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Mada WiMAX – 3 months later

When Mada launched 3 months ago I reviewed it and gave it top marks. It was incredibly fast when compared to my 2MB DSL connection at home since Mada was 10MB while my phone line can’t handle more than just 2MB. Originally I was told that Mada would be unlimited bandwidth for the first 3 months and after that everyone would be capped with a 20GB monthly limit. Turns out that plan has changed since Mada will no longer be applying a download cap and they will continue to be unlimited. That’s why I decided to renew my Mada connection for another 3 months since it’s now become my primary internet connection at home. I love it!

112 replies on “Mada WiMAX – 3 months later”

I’m glad to hear that Mada decided not to have caps. I will definately join them as soon as I get back to Kuwait. I wish they would roll out faster plans like 24 or 42 Mb so I can watch live NFL games in HD like I do now.

I used to have 15 MB and i used to stream HD the same way i am under 105 MB.

if everyone in Kuwait got 15~20 MB for a period of time they will get sick of downloading random shi*t online and they would stream instead!

Sounds cool, I will renew my connection with mada once my current Qnet connection is over. How much is mada prices? Do you pay monthly or yearly?

Its 20kd/month but the router is for 40kd
if u subscribe with them for a year (240kd) you get the router for free.

I gave up on Qnet and subscribed with them for a year. They have excellent customer service so far, and the speed is superb in my area (Bayan). They give you a week trial to check if everything is good and if you are getting the desired speed n signal in your place. I highly recommend them.

Mark.. I think you should remove few bloggers from your blog app. Some stopped writing, some changed blogs and some must just stop writing! Like the shamless buzfairy.

I’ve got an update coming up where i’ve added new blogs and removed some old ones. Buzfairy’s blog is still going to be there though, not sure why you don’t like her.

Since your’e discussing the app. I might as well mention that when you try to edit the blog list on your dock within the app, you cannot scroll down the blog list completely. e.g. Try adding Z District to your selection of favorite blogs ( the dock list of blogs within Kuwait Blogs app) and see what happens…..

Whatever. I just find it hilarious that you’re criticizing someone for writing on their own blog and accusing them of being rude, when you can’t even be respectful on someone else’s blog. You did notice this post has absolutely nothing to do with the blog app, right? Or were you too busy whining and being a hypocrite?

I guess the speed you have recommended in your post is the best speed you ever got. What’s the average daily torrent speed ?

I got the one in the picture. According to the employee at the stand mine is better, he said better build. I don’t know if that is true or just an excuse so i dont ask for the new one.

I first heard of Mada through Marks first post. Saw their booth at the Avenues during Ramadan and got my subscription right there. I love the fact that I can download and update my iPhone/iPad in just 40 mins.
I’m not an online gaming freak, but decided to give it a try. The upload speed is not bad but, for gaming it wasn’t impressive, however I love it and will be renewing my subscription.
Thanks Mark.

I heard they have a good offer, join them for 10 months and get extra 2 months for free! That was on their Twitter account: @Mada_Kuwait

I just got it about 3-4 days ago and I am having the same problem (Mahboula area). It drops/hangs all the time, but the router still says it’s Data_Connected. It’s not my connection, because I have it in the front window and it is always at [5/5] signal strength. Today, I watched it drop everytime within 10-15 min of me firing up some torrents. When I started tunneling them through a VPN (about 2hrs ago), it stopped. Coincidence? Maybe. Regardless, the thing hangs.

Spoke too soon. About 1hr later and it dropped again. This is really starting to tick me off. Starting to wonder if it’s this stupid three antenna router I have… grrr…

Mark,

I am going to pick up a unit today based on your recommendation.

If it turns out to be a bad idea, I’ll send you the bill! 😛

Mark sadly their coverage is no good at all in Khaitan besides Granada Cinema i would love to have one myself could you push them for a better coverage in that area

I’m having Mada at Mubarak Al Kabeer, it’s running great, and I’m getting like 1.2 MB/sec maximum (So happy)

but I’m having one issue, which is the router is restarting daily by it self.. but that’s not an issue for who isn’t an gamer, restart takes like one minute to run again.

No, I’m also having a hard time getting the port forwarding to work (suddenly stopped working 2 weeks ago). You also can’t change the DNS on the router.

Yeah, the stupidest port forwarding I’ve seen, what is WAN ports!? in every other brand router you just enter the LAN ports that you want to open.

Hope so Mada fix it in a next firmware or something.

I Fixed it, port forwarding is now working perfectly, and I Am accessing my PCs on the network from everywhere.

DMZ might put your PC in dangerous situation,Unless you know how to secure your PC.

Downloads and browsing is ok, gaming naahhh?? Didnt meet our expectations…might settle with 3mpbs adsl new rates. It may be choosy on location.

Mada is an affiliation with that started in Jordan. All you really get is a Zain Internet connection in a standalone wireless box.

Connection is pretty horrible in Fintas. Struggling to top 1Mbps on Speedtest and upload speed clocking less than 0.1Mbps.

I will be turning mine back in under their 7 day money back guarantee.
Unfortunately that leaves me stuck With Qnet for the forseeable!

You can subscribe and try it for one week and return it back if you didn’t like it and take your money back(But if you downloaded 5 GB) you cannot return it.

Worth a try!

For first person shooters, it’s ok. But after 6pm, the lag will kill you.

The speeds are great in Mahboula, Mangaf, and Fahaheel (at least 4Mb and up).

There is a difference between the 3 month and 1 year package. For the 1 year package, they give you two months free so it’s actually for 14 months.

i tried many connections , MADA is giving good download and upload speed but PING is between 50 to 120 .
for online gaming you need less than 100 ping and less than 50 you will not lag in game or having delay . and you have to setup your Port Forwarding in your router or static IP of your pc or Ps3 or XboX to DMZ .
For me VIVA and MADA is same !!!! same ping and same speed except upload for viva is slower. same result in online gaming . for me VIVA (21MB)is much better !!sometimes MADA router is disconnecting from Ps3 .
Best for online gaming go for Quality net or Fasttelco Gaming service they will give you special IP for better PING and connection.

Wow nice feedback … id love to try .. but since im a gamer … can sum one tell me how r the pings … especially to European side servers … i wanaa go wimax cuz getting a new telephone line everytime i change my house is a pain in the *backside*

always we get better connection with Asia (not far east ) and Europe! .. DNS you are getting from your ISP is very important . you can find faster DNS and use it for your connection but you should know how to configure your router.many said is not working but with VIVA im using DNS from other ISP and is working perfect, in FIFA 11 ,RSV2,COD …

Guys,
This is not going to be great for gaming as people have already mentioned. You’re going to have latency issues with first person shooters. It’s ok during the day but after 6pm, it’s horrible.

.. MADA is killing me after 1 am specially around 5 am to 7am is just keep disconnecting . im living in salmiya and MADA said they have best coverage in salmiya

I have seen that too but usually earlier. It will disconnect for about an hour and then come back up. I’m rarely up at that time trying to game so it doesn’t bother me that much.

My maximum router uptime is less than 2 days. the router restarts daily by it self. I’m having the tower like router.

But still not a big issue.

Getting Slow!!

I found an issue with my download, upload speed.

Once i subscribed it was giving me 9.5 Mbps, and upload was 3.1 Mbps.

(Signal strenght in the router shows the same) (Almost to MAX)

AND NOW, download MAXIMUM around 6 Mbps and upload 1.3 Mbps!!

(I Know it’s good but it was giving me better results before).

I called the support in the evening, and they were very inexperienced, so they asked to call in the Morning (I was forcing them to open a Ticket number for me) but the support guy doesn’t want to!.

So i called in the morning and after a Blah, Blah Blah, They told me we might doing some maintenance in your area, SO should i wait another week? And try? or maybe 1 year subscription that will not see the 10 Mbps anymore!

I Hopefully someone from Mada see this, and why they are refusing to open an ticket for me.

Mada was terrible for me. it had download speed of 3mb and upload like 1mb. there customer service is very bad. they made me go to there company three times. eventually i returned it and they promised me that you get your cash back instantly, well i had to wait another 2 days for them to pay me back. worse connection and service.

Connection was fine with me at the beginning, but it’s not like the first days, and the “Signal strength” I am getting the same when first time i tried it, I’ve taken screen shots of the strength in the router Web interface…

from 9.5 Mbps to 5 to 6 Mbps!

+1 the customer support are horrible, and they don’t have the acknowledge to handle the calls, or fix an issue. They don’t even want to give me a Ticket number so i can trace my Issue later!

What they say, maybe there is maintenance to the tower in your area, call us after a Week!

Good News, My connection is back to normal now. after one full week exactly,

Everything works smoothly, and my speed are up to 1mb/sec download.

Well, I’m getting that speed, in the area which is not covered yet regarding to Mada Help desk.

Also according to their website Mubarak Al Kabeer is not covered.

https://www.mada.com.kw/Home/Coverage

This is a typical customer service response in Kuwait, over the years I have learned not to expect any better – the companies have techs they pay for, and we all know how little money most of the people working in customer care/support make in this country 😉 In any case, what I’m curious about is ingame latencies on PCs with their service. Anyone has any xp with pings in Warcraft? Cheers

Don’t be fooled by the no cap marketing campaign, When Viva started to offer a mobile broadband they had No cap policy for nearly a year.. but once they had a strong customer base they started to apply a bandwidth cap, It does look like Mada is doing the same thing, It’s just marketing, once they have a good number of subscribers they will implement a cap just like what Viva did. Even if you dig in Mada website you will find that they seem they are going to implement a cap policy. Pure ISP greed i must say.

Please show us the link to that policy. Mark and other Mada subscribers have been told there is no cap policy in effect. Aside from that, I’m happy to have their service cuz I can actually browse the internet and the webpages load fast. I’m willing to bet I still can’t do that with Viva. If I buy an album, it’s done downloading in minutes versus a half hour.
Lastly, you’re not locked into a year contract. So even IF THEY DO implement a cap, you can cancel the service after your 3 months is up.

https://www.mada.com.kw/Home/Faq/3

“Will there will be a download cap or not? And what it will be?

No, the offer is without any cap and for the period after the promotion Mada will be having different offers to suit everybody’s requirements.”

It’s the “period after the promotion” part that seems shady to me…

Viva, Zain and Wataniya are mobile operators. As I’ve said before it’s normal for them to have caps, even AT&T and T-Mobile have caps in the States. Mada is an ISP not a mobile operator.

So what is the final verdict ?? Is Mada Wimax a product and service worth 18KD/month or should we look towards the mobile operators who pretty much dominate and (restrict) the cmmunication scene in Kuwait.
And what happened to all the price regulation and no cap policy ..??

Hey Mark the reason i posted what i did above was “as i read through the above comments ” things didnt seem unanimous..yet there are many questions un answered and many contradicting views.Since you are a user of the wimax i thought u could summarize it..thats all..btw great job people your views are very helpful.

I’ve been using it for 4 months and it’s been the best service I’ve had between Zain and Viva. I had Qualitynet in Mahboula but the max I could get on the line was 1Mb so that had to go!
I know Mada works great in Fahaheel, Mangaf, and Mahboula. Hope this helps.
I believe they will still let you try it for a week and if you don’t like it, you can return it. Just make sure you don’t download over 5GB in that first week or you’ll have to pay the full subscription amount.

Was about to take it back until I took the ‘put it near a window’ advice.

If I physically tape the box onto a window (the glass), the speed massively increases: from 1-2Mb to 5Mb+. Then I tested the wired connection (LAN cable) and starting getting 10Mb constantly. This is in Salwa 11.

Conclusions:

– It doesn’t need to be just ‘near’ a window, it needs to stuck to the window (as close to the outside world as possible).

– The wi-fi in the unit is c**p. Either cable it into your machine …or as I have done, stick the LAN cable into an N router.

– A lot of speed issues are proably to do with wifi coming from the box, not the wimax signal into the box (if the box is in the window). Too many people using the same channel in the area etc…

Another issue – another comment.

Has anyone got a VPN working properly through Mada? Only OpenVPN works, but even then the speed is limited to 0.3Mb. I’ve tried a variety of providers, all with the same speed issues.

Thanks Mark. No, I know it’s not possible to set it up on the device itself, but any UK ISP I try for a VPN seems to be throttled at 0.3Mb using Mada’s ISP. The same ISP’s in the UK work fine when I switch to their proxy server options.

Are you able to use PPTP/L2TP/SSTP connections through with your VPN? I can’t get these types to work with Mada.

No problem with VPN using PPTP/L2TP/SSTP connections on my machine through Wataniya – their general connectivity isn’t good though.

Yup, works fine. I use StongVPN and connect to a server in the USA. I currently have mine set using L2TP over IPSEC, have “Required Encryption” enabled, and use a preshared key. No real performance issues here.

Did anyone check the speed test on mada internet? I have very bad experience in farwaniya, most of times their speed is not more than 700kbps(less than 1mb ). paying 20KD for such a low speed.. Very bad. …… And every day they have some maintenance…

I heard nothing but good things about Mada so my wife and I went and paid the 240KD for a full year service. Most days I’m getting well under 1 MB down (in Mahboula – 1st floor apartment) but sometimes up to 3.5 MB. As far as VPN goes, I am able to connect via HMA Pro but once I try and go to any sites it kicks off my VPN connection.

Wish Kuwait had fast RELIABLE ISP’s! It could be my apartment, as we used to have Watanyia and it’s horrible in our place as well.

I live in Mahboula as well (in an apartment) and in the fifth floor, the connection’s usually between 2~5MB, and it rarely reaches 6MB, while my friend lives in a 7th floor, his Speed doesn’t go lower than 7MB, so I guess it’s something to do with Height…at least from what I can gather.

yeah that makes sense as there would be less barriers blocking the Mada towers. I guess when my wife and I end up moving we will try and find the heighest apartment we can get!

I’m still trying to find a way to use my HMA VPN Pro! Any suggestions? I tried port forwarding from the Mada modem and still get the same results

I have been using VPN Gates for quite some time and just recently renewed for another year. I cannot seem to get it to work with my Mada, though! Every time I connect, I lose my internet connection. Anyone that is computer savvy know how I can fix any settings to get this to work? I am missing my Netflix! lol

I would be interested in getting an update of how your experience has been over the last 12 months.

Over the last 12 months I have personally witnessed the speeds drag to a crawl and almost not work at all during peak times.

I am nearly at the end of my initial 12 month contract and have moved from Mahboula to Mangaf. I can say from my personal experience that on a GREAT day I can get up to 1 MB down with 1/2 MB up. Usually I’m running at betwee 1/3 to 1/2 MB down consistently. I will not be signing on for another year!

wow i actually had to do a whole different search on google to find this post. it was about mada antennas, anywho thanks for the 3 month update, do you have another update post or should i let Google decide. you should update the site mapping, related posts should be somewhere around the bottom or to the right of this reply box. i never seem to get a reply on this blog, ill see ya when i search ya, or google i should say.

No doubt it is gud, it would b great if dey provide atleast 2 MB of upload speed. Coz its useless if i try to use the speed provide to play games. n also keep ur maintanance excuses for urselfs… coz every single day der is prob n only 1 excuse we r having issue coz maintanance team is workin on it… Provide wnt we deserve for d payments we made.

Hi
I have a quest regarding mada soho with isdn line,recently I took this connection and the router drops automatically now and then and connects back..did reconfiguration and still problem is there..anyone hav a solution.?

Its the worst internet I have ever had. The ping is 150+ and the upload and download never go above 3 mbps. As a gamer. I think that this internet should not exist. But there is no other internet I can have in my area so I have to have this one. Right now even speedtest.net doesnt want to load 🙁

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