Almost two years after my post about the rumors surrounding the availability of fiber-optics in Kuwait .. Qualitynet has announced that it now offers internet over fiber-optics to homes already wired up in South Surra & Fahed Al-Ahmed.
We have had fiber-optics at work (Kuwait City) for the past year now and offers several benefits over DSL:
1. Not affected by line quality (poor line = slow dsl)
2. Extremely high data transfer rates.
3. Lower latency (lower response time)
4. Delivery of media services (voice and multimedia over IP, and IPTV (including high definition TV, video on demand, and home entertainment).
Now before you start dreaming of two-second downloads and buffer-less video streaming .. the prices and speeds are the same as DSL. Since the cost of bandwidth is expensive (thanks MOC), we won’t be seeing any significant bandwidth upgrades in the near future. To those of you who are feeling smug about being on a fiber link .. you are paying as much as us (dsl people) and are no faster.
Update:
All Kuwaiti ISPs will be offering fiber-optic connectivity in South Surra and Fahed Al-Ahmed .. Certain ISPs will be offering better pricing/speeds (from those of DSL). I should have a comparison of packages offered by ISPs tomorrow.
I hate MOC! They should be dissolved! We shall see how things will progress over time!
wouldn’t they at least have low latency?
Marzouq:
I mentioned that in an old post .. MOC should be privatized.
Mark:
Yes .. but its still somewhat useless on a 128kb connection.
Latency is important for gamers I would presume. The difference between a 600ms and 200ms latency can make all the difference on these online games. I suppose that would be the only benefit.
So are we supposed to sell our homes & move there?
WTF happened to that old upgrade plan for the country’s infrastructure?
Man, you rose our expectations high and then slammed them down to the floor.
Waiting for more information if you can get it. I will try to use my links as well and see. searching Qnet site for fiber optics returned no results ;/
Hmm.. KEMS will be officially launcing South Surra next Saturday.. As for privatising, not soon I guess, ho is your source at ISPs??!
N.:
Latency is very important for Games/VoIP .. however, we are still held back by the backbone .. don’t expect anything under 100ms.
Я:
It would take a bit more than fiber for me to move, you could wire your fiber to your home .. it should cost 1000kd per km.
Bashar:
Hehe .. I tend to do that, I have details .. not allowed to post them yet, watch this space.
chikapappi:
Earlier than that .. KEMS is announcing pricing tomorrow. I know a couple of people here and there.
I know that they hooked up people fe South Surra and I got the router but MOC by was6a shaggalet some of those lines - for public Saturday..
as far as i know moc fiber was ready a while back and the only problem they have is the billing so i dont know if that was sorted out yet
Even if they were cheaper, it’s still only available in certain areas :/
The price is not dictated by the MOC.. Its dictated by a company called teleglobe which works of a hub in Saudi Arabia. Qualitynet on the other hand has to rent out this link in order of us Kuwaitis to have a internet connection.
chikapappi:
Do you have it connected yet?
lfc-Q8:
The links have been there for some time I believe .. if billing was the issue, they need new accountants.
3baid:
True .. and technology which they haven’t learned how to operate in this magnitude. Think of it as a learning experience .. I don’t mind waiting for something that works.
q8i:
Kuwait does go over the teleglobe link .. and we will be also connecting to Iran in the future. However, the MOC still controls the pricing (and connectivity), hence the 90% increase in price:
http://www.aljarida.com/aljarida/Article.aspx?id=16750
Anyways Kems is offering a 8Mbps connection for 500 fills a month for South Surra residents. Let the good times roll :))))) www.kems.net
q8i:
The pricing strategy is a bit more complicated than that.
The first three months of 256k connection cost 38.5 KWD.
The way they explain the 500 filse per month is the following: 30KWD for the wireless router 7KWD for the connection charge 1.5 KWD for the connection (500 filse a month) = 38.5 KWD for the first three months. Afterwards its 99kd to renew for an additional year.
As for the 8mb speed .. with the connection to Zajil, you also have access to their Wifi hotspots with your account (provided that you aren’t connected at home) and you can connect and use the potential limit of 8mbps (if there is no one else using it).