Mada dropped off their router for me to try out today. I just turned it on now and ran a speed test and got 9.3Mbps which is more than 4 times my current DSL speed. Actually considering the fact that my Qualitynet connection is currently limited to 512kb because I hit my daily download limit, Mada is currently around 18 times faster than my 2MB Qualitynet connection. Will do a lot of testing over the weekend and post my review early next week.
91 replies on “Hello Mada”
I get about 40 Mbps here in the U.S. Internet is the only thing i dont miss about Kuwait:p
I got 100mb from virgin here in UK, beat that US&A :p
How does 356mbps down and 192mbps up sound π
Well, how much does Gas cost?
+1
$2.2 lesser than it costs in UK / gallon π
you mean there are other things u miss about Kuwait? The heat, the dust stormz, the boredom?
if its that bad, then why dont you leave… hopefully not coming back!
one less whiner …..
might i suggest you go to Zimbabwe first and try it out their …
That’s an often used line, it’s really tired. You should give it a rest.
It’s our own country and can complain if we want to.
Yes the weather isn’t great, yes the internet sucks and now apparently, the ISPs are making an effort to make it WORSE – instead of progress, yes the government sucks and is full of WASTA, etc etc.
If you love it so much why don’t you marry it? (this is basically your argument in reverse)
So you miss the weather,lack of entertainment,bad driving etc.
lol
go to JAPAN … northern japan… they have all of the above …
if this country is not so suited to your ”high” taste … and boring you to death… that is …
But the upload speed is awful. 042mb is actually the quickest upload speed I have seen so far from Mada. The router is basically for heavy downloaders but awful for gamers.
well my qualitynet upload speed is also 512kb so not noticing difference. Engineer told me I should be able to hit 1MB upload max.
bad for the torrent too .
Well if it is I am not feeling it because I’m currently downloading a torrent at 1.14MB/s! that’s basically a 10MB connection! With my 2MB qualitynet my max is usually 260kb or 0.26MB/s
thats great !! the upload on torrent good too ?
Dude, you are exposing your public IPAddress. Not a good idea coz i can easily target your router now so becarefull π
don’t worry that isn’t my ip anymore but removed it just incase some other Mada user ends up getting it
they rented a internet tower on top of my workplace
It depends mainly on the coverage in your area.
What about the “unlimited” deal? Is it truly unlimited? Is it only for three months?
right now its unlimited for 3 months. after that they still havent decided what the cap will be. for now theyre saying at least 20gb but i’m hoping it will be A LoT more than that
20GB is pathetic!
it’s looks really good for the price they are offering and the speed, something we can’t find in internet company.
but what i’m concern about if we can have that speed everywhere or only some area’s, i’ll have to check this out π
In kuwait city I was getting 2.8Mbps. According to the engineer it was slow because of the following:
1) Location
2) 21st floor
3) double glazed windows
hmmm…double glazed windows
oh yeah high floors always gets a bad reception but even so 2.8Mbps isn’t bad
So is the screencap above from Salmiya?
MMMMmmmm glazed donuts
Mark will a ip camera like foscam will work on this mada ? Ip camera do not work on Zain & wataniya only work on Viva. i wanted to get mada but if my ip camera will not work on it then i will stick with viva. I work and live in salmiya and i am sure mada have good speed in salmiya.
IP cameras should work on both zain, wataniya and viva. But if you’re talking about accessing the IP cam from outside your network (over the internet) the Mada router does support dynamic DNS
i just bought mine too…it seems great..at least you do not have any annual obligations…in case i don’t like it i’ll simply stop it after 3 months…
finally an alternative of zain, wataniya and viva
So at your home is it a constant 9.8MB or does it fluctuate?
9.3, typo.
Hey Mark so can buy it tomorrow (Friday) and get the Unlimited Plan deal for 3 Months ! if so please reply me back soon ! and should i ask him for the Unlimited plan deal or is it that they are offering everyone this deal !
What about latency?
Can you try pinging European,American and Asian servers?
Hi, can you please run some ping tests, or try playing online and post your review before the unlimited deal ends ?
And when does the deal end ?
Thanks
I played on Xbox Live using this connection, it’s been pretty seamless.
I get something like 20+ Mbps in Kuwait π
Qualitynet sucks!
Qualitynet is by far, one of worst company in the Middle East. They’re the ones that lobbied for this fair usage policies, and pushed hard to have them in place. I have friends in KSA, UAE and Qatar..all of whom currently:
(1) Pay a fraction of what we do in Kuwait
(2) Get speeds of 30+ MB/S and above
(3) Are not capped by download limits.
I suggest you visit their websites and see what the rest of the GCC is offering, and what we’re getting:
Saudi Telecom Fiber Optic https://www.verve.com.sa/
UAE Etisalat
https://www.etisalat.ae/personal.html
I purchased yesterday. The max speed I am getting is 3 mb. I am in salwa block 10. I called them to ask why am I not getting any better and the lady that answered couldn’t give me any solution.
Also if u have one of those sat receivers that need Internet connection to work, well it won’t with mada’s router. I think I will return it. Not impressed at all.
I signed up last night. I live in Mangaf, Block 1 and signal strength was very high. Initial download speeds were in the 6.5mb range, however upload speeds were about .25mb. Still faster than what I get with Zain or Viva. The price is good, my only concern is the data caps at the end of the first three months. We’ll see how it goes as their subscriber base grows. My Viva connection was very fast when it first came out, but got slower over time as they accumulated subscribers.
Doesn’t block 1 have fiber?
Can you do a test for me, Mark? On speed test, can you try any server located in California, Los Angeles? I would like to know the ping or latency on your connection. Thanks.
Whatever you guys need me to answer, just ask and I’ll do all the tests and post the results. I will ping NY, London and LA servers and post those results.
yes, my question is why are ISPs initially applying the caps in the first place? What are the “REAL” reasons if they dare say!
Their servers wouldn’t be able to handle the bandwidth and cost to maintain it would be too high I guess.
This may sound lame, but would it be possible to use pop mail?
Thanks
POP mail should work on any connection as long as they are not blocking the ports needed. I have no doubt it will work with Mada.
Thanks. The reason I asked is that I was using qualitynet.net on Zain Ego until two months back when they disallowed this domain, without any replacement from Zain.
thats the best i can get in my area
https://www.speedtest.net/result/1324638442.png
For me the problem is not the speed but the 2.8GB limit per day..
https://www.speedtest.net/result/1324647578.png
I would be OK with a daily cap at 2.8gb a day because it would reset the following day. The monthly caps hurt because once you hit your cap, you are penalized by a speed cut until the following month.
Good point..
This is impressive. What plan do you have with Qnet?
2MB Nitro Package..
Can you do me a favor and ping google.com and tell me what you get.
I wonder how it compares to the regular Zain e-go and my fiber optic connection in Salwa.
Thanks!
Hi George, did u check with mada customer support why you aren’t able to receive throughput more then 3mbps ???
Yes I did ask them and as I mentioned, the lady had no answers for me and she said she will have to call me back. That was yesterday and still no call from them:(
well i have no coverage in my area and i called and them and the lady im guessing the same, she was Egyptian right? she told me she will call me back and that was about 20 hours ago.
You are 100% right. She was Egyptian and it’s been over 24 hours for and still no call. I will give it till tomorow, if they don’t call me back I will take the router back and refund my money.
so this MADA wimax thingy i guess it does not use any MOC badal faqid paper before buying it???
Wimax tech is good for downloading but not good for gaming bc it’s still wireless and can be unstable. I am just sick of these caps π
Mark I live in Salmia Plagat and mine is showing 3.4!!! where you live at?
Mark how does this Mada router compare to my Zain E-Go 7.2 MB? in terms of browsing speed and reliability and stability?
Hellooo.. I asked for advice here!
The results you get from speedtest.net are not accurate and it does not show your actual speed over the WiMAX link since you are testing with servers of other ISPs “compatitors”.. so to get more actual speeds you can use the following link:
http://www.mada.com.kw/speedtest
And to make sure of the results you will get try to use any speed meters on your PC.
BTW, the max upload speed is 3.2Mbps
Anyhow, to get better speeds, try to get more bars on your router..
Hope I clarified something π
The speed over wimax is not important, it’s the actual real world speed to servers in the US that matters.
The more WiMAX speed you get, the better internet speed you enjoy…
If I get 200MB on the Mada website and just 5MB on a US website then I am actually getting 5MB not 200.
hey whats mada? i want one
I just hit 1MBps downloading torrents over Mada… I think I am in love…
Thank you soo much Mark ! Love your website ! i just bought it today and i am in love with it ! i still feel i am in a Dream i mean i cant believe on my eye’s when i see download speeds of 600 – 700 Kb/s !
United Nations Declares Internet Access a Basic Human Right
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/united-nations-declares-internet-access-a-basic-human-right/239911/
……..yet, quality(crap)net is limiting our Basic Human Rights!
Saudi telecom introduces 100Mbps fiber optic for 36 KD a month UNLIMITED downloads. http://www.verve.com.sa/index.php
Can you tell me more about setting it up initially and getting started? How long does it take? What all do you have to do?
I just bought it yesterday and all i did was just plug the adapter joined the Ethernet ports and thats all ! it started working Instantly ! =D
Ethernet ports? To your existing telephone line?
It doesn’t use telephone lines .. you just add power and it connects wirelessly.
Thanks, that’s all I wanted to know.
Woke up this morning and the speed had dropped to less than .25 mb down. I hope this is just temporary.
Guy,
if you go by the records…telephone(POTS) line has been the most reliable means of communication and here in Kuwait, QualityNet is the best and superior among the rest of the ISP….
I suggest pause for a while before switching for other ISPs.
They introduced a FAP. They’re the worst.
hello
I want to ask
how much will it cost to post and ad in the spaces you have in your blog
^_^ waiting for your reply ^_^
thank you
your contact us is not working π
Need you to pay some charge to cancel it after the 3 months?
no you do not have to pay anything because you have already paid for the 3 month in advance
I am at Mada office waiting my turn to return the device and get my money back. Their speed fluctuates a lot and uplowed is crap. Also I still cannot use it with my sat receiver which is one of the reasons I bought it. Lets see what happened. Good day all.
Dear George
can i know which area you have tried our service.
regards
Got my KD 60 back no problem.