Some users with Wataniya’s Wnet have reported having their account suspended without any kind of warning or notification for downloading too much. According to Wataniya, Wnet is an unlimited account but it seems there IS a limit and once you exceed it your account gets shutdown.
The most upsetting thing with all this is the fact that the users have paid big bucks for the Wnet hardware and now that they’re kicked out of Wnet the hardware is useless. Wataniya should do what Zain do which is provide unlimited downloads to the user but once the user exceed a certain amount of bandwidth (I think its currently 30GB) they just drop the users speed down till the end of the month. If you want to read up more on this there is currently a discussion open in the forum which you can read [Here]
35 replies on “Wataniya’s Wnet not really unlimited”
wow thats retarded
I hate all internet connections in Kuwait.. nothing is what it seems.. I wish companies would be straight forward with their customers not see them like ATM machines…
Zain doesn’t reduce the speed till the end of the month .. that’s what I thought .. it reduces it for the rest of the month and then the WHOLE next month !!! and they didn’t admit that this was the reason of my slow speed at least for the first 7 calls to 107 ,, for me it was as slow as a dial up connection for 27 KD 🙁
this is what they wrote on their site :
( Zain follows a fair usage policy (for data sent and received) on monthly basis. Subject to fair usage policy, upon exceeding fair usage limits, Zain may activate and apply network protection controls, which may result in a reduced network speed for 1 month. )
WNET Proxy can be used with any other SIM card. I dont see why it shouldn’t.
And by the way, instead of paying that much money to get the WNET Proxy or the ZAIN new proxy, ebay is full of cheap ones that can be used with any service provider. I am using the D-Link.
Thats a rip off if i ever saw one. Blue T just get wifi 512K for 19kd from United Networks they’re great.
Rakan: United Networks suck balls, thats like the worst advice you could give to anyone!
LOL Rakan your kidding …..right?
nex month watanya is launchen new 7.2 system with ericson wifi routers they gonna sell. So you can downlad faster and gets cutoff quicker.
late on the 7.2, significantly reduced speed, bad customer service and now this.
Crap.
I’ve had it with them. Whenever Saudi telecom is opening and the option of shifting your mobile line with any carrier you want starts, I’d love to shift my wataniya lines to saudi telecom just to piss them off!!!
Another reason for using DSL. Someone once told me that “If something sounds too good to be true, then it is not true”. I always knew there is a catch to high speed internet offered by Wataniya and Zain other than the latency issues.
I’m also facing a problem with my 7.2 e-Go which I bought couple of months ago. Zain also have a download restriction, each user is allowed to 30G per month. If you exceed this, they’ll lower your speed. When I tried talking to 107 and telling them I’ve paid 27 K.D for unlimited access and usage the guy replied ” yea it’s unlimited access, but with lower speed ” ! If he was in front of me I Would’ve kicked his face! Tried arguing but no luck. Then he told me to wait for next month! That’s Stupid!!
Bad advertisement
Guys,
The info you got is right mostly. Here is the true inside story:
ONLY 92 Wnet users who were downloading more than 100GB (!!!) in the first half of the month only were cut off, and that according to the Fair Usage policy stipulated in the Wnet contract they sign when getting the line.
Because of these 92 users, over 20,000 Wnet users have to watch their speed and connections slow down dramatically and that’s not fair to the majority of users. These 92 users were using by themselves, over 50% of the bandwidth with little left for others…
As far as speed in concerned, it all depends on the region you are in and how many users there are. The current speed can reach up to 7.2mbps, just like Zain. Of course, that is in optimal conditions where you are the only one surfing in that cell area.
For those 92 users, DSL might be better suited for people downloading over 100GB (that’s the equivalent of over 100 movies!!). Remember that DSL is sent over copper lines and that they have physical limitations, hence the low quality offered by the likes of United, Quality, and others.
My 2 cents.
AERO
Wnet is not better or faster then Qualitynet’s DSL. DSL has a much faster latency and is much more stable and consistent then Wnet.
Also why weren’t these 92 users given a warning or told before hand that their connection would be cut off?
True, that is why Wataniya is suggesting that these users move to alternative internet connections such as DSL or others. Capacity and bandwidth is always a concern to any internet operator, mobile or not. It is a hard choice, but it is unfair that a few should hamper the majority of users.
I believe the 92 users were called, if not all were contacted, it is probably because W didnt have the right contact info (old or wrong phone #, etc.) The 92 were invited to come to W headquarters to explain their unusually high usage and to try and find a solution.
Mark + Abood79: no i’m not.. they’re good, i’ve been with them for about 8 months and not had any troubles with them whatsoever, i have a 512k connection and its been this way ever since i subscribed.. why are you two freaking out ?
Cuz they are ranked the worst ISP in Kuwait.
Didn’t know that eheh i just got United cuz my cousin has it and it works mighty fine with him and now me too. I dont wanna jinx myself, but so far so great.
all unlimited internet world wide is subject to fair use policy. in W-net & Zain its 30Gb per month.
Guys
nobody since day 1 of contacting Wnet and asking to come ever and sign a contract ever talked about a 30 GB limit per month (actually, they never even mentioned a limit). I have the contract and read very very carefully and it did mention fair usage policy but then, there’s no mentioning of certain actions/penalties regarding downloading over than the limit (which is also no mentioned for us, the users). I kept asking them like 20 times during the whole contract signing and the installation with the salesperson and the Wnet call line, and they told me exactly ”unlimited download” because I was very careful in knowing this, since I knew about Zain and its restricted donwload policy. The guys at wataniya never called or warned me over the 5 monthes I’ve been with them, telling me that I’m maxing the bandwidth. Second thing, using the wireless network is local, I mean to each area and block has its own towers and its certain bandwidth. So it’s just totally utter bullshit that they say that I personally living in Al-Shuhada affected the guy using Wnet who lives in Sabahiya or Salmiya for example. That’s utter bullshit. They’re just making up excuses for their lame service, which they even charged us during the fall of the internet in the past month and were the last to restore the net service on Kuwait. Wataniya fell behind Qnet during the times when everbody left FT when they blocked the Kazaa/P2P ports (early 2002) and Qnet had this mass of users rushing and join, accepting them without optimizing to a bigger bandwidth to serve this new mass of users.
Question: after using like the net for so many years, downloading tera’s after tera’s of net content, since when we started hearing of a fair usage policy by ISP here in kuwait ? I mean, I know a guy who might have a backup for eMule (no shittin, he got everything, I mean everything) and I never heard him being warned, disconnected or charged for excessive downloading. BTW, he’s been a Qnet user all the time. I myself was a one, till I moved to the crappy S.Surrah. I think I’ll be back to it.
Wnet has a fair usage policy like most ISP’s around the planet. Even if 100 Gigs is a hell of a lot of data for less than a month, people should be free to download. In the end, it’s just a question of fair usage to all, even if it might sound unfair to a very few…
FYI. A user in Salmiya block 3, street 5 for example can only affect users in that immediate cell tower area. It’s true that a user who is alone in his cell area will not affect anyone around him/her, no matter how much he/she downloads!
AERO, Wnet’s fair usage policy is similar to “some” ISP’s around the planet, mostly in third world countries were they still cap downloads. In Kuwait we are lucky that ISP’s like Qualitynet, Zajil, Fasttelco and UN follow policies similar to “most” in the States which is true unlimited bandwidth.
In my opinion, if you offer high speed internet access (3.5 or more) you expect people to use it for more than just browsing webpages. People who use such service usually need it to download a lot of big files. Limiting the bandwidth should be clearly states to them even if the limit is 1 TB/month. This just show you how undertrained Wataniya employees are and how bad the management is. That’s why I never use their services.
So do u guys recommend zain’s 7.2 service – assuming that one stays under the 30gb download limit ?
UPDATE:
I just went to Wataniya last night and met a really understanding guy in the legals Dept. and he was understanding and got most of my points and we had a very smart and easy conversation and he was convinced by most of my claims and points. It turns out that they are suffering from the open cap on the bandwidth and they want to follow Zain. it turns out that my total dl is 140 GB, which in 5 month amount ==> in fair logic of using 30 GB per month policy, they own me a 10 GB difference!!!! LOL so, they asked me to wait since within two days they’re announcing their new policy and the new cap for download and will reactivate our lines and they’re being easy with everbody about canceling because according to him, they had some angry customrs storming in, and they want to cut the bad publicity the’ve already gotten from this incident. I’ll wait and see what’s up with and decide to continue or not.
FYI, Wataniya is reconnecting those 92 high download customers. The fair usage policy is in effect for Zain and Wataniya alike. At W. the speed is reduced if the download exceed 25gigs in the first week. So make sure you stay at 24 per week and you’re getting 96 Gigs per month 🙂 I guess people who download over 100 gigs probably have some business going in the kitchen 🙂 I’d love to have that many movies 🙂
A E R O
I wish my dl exceeds 25 GB per week. It just doesn’t even pass 4-5 GB per week. I’m still waiting for their official announcement and see what legalities they have up their sleeves. Already filed a complaint for the weak signal (hardly a bar and unstable HSDPA connection) and I’ll wait to see what they got for me. Can’t imagine what’s next.
Wow, I’m late to this thread. I am one of the 92 customers cut off, and probably one of the angry customers who stormed in (though I thought I was a little more restrained than that implies).
The whole sordid story is posted on my blog, but here is a quick summary:
No warning, we were cut off, then told they didn’t want our business. So we went to Zain, which is meh, but at least we know the rules, and have a way of tracking our total (up *and* down) volume of data usage.
Wataniya stinks and I will do everything I can to steer people away from them. They told me the account was cancelled permanently and blacklisted. So when I went back the 2nd time to get my refund (3KD instead of the 22KD I was told), and they told me they could reactivate my contract, I said too little too late. Now if they would buy out my costs for Zain hardware and sign up fees, I might consider it (they wouldn’t of course). All I can say now is that they screwed me big time for using what was advertised to me as an unlimited data plan and they have lost a customer permanently (as well as every person who asks my advice).
When are they gonna stop it?! i think im gonna get a kems or quality net registeration soon :@
This is really bad. I should have known this matter a while before. And with “before” I wasn’t a net savvy.
I am using Wnet Basic; paying 13 K.D a month along with 10 GB limit.
But something happened. This is the second month, and the internet is not back as the way it should be.
I would have bought those cable-based internet, but we don’t have a land-line terminal around here(my building).
KEMS and other similar internet providers are better than those Mobile internet providers. But, I am currently stuck with this atrocity, also called as Watanya telecom.
Worst part about their services is that … we still have to pay after cut off ….
Its More like we are paying for da internet which we are not using.
Zain User 🙁
we are using wataniya’s wnet router and the internet is so slow! The internet that comes out of the wall is fast than this. We have been on vacation for a month and when i logged in it told me i have downloaded to much and that the speed will be cut down until the end of the month (today is a new month and it is still slow)
is there any way to make it faster? am i missing something?
That internet is slower as the internet was in europe 10 years ago where you had to dial in with a modem. i just cannot believe this.
Well..yeah i just came back from India…and there the
service and speed is not more than a 1MB/sec at the same price
which we pay for basic 13kd/month but they dont have any fair usage
policy unlike Kuwait…who is supposed to, bloody have the best
techs for telecommunications…and having fair usage policy..it’s
truly a sad situation…and does not provide proper plans…all i
understand is simply Monopoly…and now i’m stuck with 13kd/month
basic speed..damn..
13kd w-net is goin still good for me.
i use wnet basic.it sucks.it is very slow.dont go for it.