 Mb/s, thats ~2.63 MB/s. It’s just a way to make connection speeds seem more appealing.

I could not agree with you more. I have the Zain 7.2 Mbps package and usually get speed of 80 to 100 Kbps. Yes you read that correct. Kilobytes per second. I am so fed up with them, but if I cancel the account I have to pay them 15KD to cancel their awful service and pay for the piece of crap usb dongle.
Why does the internet suck so bad here?

The limits are too strict, for example lets start from 512K, atleast 2Gb should be allowed from the max 3GB~ that they can possibly download in 24hrs, likewise thats how it should be for other higher connection speeds in that ratio.
This current limit is ridiculous. And I bet this won’t improve the shitty pings much that we have been having since day one.

You would think with these new limits that the net should at least be blazing fast (until you hit the limit). But its not so on Qualityshit, the net is crappy even before you hit the limits. On any normal 4MB connection in the civilized world I don’t have to buffer 360p Youtube videos.

Where are the lawyers? Why aren’t the ISPS being sued? There is no way in hell they will change unless they are sued. Come on lawyers, swoop in like vultures!

FastTelco is most likely lying about not having set caps per say, because a few days ago I called Kems and they told me the EXACT SAME THING and now they have a set cap for every speed. I think they just say that to attract more customers from other ISP’s and then suddenly pull out a table like Kems did.

I cannot download all of the “Welcome Back package” games for my PS3. One game INFAMOUS is around 2.9G. I’m sure life will keep getting harder for gamers now with downloadable digital media replacing the DVD/Bluray formats we have now.

I really hope people would take a stand now, and not wait for things to become “part of life here”.

I smell A pay-by-the-gig pricing scheme coming soon from all ISPs.

It’s happening in Canada also France seems to be blocking the popular streaming sites as a capping method after a person watches a certain amount in that day they block the site for them until the next day.

retarded , they should keep these limits . for users who do not want to download and pay less for surf,check email small stuff..etc

other normal accounts are anyways expensive and putting limit on them is Lame .

what is next ? ..may be i will shift to dialup :S

How about we start a campaign against the ISPs, see if kuwaits legal system supports class action lawsuits.

ppl are too lazy to do anything. Plus, it is summer and its hot outside. So, we are forced to stay home and take these options whether we like it or not.

I’m telling you man, they think like Nazis!

look at this .. some figures in numbers.

For a 512 Kbps Connection.. few month back

Was Yearly Price = 45
Was Per Day Download = 4.3 GB approx (if you download 24 hrs)

Now Yearly Price = 80
Now Per Day Download = 1 GB (Per day)

Which is

Price 78% Higher
Download 75% Lower

God…. How much money they want!!!!

By the way…

Someone from the Ministry.. it think the minister himself or one of his deputies.. announced couple of days ago that ISPs will reduce their prices. I guess this is the tactic that the government is doing with the ISPs. reduce service quality, limit internet access, and then claim that government members have achieved something that people have always demanded… which is reducing the cost of internet subscrition!

Am with kems having the same issue

well am on 512 at the moment and it works as a dialup, I get *less than 32kbps* on download
sometimes internet just resets.

just one thing, if the ISPs dont have the capacity to support the quota they are providing why do they provide it then ?

because of which now they are applying a download cap on connections which were originally provided as unlimited data packages!

Let me see, nowhere in the UN charter on human rights does it say internet is a birth right. It’s a privilege. And now capitalism is screwing us. And they can do it legally.

We need hackers to screw those isp servers and make them lose a lot of money like what they did to sony!!! for internet freedom.

i have said it for the millionth time…Qualitynet is the worst company in kuwait. I hope we get more competition to drive them out of business.

it’s plain simple… pay for quadruple the speed that you already have.
So once you reach the limit & your speed goes down to 25%, you’re back to square one. Assuming your area supports that type of speed
so you’ll have to pay roughly 3 times what you’re paying now (depending on your ISP) to maintain the same speed “without a cap”
Taken out of a “Business for Dummies” book? or maybe “Business BY Dummies”. No it’s not… it’s a rigged game of “Monopoly”…!

I am willing to protest this…give me date and time. Rally up the angry mob…I’ll be the one holding the pitchfork.

You guys dont get it. This is just a business game and i am gonna tell you exactly why they are doing this.

First, what do you think will happen if all ISPs want to increase their prices? some say MOE won’t allow it. So i think ISPs are doing this bcoz in the near future they may introduce their “New Feature” which is Unlimited downloads but “Double The Prices”. for example if 3mb is 300kd per year(with 3.8GB limit), then unlimited 3mb is for 600kd unlimited.

Second, Maybe all of this is just an MOE game paving for entrance of a new internet company which does not limit anything. How do think this new company will have customers and make profit fast?? by making people run away from their ISPs and this is exactly what is happening right now.

Atleast one of my two theories will actually happen soon. We just have to wait and see 🙂

“First, what do you think will happen if all ISPs want to increase their prices? some say MOE won’t allow it.”

Dewd, ISPs already increased their prices compared to last year!!! ISPs are free business and the MOwhatever can’t tell them jack about their prices.

That’s not what an IT manager at FastTelco told me. He said “Prices are ranged according to MOC polices”. It is true that ISP are private business but they are governed by some MOC rules.

You are right, Some ISPs did increase their prices this year according to last year but how much? it ranged from 30 to 50 kd per year and that’s nothing.

Consider an increase from 300kd (limited downloads) to 699kd (Unlimited Downloads).

Dear Mark

I’m a ps3 user and yesterday i downloaded 1 single free Game from PSN Network and the size was 3.5 GB in one download using the ADSL speed 2 MP from Gulf net, which mean if the limit of 2 mb is 2.9 GB then i would exceed it in just 2 days maximum and it would limit the speed down to 25% = 512 Kbps which not fair, I don’t download this much daily of course but its unfair for the internet users, nowadays most of the files on the internet are big sized files due to the HD quality Demand. Man, if you paid yearly or monthly for a high speed you will be using that desired speed only for few times and you will get stuck with the low speed limitation :S also take in Consideration how many users at home are with you !??. this is totally unfair.

So you’ll consume the pitty bandwidth they gave you in a couple of days then get stuck with 25% of what you paid for the rest of the month? how lame is that

If you’ll download non-stop@512Kbps all month long,
then you’ll get 64,5GB instead of 165,8GB with FUP in place.
ISP should rename their packages then, cause it’s not unlimited anymore.

I believe there is no such a thing called as abuser, I have several pc’s to update + gaming consoles + iTunes and many other LEGAL things that consume bandwidth, i just upgraded to 8mbit which means I have the right to run a 1mbps 24/7/365 until my internet sub is over, thats what i paid for!

how is it abusing since i paid for it? i cant really get this, here is a little page i’ve done i hope it helps people to be aware of what they are getting compared to what they paid for and expected to get

https://binibrahim.com/cap-scam/

This is completely disgraceful. I’m a Gulfnet user and they’ve cycled down my speed to 128 kbps from my regular 512 kbps. This is the same for everyone and it is HORRIBLY slow for 128 even.

I’m with Kems and I’m having massive issues with this cap. I’ve just finished writing them a formal complaint. From my experience the cap isn’t even working correctly, I can exceed 3.8 GB in a day and still be able to push Steam over 200KBPS on my 3Mb connection when I am told I should be limited to 700-800 kpbs. It also seems that it is overall traffic and not just downloads as leaving an upload on all day also seems to trigger it. Since it has been introduced my ms has increased 2 fold and all video streaming sucks. Even google images halts me loading a full page of images with a “we think your internet is slow” warning and I haven’t even hit the cap yet!
We pay through the nose for minuscule amounts of bandwidth and they slam these caps on, it is insulting.

Hi all,

The true problem behind the download bandwidth limit is not with the ISP’s but it is with the Kuwait Ministry of Communications. https://www.moc.kw/
They are the ones to blame for enforcing the Fair Access Policy on ISP’s.

It starts with Internet limits and will progress to other things, like electricity. Think about it. If some houses are using like hundreds of kilowatts, which causes a load on the neighbor hood transformer. Wouldn’t this be the same as putting a cap on the amount of internet downloads you are allowed to have per day?

If not till me what do you think about the new Intelligent Electric Meters? It allows the ministry of electricity to control the amount of power arriving to your house and be able to disconnect it. Even though you are paying for both the net and the electricity….

Control, control, control…

Mark-I stream college football online from ESPN 360 and was wondering how the download limits affect data streamed online?

I have a similar issue where my phone line can only handle 2MB and hence that’s the connection I have and am stuck with a rather low download limit.

Leave a Reply to Chronos Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *