It’s that time of year again. Building on past attempts to find the best Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Jordan, this year I’m faced with the same old decision: which operator to go with? Little has really happened on the development side in the ISP sector, with the exception perhaps of Kulacom and Mada entering the race, making wimax all the more competitive. Rates, fees and speeds have not really changed. Judging by comments left on this blog and the feedback I observe socially, customer service is still lagging behind like a cart dragging a dead horse to the finish line.
This past year, I made, what I now consider to be, one of these worst decisions of my entire life: I switched to Orange Jordan. Disastrous isn’t even the right word to describe this company. Thievery, customer dissatisfaction, are all much more descriptive. But suffice to say, I never once got the speed I was paying for, despite the high price tag I was willing to pay. Which goes to show that even when you’re willing to pay a high fee in return for some good service, you are unlikely to get it in Jordan – and you are definitely not going to find it at Orange.
I was so frustrated with the company that it even got me writing them an open letter, just to voice that frustration. While Orange never wrote me back, it was at least enough to get a lot of people voicing their own frustrations with Orange and ISP service in Jordan, on this blog and on their own. And at least when someone now Googles “Orange Jordan” my letter shows up in the top results, which might help dissuade future customers or encourage the management to change its ways (if I were I betting man, I’d place my money on the former and not the latter).
Suffice to say, Orange has been scratched off my list of possibilities. In fact, after I write this post, I have to go to Orange and wait in line for 30 minutes because my Internet at home is disconnected as, according to Orange, I haven’t paid my bills for three months. I have receipt vouchers that claim otherwise.
So what to do?
When it comes to wimax, my area is problematic. The building is “too high” and has “too much steel”, which equals low-to-no signal. In the past year I’ve welcomed Umax from Umniah, WiTribe and Zain in to my home, all in the hopes that one of these companies is up to the challenge. All failed miserably. Which was surprising, because even though the geography of my home isn’t great, the geography of my location, Dayr Ighbar, should be “prominent” enough for any of these giants to have resolved the issue by now. Alas. Umax has even been offering a phenomenal deal lately, with a 2mb connection for 126JDs I believe.
I will grant them this, the company I’ve heard the most about in terms of having decent service, is in fact WiTribe, and I’m considering inviting them to test out their device once again this year just to see if improvements have been made.
If not, then I guess I’m sticking to ADSL. And with that, there’s yet another list of ISPs out there all offering their services to choose from. Zain remains perhaps one of the most split down the middle companies, with customers I’ve heard from either loving their service or absolutely hating it – and just like other things wimax, their e-go doesn’t work for me.
So I’ll be doing my research for the next two to three weeks and will keep this updated with any of my findings.
But for now, to help me decide, I’d like to hear from the readers how their ISP experience has been this past year…
UPDATE #1: After coming back from March trip, I was surprised to find my Internet had been disconnected by Orange due to “unpaid bills”, as I am rather vigilant when it comes to paying my bills. Actually, let me amend that to say that the only reason I’m sure I’ve paid all my bills is because Orange has, for the past year, been unable to send a simple bill to my mail box despite my pleading every single month, and thus, the only way to ever know WHEN I have to pay a bill is when Orange disconnects me. And so, every month, I have to go to Orange and pay that bill and wait a few hours for the Internet to return. A hassle that could easily be solved if they just sent me the bill.
Anyways, I decided to pay them a visit on April 4th. The teller told me that 71JDs remained on my bill. This came as a surprise as it is way above my monthly payment, and the March bill was taken care of, and I have the reciept to prove it. The teller told me he didn’t know where the 71JDs came from and to go next door to the first building in order to print out an account statement with all my payments. Why this person doesn’t have the same access as those next door, or why he didn’t simply phone them to ask for a print out, is beyond me. I went next door to find few customers and the girl behind the counter was in the process of finishing up. She told me she wouldn’t serve me and for me to go next door. I told her that I just CAME from next door, and apparently I can’t get anything done before I get this account statement.
I waited until she was finished and then gave her my number. Keep in mind this is a 30 second job: enter my number, click on print, give me the paper. During these 30 seconds, someone else tried to enter, but she had locked the door, and her boyfriend who was waiting around for her told the man to go next door. This had the girl throwing out a statement, in the loudest tone, that I found incredibly rude and unprofessional and I won’t repeat it here. Obviously, the statement was aimed at me and I ignored it.
I took the print out next door to the same teller, who, I have to admit, was not the sharpest tool in the shed. The debate that ensued between him and I was filled with awkward stares. Really. The guy just said something utterly obvious like “you’re bill is 71JDs” and then stared at me with the blankest eyes, waiting for a reaction. He then took out a calculator and proceeded to calculate every single payment I have made for the same year, perhaps not understanding what the columns debit and credit meants (i.e. what I owed and what I paid). After 15 minutes of him calculating he finally got to January 2010, drew a line and said “la hon inta tamam” (you’re fine till now). Another blank stare. I stared back trying to send mental messages in the process. I think he just realized that after 15-20 minutes of calculating he had arrived at the same point he was in the beginning: the unexplainable 71JDs.
Finally, he sought help. Printing out the last several bills (as he was told to do), it turns out there was excess GB that I had requested every time I broke the download capacity. These were never reflected on the next month’s bill as one would expect, and so they piled up. Fine. But then I added them up and they totaled 36JDs. So what accounts for the remaining 34JDs? At this point, he kept talking in nonesense, where he simply said it was the “fatoora”, the bill. But I paid the bill of that month, just not the extra capacity, according to these papers. It’s the bill, he kept saying. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, I decided to just pay it and get the hell out. I am one of those people who truly believes you can’t buy time, and this was just an hour from hell that I didn’t want to endure more of. I paid, made sure there were no more payments left, got the receipt and went home.
The Internet came back a few hours later and remained on until mid afternoon the very next day. Then I got the same error page that said I had unpaid bills.
Called them up this morning. The technical support guy (who insisted I speak in English because I had chosen the English menu, not thinking that the teller would insist on English) told me it was a billing issue. I called billing. They said I had 71JDs left on my bill. This is the part where I implode. This is the part where I lose all hope on Jordan.
I explain the situation, giving her a summary of the events I’ve just described. Gave her the receipt number. She said she’d forward my complaint to the department and they would sort it out. She told me to call at the end of the day to see what happened. I asked why this couldn’t be resolved over the phone. I had the receipt that proved I paid it. I paid with a debit card, and I have proof that Orange Jordan actually TOOK money from my bank account (as I no longer have 71JDs) – and to top it off, the Internet was working yesterday – further proof that I did in fact pay my bill and that it was in fact processed. So what’s to check? At this point she did what all lovely customer service people do when a customer is trying to talk – they talk right over them and don’t stop until the customer shuts up. She’s not hearing me, and I’m not hearing her. And so I hang up and write this update.
May 5th is my last day with Orange Jordan and I am going to celebrate like it’s independence day. I was thinking of paying them the cost of the livebox and then taking it to a public place, gathering a bunch of people, and smashing it in to bits against the backdrop of some angry hip hop, a la Office Space. But someone told me that might be illegal. I’m going to check…
UPDATE #2 Yesterday, a woman called me from Mada who said after reading this post, Mada would like to see if they can solve my problem. I told her that WiMax is problematic for me because no WiMax company has been able to get a strong signal from my place. But, apparently, Mada wants to step up to the challenge and see what they can offer to fix the problem. She also mentioned that they’ve put up 70 new antennas every month since I last tried using WiMax (Zain’s e-go was way too weak just 9 months ago).
So they’re sending someone out today to do a test.
I’ll keep everyone updated on what happens, but regardless of the outcome, Mada scores some good points for actually seeing this post, acknowledging the ongoing discussion, and stepping up to the challenge. In business, it’s all about doing what the other guy isn’t willing to do. Mada saw this post and thought: “opportunity”. So I have to give them credit for that.
UPDATE #3 Mada sent over two technicians who did a test. Went from room to room to try and find the best coverage and did in fact. The only issue for me is that they can’t use their normal plug-and-play device on a Mac but they can simply set up a router for an ordinary wireless connection. This is fine with me, but Mada might be a bit too pricey.
Their one-year plan is 348JDs for a 2.4Mbps connection, but to make matters worse, the download cap is 10GB.
UPDATE #4 Orange calls me after pulling a billion strings to get some acknowledgment of my problem. The woman was friendly and spent 15 minutes speaking to me, while writing an email detailing my problem. Don’t know who she sent the email to, but all I know is my Internet is still not working. I gave her all the information, including the receipt number and the teller at the Orange Jordan 7th Circle branch who handled it.
An hour later, that very teller calls me up and says that there was a problem with the processing of my debit card. At first I thought I had no money in the account but then I remembered that I just took out money from the ATM today. He said they can’t find the slip that gets printed when you pay via credit or debit. Essentially – get this – he wants me to go to the bank, get them to print out my account statement showing whether the account was charged by Orange, and then go BACK to Orange 7th Circle and show them.
This will essentially by my entire morning tomorrow and I’m wondering how I can economically calculate the personal cost of me taking these few hours off in the prime of day, to fix THEIR mess, and still not have an Internet connection, which is my primary work tool.
UPDATE #5 Just had a visit from Kulacom. They tested out their CPE in my room and the signal was a bit weak, but a little bit better in the area by the door, as expected. Ironically, my current Orange connection (just three more weeks!) does more poorly than Kulacom’s weak signal. Their recommendation is to put up an antenna on the roof, free of charge, which will guarantee a strong signal. The tower I would connect to only has less than a dozen people on it right now, so things should be good, and these guys seem to know what they’re doing.
For the annual fee, they are a bit more expensive than Mada (only a little), but on the other hand, Kulacom has unlimited download, while with Mada, I am sure I will have to spend a great deal just buying those recharge cards for more capacity. The same goes for WiMax competitor Umax (10GB cap).
Anyways, I’m leaning a bit towards Kulacom at the moment, but I’d like to wait and see if they have any interesting offers coming out soon – as I’ve been told.
Was in the same boat as you, but I had just moved to Amman from Abroad and NEEDED internet, my house doesnt have a phone so i decided to go the Wimax road, shopped around and ended up with Kulacom which has I have to say excellent customer service and havent failed me. While I had to wait for a month for them to install the external antenna (because my house is blocked by another building)because they were out of antennas, but now that its up and running wow its running 🙂
So even though you had all the others check your signal strength give them a shot, especially that they are the new kid on the block so they will try a little harder.
Happy nethunting
Like you, I got the blank screen of shame from Orange (aka “you cheap loser haven’t paid your bills so we’re cutting you off”) despite diligently paying my bills. After having endured months of unstable internet service, this threw me over the edge and I decided to switch to another provider.
I’d heard some good things about Kulacom from a friend living a block away from me, so I figured my chances were good. Alas, I was wrong. In their defense, the good folks of Kulacom seem to be trying hard: they came to install the receiver the day after I contacted them; they offered to install the outdoor antenna without having to ask for it (but then it took them close to a month to come install it); and now they call me regularly to check on my level of satisfaction.
My answer is always the same: my connection is slow (download <1mbps during the day – faster at night, upload anywher from 0 to 0.5mbps) and it the receiver keeps freezing (they’ve come several times to check it). Every day when I come home I have to reset it (a few times) and call tech support when the connection is really crawling. They tell me the receiver goes into sleep mode if unused – nothing they can do about it. Regarding speed, despite having the tower 200M away, they say it needs some kind of upgrade. Tough luck.
Oh, and one more thing, if you happen to be a sacrilegious mac user, you’re in for kul-a-ride!
@Aliman…most of the people I know who have a kulacom connection have Slmon’s experience. Even in areas like Swefieh. It constantly disconnects and is constantly slow.
and yeah, like Orange, they have no Mac user support.
I have been using Kulacom 4 MB for the last 6 weeks. And its seems fast, although there are some
times when it disconnects, its much fewer than my old ADSL line from Orange and it back up again with a simple re-boot. Instead of the hours waiting with Orange.
So if anyone can try Kulacom at their location, try it.
I use Sama when I’m in Jordan and they’re just fine.
just like u i switched to Orange last year and am telling u, its a huge DISAPPOINTMENT..
its supposed to be the source ISP in jordan and yet no good.. i really dnt wanna get started on thier technicians –Irbid branch in specific–at first it was like every time i pick up the phone i got disconnected & their technician tried to convence me (and my master degree in IT) i qoute “3ade sho ya3ne”……. what a shame
walah i have orange connection o i pay 35 jd in month for 1 MB .. bs i dont feel that the connection is 1 MB .. o b5af 2nzeeel 2ya she mn el net 3shan ma 2nzel 3la 128 KB …
i hate orange .. bs ma bde 25a6er o 2jeeb wi-tribe or umax .. l2no i dont trust such comapnies ..
the internet in jordan is a big problem walah ..
fe comapny 2semha JCS (Jordan cabel service) .. http://www.jcs.jo/
my friend mshtrek m3hom .. o kteer mrtaa7 m3hom .. the user connect to internet via fiber optic ..
o el offer 3ndhom kteeer mne7a .. bs they have a big problem .. 2no tos3ohom m7dod b amman 🙁
in my opinion they r the best .. since the fiber optic is the best wire for connection .. bs i’m waiting theeem ….
I use WiTribe, its been great so far. the service we subscribed to cost us 21JD (24JD after 16% tax) for 512K but its hardly that considering we are 2 laptop users right now. i just made this speedtest: http://www.speedtest.net/result/765999598.png [URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/765999598.png[/IMG][/URL]. we are limited to a certain 7GB download/upload monthly cap. once it did exceed and the net felt like handicapped. however called them and were ok to provide us with extra 2GB on-loan from next month. without any pain or hassle.
at my parents house, i got them the 1.5GB. it is somewhat faster. and 3 laptops plus 2 iphones work there smoothly. my sister is a graphic designer and downloads and uploads a lot of artwork. never complained. check http://www.wi-tribe.jo/all_offers.php
Cutomer service is brilliant and had no real issue with them at all. very patient on the phone, which counts most for me. they seem to have logged all the problems and the guys carry u thru the problem professionally. great support for XP, Vista, i dont know about Mac OS. i live in Sweifiah and i pay at their shop every month. sometimes i pay thru City Mall or Makkah mall. they are lenient if u dont pay 8 days after its due, or even pay half the amount when its due on a promise to pay them the folowing month.
i m not complaining, neither thinking to switch.
hope this was insightful!
Orange 3G+ is really good but you know it depends on your neighborhood coverage, so far I’m getting average of straight 5Mbs+ out of it.
thats soo expensive!! I get 20mb for $50 here and it is usually FASTER than 20mb
🙁
While I was living in Jordan last summer my second apartment (first didn’t have internet) had Orange as an ISP. The most frustrating thing was that the wireless router seemed better at loading pages than the hardline. In addition, media that required more bandwidth (youtube, espn, etc.) always suffered–although text generally loaded just fine. I guess the biggest disappointment with Orange though, was that it had random and daily moments where it decided not to work.
Orange wasn’t the absolute worst for me, but if I needed fast and reliable internet I generally went to cafes and my friends’ houses.
Dude, why don’t you add this to your list : http://www.jcs.jo/index.php
you are lucky if you live within their coverage area 😉
Good Luck
Reading all these comments I’m surprised that no ones mentioned Umniah’s UDSL (aka batalco). I know now everyone wants wireless internet but not everyone is lucky enough to in the area’s that are covered. Just today I asked if Umax was covered in our area, and surprise surprise coverage only reaches the main street which is only a 3 minute walk from my building, and WiTribe’s coverage is like 30 mins away which means, yes I’m stuck with ADSL.
The first company I tried out in Amman was Orange and yes they totally sucked…I finished that years subscription and as advised by my brother in law went with Umniah (batalco at the time) and to tell you the truth I’ve had no complaints yet…granted Fridays are a little slow but the rest of the week the internet is just fine, I don’t need high speed since I use internet mainly to download shows, movies and just browse so my speed is (yes don’t look so shocked) 512kb. But the great thing is that their download limit is DOUBLE that of Orange PLUS you get free downloads daily from midnight to 7am and all day Friday. I barely finish my 10gb a month and do all my downloading and youtubing after midnight and on Fridays, so usually by the end of the month I’ve downloaded way over 20gb’s.
I did spend a year with Link several years back in zarka (not by choice since the company I was originally with was bought out by them) but I hated the fact that they had a daily download limit, a weekly limit and a monthly limit…dont know if they still have that…but it did totally suck.
IMHO I would go with anyone other than Orange since most companies have double the download limit they do and have free download days/hours.
There’s Te Data Jordan with the same unlimited download at night/all day Friday deal, switched to it from orange and of course it was a big improvement it used to be better though, I used it for gaming alot and usually I had good pings during the day but as of late they are starting to suck on that area, not sure why Still beats orange’s pings though.
I switched to Zain last year, after a brief stint with Orange, and Batelco before that.. I have to admit, Zain’s been a dream compared to the other two.. I’m currently on a 4MB ADSL connection (I play video games online a lot so I need a fast connection, a split second too slow and in a duel I get stabbed instead of the other guy).. Now I must say in terms of disconnecting, I used to have to reset my router twice a day with Orange, with Zain it seems to be more like once every two months.. Now the speed isn’t as advertised but I have gotten download speeds of up to 200 kbps (Very rarely), but on average, roughly 70-100 kbps which is decent enough..
I’ve learned that no matter what you try to do in Jordan, you’re always stuck with the lesser of two evils choice, and at least the gap here is quite large.
I’m sort of new in Jordan, so my first experience is with Wi-Tribe and so far.. not bad. I won’t say it’s brilliant but relatively speaking to some of the stories I’ve heard around here I’m not disappointed. When I went to subscribe their sales rep covered all the bases, asking me which floor I lived on, which area, etc.. brownie points to him for not running a trial and error experiment on me. And here’s a first; customer service reps actually PICK UP! They’re pretty helpful, though still need some know-how.
I actually went to Zain first, convinced that their USB modem was the way to go. I subscribed (paid upfront) for a year only to get home and realize that it wasn’t compatible with Mac OS. They blamed me for not asking.. you can tell I’m new around here.
Soon I’ll be moving to no-man’s land.. that should be interesting.. will keep you posted.
Ok i’ve been in Jordan for the past few years now, i’m with orange now i heard alot about other companies and always wanted to change but too much of a hassle and i’m not so sure any company would be much better, i have to admit i have Orange’s Livebox offer that came out a couple of years ago its actually not that bad its 1MB and the router and all of that comes in 1 box so you dont need to set up a million things and you get a phone line with it to call all land lines in Jordan for free, all this i pay 54JDS monthy I don’t think its that bad. You should check it out specially if you already have Orange.
if u live in Irbid, goto Orange, i know it may sound horriable.. but i’ve been registered to orange for more than a year now, and experience isnt THAT bad… least worst for all i can imagine…
i got a 4mb line, with double dl limit… so thats 40gb, and after limit download drops to 1mb…(total 60JD a month, 2-3x the price its worth really :S..)
-latency/ping was GREAT!, but its slightly slower atm.. :(.. but slower with like 30ms not more.., so games such as counter strike has 102-120ms(thats a bit high, but playable if u just wanna play) with a german server… there were days when it was only 60-70 :(..
-download speeds, 380-420kb+ when ur still 4mb, and 90-110+ when ur down to 1mb..
-issue with upload speed when ur limit is over, its alot less than 256kb(thats wat it should be at)..
im not an orange fan, dont get me wrong, but as for Irbid, its not that bad.. there is a delusive office called customer service, its a bunch of ppl getting paid doing too much “i dunno” talking
===
i’ve been with Cyberia for few months a year ago, download speeds were about the same, ping speeds however sucked big time, especially on peak times.. actually all day except 3am-6am..
==
anyone here knows much about Tedata Irbid? espcially ping/latency wise.. Tedata at Egypt was and still a very nice company..
also , there is a daily disconnection… they “mean” to do it, so the server calculates and logs the download that you’ve used.. each day..
moreover , as of late, reconnecting after a disconnection can be a pain… sometimes it takes 2 seconds.. other times up to 20minz… with an average of 5minz, which is of course too much if you were in the middle of something..
there are few other bugs, but most of them are pro customer 😀
Did you try to use an external antenna?
some routers have a small coaxial cable connection to let you use an external antenna to boost the sigbal to noise ratio 10 to 20 times. You can find it on the internet.
Basel
FACTS:
Wireless is provided by three platforms:
1. Wimax (Umniah, Kulacom,Tribe,Mada,etc
2. 3G (Orange)
3. GPRS/EDGE/Blackberry…etc
1. This depends on the amount of hardware invested by each company. Mada by far is superior, they use Zain’s strategically positioned station and heavily invested-in gear. They have the advantage of a USB dongle. Most Urban areas in Amman,Irabid and Zarqa are covered, so you are cool. For Wimax, go with Mada since they offer coverage and moblity (USB dongle). Note that you can’t use the CPE and dongle simultaneously, unless I’ve been fooled all these years :D.
If Umniah is well covered at your area, go for it, if you are not interested in a USB dongle. Umniah to deploy a USB dongle within two months (sorry Umniah management for the spoiler)
2. 3G , highly recommended, since Orange coverage is great. The only perk is that the USB dongle will feed one PC only, no 3G modems offered (as far as I know). This is not bad at all, despite that it’s Orange, nevertheless it is quite impressive.
3. Unless you are a massive Kharoof and an idiot, subscribe to one of these snail speed bundles and have fun trying to figure out how to use your phone as a modem and junk.
Look, either get an ADSL line from Zain or Umniah , or go with Mada.
See how much you are willing to pay, make the comparison and choose:
Cheap solid connection vs. Affordable Mobility
Or wait till Zain/Umniah could use 3G. Zain’s 3G is already active but not licensed, it is magic!
Well, I hear you when you talk about Orange, and believe me I am not trying to bash the company but throughout the last year It was terrible and the worst part was customer service after calling, writing, and trying every possible way to let my complaints be heard…
This year I switched to Kullakom, (up till now it is fairly good and not expensive).
Please don’t rush the decision, you’ll be hearing mixed reviews but hopefully you get the best out there.
I currently have Kulacom and it would’ve been perfect, had they USED INTERNET STANDARDS (www.ietf.org) FOR THEIR MODEM SOFTWARE! There is a set of rules one has to follow to make their network compatible with other networks. The internet IS a network of networks, after all.
I came back to Jordan 2 months ago and could not connect to our home network using my laptop (which has Linux. For those who aren’t computer geeks, Linux is a type of operating systems like for example Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX….). I call them to ask and their reply was “our routers do not support Linux. Either switch to windows or keep your wireless network unsecured”.
So, to use internet in Jordan, I had to format the computer and install Windows.
Other than that, they have excellent customer service, and we have always gotten the speed which we pay for (sometimes we even get more. One speed test gave a result of 2.4MB)
I would’ve rated Kulacom 10/10, but if a company is not complying with international standards for simple modem security software, how can I be sure that they’re complying with privacy and other security standards?
I’ve been using BatelcoJO for around 2 years now and I have hardly faced any glitches so far.. Would rate them 9/10 if not 10 that is.
I’ve been using Zain WiMax for 9 months and except for some down times that happen very rarely the service is excellent. I get full coverage in my office and the speed goes up to 300KB/Sec on a 2.7mbps connection.
I’m also using Zain ADSL at home but it goes offline more often as it’s connected to the land lines provided by Orange 🙂
I use Kulacom and i’m quite happy. Remember that they’ll have to install an external antenna, i also heard the router is not mac friendly. Otherwise fast, cheap and unlimited internet.
I’ve been a rather loyal Orange costumer for years… Until a month ago that is. The last year’s experience was rather unsatisfactory (and that is to put it very very mildly). I switched to Umniah’s U-Max. The 2MBit plan is giving me a consistent 1.8 MBit speed ( I’ve been running regular speed tests every 2-3 days). Am I satisfied? Very. Would I recommend it? Most definitely, provided there’s decent coverage in your area (though from what I understood some sort of a deep coverage all over west Amman should be literally around the corner).
I also keep hearing good things about the consistency of the speed of the Wi_Tribe service (never tried it myself), and rather contrasting experiences about the Kulacom one.
I hope that would be of help to you Naseem.
Have you chosen a plan? What’s your review.
i say we beat up the modem, office space-style! let them come for the 50JD cost of it!
Stupid retards… Most businesses in Jordan are run by very stupid people with a very LOW IThey don’t understand that by making the customer comfortable(Maybe lose a bit for that to happen), the customer will stay with them and keep returning which will bring them more and more profit eventually. This is one of the BASICS in business. Sadly, they have never heard of it in here!
Honestly, Naseem, you really cannot do anything. It’s not about Orange anymore. Everything in Jordan is messed up. I just went to fix my mob which is under warranty and the same things happen.
People don’t get their rights in Jordan because of our stupid government. We spend our money like crazy because private companies are not accountable… Now Naseem, the solution is to sue Orange. Now the first thing that comes up in your mind is that suing will take you more than 4 years. 4 years to get your right and you might not even get it because our legal system is highly influenced by “was6at” and whose fault is it the 4 years of waiting? Yes our gov…
We really can’t do anything about it :(.
Mada are good, the cap sucks, that’s why i use kulacom, i’ve had it for more than 2 weeks and so far so good. The issue with the mac is that it cant be password protected (either use mac address filter or simply keep it open).
If you plan to smash it, please let me know i’d like to get it on tape, it has to be done in style! btw, why dont you blend it?! Will it blend?
I lived in Jordan for a while and Orange’s DSL service was the worst by far, the best company I dealt with was an Egyptian provider that came in during 2005. I can’t remember the name but they were a small shop, had unlimited downloads and fast speeds. Unfortunately I fell pray to Oranges “2-fast” campaign about 2 mb DSL and had the worst internet service of my life. BatelCo was no better really, they used to throttle all kinds of traffic and forget using BitTorrent to download Linux ISOs, that was capped at 4-5KB, when the connection was not dropped altogether.
Jordan is an amazing place full of potential, but the telecom industry is holding it back.
“I decided to just pay it and get the hell out”
Leesh? You should have totally go into the manager’s office, then took it to Orange’s HQ. Especially after the rude remark by the cute girl who got a BF. My God, I’m disappointed. Don’t tell me every minute counts and would rather spend it doing something useful! This is the useful, waiting one week going to Orange HQ and having the girl parents and family coming to settle account with you.
Here is what a JOR manager would think: He has actually paid the bill, oh he must know he owe us even more than 71JD the money, because they expect you to not pay even if it’s fair.
Go with Mada, USB dongle just makes the deal.
Mada chick: يا عمو يا عمو زبطي الشب
يعني زوديلو الليميت، وخصم على الاشتراك مش غلط،،
أمانة الله لا تكسÙيني، روØÙŠ انشاءالله يبعتلك عريس مريش Ùˆ Øليوة
@yanal: i agree. the judicial road is useless even in the best of scenarios, and jordan is far from the best of scenarios.
@george: ah yes! the blender! like those youtube fellows. good idea.
@rami: orange now uses a famous line due to the various disappointments by frustrated paying customer. every time they mention the speed they say “up to 2mb”…emphasis on the “up to”. at least they know they’re terrible.
@brat: in theory, your first instinct is correct. but seriously, when it’s the end of the day, and you’re tired, and you’ve been frustrated for almost an hour, and your time has been wasted, the only thing you think of is: my time is way to precious to be wasted here and now. seriously. that’s what one starts thinking about after an hour. anyways, read the update to see what happened with that bill. you’ll love it.
Reading “Update 1” was really amusing. I know it was a real frustration to you but it was funny to read. And Orange is a private company? From a programmer perspective it seems Orange’s database system needs a lot of work. 1) It seems it does not update new transactions over all the system since your paid bill was not seen by one of the clerks. 2) An assistant manually calculated your bill (using a calculator). 3) Their system does not explicitly explain extra charges even for their employees. A communication company had communication problems!
Thanks for keeping us updated, Orange really proved itself terrible.
@jaraad: It is true what you said, sadly the communication company has communication problems within.
Hopefully, you will find a decent Internet provider in the Kingdom.
UPDATE 4: Awesome, just amazing! Gal we are open for buisness and starts up and invest in Jordan.
Ya habeebi ya Naseem , just listen to me, I’m in a Zombie state and seriously don’t care anymore. When you are in deep debt, you start enjoying your own misery and enjoying everything ,even if you are being lynched by another 800 or 1000JD for absolutely nothing! Just another small figure on top of your debt account :D.
This is your golden chance. You should totally relief all your suppressed anger on the world (think about reform in JO, think Palestine,think hungry kids,Britney Spears, Iraq,injustice, orphans, Bush,etc…..) and just loose it at Orange’s HQ.
Usually any pay point,cashier or anything has its own log of transactions at a given day,it would be in a CSV file inside the machine. Call the CC center (for Visa and Mastercard it is a centralized office, ICC for Visa) let them fax you your statement (expect another funny,bloggable incident).
Go to the HQ, on your way, think again about Palestine, the canceled dog show, Lindsay Lohan. Then just go there and loose it, till people and the security guy take you on side and offer you gahweh till the mudeer comes out after digging after your issue. In your mental frenzy, throw in big names (Wallah la agool la Wazeer fill in the blanks, Wallah la awaselha la Madam Majd) then hold your mobile up in the air (preferably a BB or something fancy)) and act like you are dialing her phone number or the prime’s minister but then interrupted by the security guy who is telling you “Salli 3al Nabi, roog shway.
Look, min al akher? If you can’t beat them, join then. Just be senseless and enjoy wasting your money and time for a simple issue. Think about it another day off away from work.
My buisness account is ending in May as well, though I’m not shopping because can’t afford internet anymore or paying rent. I had it enough with Orange, end it up borrowing the neighbors wifi!
Orange, you have serious issues, be it orange or wanadoo or whatever, you simply suck, run as a governmental dept, same mentality and even same old staff, but new colors,logo and rundown furniture.
Speaking of office space “Violence” scene; once upon a time a person that came into orange after hours of waiting and going through the torturing routine that they sadistically put everyone through and asked the “friendly” customer server in-front of him calmly
“Eish aghla shee bi hal manti2a ? Whats the most expensive thing here”
She replied “Azon inno il lcd screen illi warai. I think the lcd screen behind me”
so he picked up the stapler in front of her and BAM!
Visiting today my mother, she reminded me of this story.
My parents sold their house to help my with my debt five years ago. They disconnected the line. Last year, a lawyer called in saying they had unpaid bills for the line. It turns out, the employee didn’t show her the REAL application form,the service disconnected yes, but not the file or subscription, some stupid technicality or play on words. We ended up paying I think 200 or 300JD to avoid courts, and God knows how hard it’s to get 100JD when you are in massive debt.
Open Al Rai, go to court announcements, they are mostly Orange vs. poor people who thought they had the right application form, which the employee should guide you with.
Go to hell Orange. People of Jordan, please drop your fixed line, mobile phone are cheaper! Go with wireless iternet
Question, have you guys had any experience with the Orange 3G service on the iPhone or through tethering? What kind of speeds do you get? Also, I thought the WiMAX speeds were goiung to be up to 5-8mb by now, what happened? I have to admit though, I love the entrepreneurial spirit people are showing in the country. Three Wi-MAX provdors? That is just awesome!
Wi-max, = high latency/ping = no go 😛
who cares about the download speed XD
Kulacom is much cheaper as it is unlimited, the yearly 1mb connection gets upgraded to 2mb.
As for latency, amazingly it’s much better than dsl, no more than 250ms.
Sama used to be good, until very recently. But through tremendous effort, they have now managed to become second-worst right after the unchallenged leader, Orange.
A word to the wise: ask about their latest usage policies. Ask, also, what happens to you should they decide to change those policies on a whim with months to go on a subscription you probably wouldn’t have committed to had you known what would happen (a hint: you’re SOL, in plain English).
Speaking of usage policies, why do most ISPs in Jordan still insist on advertising link speeds in Mbps when what they’re selling, in reality, are 128 (or even 64!) Kbps links? For scale, 10GiB can be downloaded in just 24 hours over a 1Mbps link. On a 4Mbps link, it will take 6 hours. Then you most probably have a 128Kbps link for the rest of the month.
Why would anyone pay for a service if they can use it for less than 1% of the time? Is that the definition of “fair use”, now?
Shu hath el latency? Please simplify, don’t use geeky jargon.
Ya3ni, use metaphors, such as 7anafyet may, sa6el Kaz and stuff.
🙂
Jordan’s not the only country with wifi problems. Living in France is a nightmare if you want any sort of internet connection. When I contacted Alice Telecom to get wifi in my apartment they told me it would take “deux petites semaines” (just two weeks) to arrive. A month and a half and several reminder phone calls later, a box turns up…with an ASDL line. We called, complained, sent the box back and told them we no longer required their services. Even though we hadn’t not used the internet connection once, bills started arriving and then a letter stating that if we did not pay these bills they would take us to court. Despite our phone calls, I decided to pay as it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to argue with them. As soon as I had paid the bill, they sent out a letter with barely an apology, stating they had made a mistake and that we were not nor had ever been connected with them. However, Orange telecom wasn’t much better. The internet connection would stop at anytime for days on end and no amount of pleading with their customer services would get it turned back on again (and I paid the bill on time every month). I wanted to smash up my livebox too when I had to hand it in, only the thought of them hounding me for years on end for the stupid box was too much to bare.
@ Jordanian
latency(ping) is the speed in which very small files are transferred at..
for example,
-at low latency(fast), receiving a 32bit(extermly small) file, takes only like 30ms(miliseconds).
-a high latency(slow), receiving a 32bit file might take up to 300-500ms, that’s the latency we have here in Jordan..
now practicaly speaking,
a webpage, such as http://www.back-iris.com... contains text/pictures/videos/ and so on… each of which may be hosted in a “different” server..
so when u open http://www.black-iris.com, you computer has to communicate==> then download stuff from all of those different servers, one after another.
im not talking about downloading speed atm, im talking about comunicating speed, because comunicating means : sending/receiving of VERY small files.. im talking about downoad per milisecond, not per second, and that makes all the difference :D.
with “low” latency, opening http://www.black-iris.com would take about 1 sec, if you’re using a 512kb connection.
with “high” latency, it might take up to 7 seconds or something, EVEN IF your 8mb…
==
browsing is not that annoying, but whats truly annoying, is when you try to game with high latency,
online games needs to transfer info ever few milliseconds,
shooters needs a max of 60ms latency, to be played perfect… 90ms is still playable, more than that it just becomes frustrating..
===
ofcourse, latency is effected by the distance between you and the server, but still, its always your ISPs fault why its high:D.
Ali: thx man,ur the best,smart guy,God bless
Let me run that again in my head, Ya3ni I have a fast delivery service for goods, yet when sending letters (communicating) it is exchanged very slowly.
Good presentation
NAS:What is the latest? Look, plz make a nice post listing current ISP and updated prices for 1mb line,nothing more. I START
ADSL 1mb
1.Zain 300JD/year 8GB
2. Umniah 260JD/yr 12GB
3. JCS 285JD/yr unlim
4. TE Data ??
5.Sama ??
6. Next 360 JD/yr 1GB
7.Splendor (Dead)
8.Cyberia (Dead)
9. IO Net (Dead)
10. http://www.stream.jo
11.Tarasol.jo 285jd/yr 5GB
Wireless UMAX
1. Zain e-go too exp to mention
2.Mada
3. Wi Tribe 300+other junk/yr 10GB
4. Umniah,confusing schemes
5. Kulacom
3G
Orange 518jd/yr 15GB
Orange/mobile see here http://www.orange.jo/en/mobileoffersmonthly.php
Hey there,
Just noticed your new update regarding kulacom, currently subscribed with them and must I regret it, you should test it for a week before deciding.
First they’re not really unlimited, since you don’t get full bandwidth, for torrents you only 1/3 your speed during the day, and 1/2 after 10pm and full after midnight (however I’m not keen on becoming batman), even though when they came to my house I asked them specifically about torrents and they assured me I would get full speed all the time no matter what.
And even at those times I still don’t get decent speeds.
Second their browsing is slow (ping is as slow as 300 to 400), gotta pause while loading youtube videos (on 1mbit connection).
Third, well their support sucks, a couple of weeks the CPE went dead and it took them 4 days to replace it after I kept calling over and over, and even after replacing the new one still gives me problems and a lot of disconnects.
So now I’m trying to cancel with them and get my money back but to no avail…
Anyway just figured I’d throw in my experience with them for you.
I’m quite sure they’re better than orange.
However their unlimited bandwidth isn’t really usable.
O ba3deen?
ADSL suck, WiMax suck,Kulacom Sucks….
Shu Sar ma3ak ya Naseem?
Mada is superior,but disappointing since u can’t use the dongle/CPE simultaneously.Costs more than others.
3G should have been great if it was not for the 2GB limit.
Get ADSL o raye7 balak o balna
Depends where you live? there’s a new Telco company called VTEL Jordan but their current focus is Wholesale and the corporate segment. VTEL rolled out a fiber optic network in Amman and I have been told they are the best…check out their web site: http://www.vtel.jo
Good luck 🙂
Orange is the worst and their service is horrible…it makes me mad when I rememeber their poor service! we terminated our service with them….Orange’s service sucks! and their customer service is even worse 🙁
me am thinking to print more than 1 thousand t-shirt and make 1 thousand people in Jordan wearing it (which have written on it I HATE ORANGE ) I THINK THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO FORCE THEM HEAR TO US AND WHAT WE NEED
Honestly, Orange needs to be left alone until it gets its business in order. It was a lot better when it was Wanadoo. I simply reached my download capacity and they refused to let me add extra bandwidth until 8 AM in the morning.
What if I’m a business user trying to have a video meeting? Am I supposed to do that with 128 KB/sec? That’s a big jump from 1 MB/sec.
Orange is horrible, and I’m switching soon.
And yes, I understand your feelings towards Orange’s customer support. They might as well not have any customer support at all, because people become more angry when dealing with them!
Did any one try and call the complaints department at the TRC?
here are their numbers:
Toll Free 080022313
065862020
i called them when i had a billing issue and they sorted it out.
it seems Orange fears the line “I will complain to TRC” 🙂
try it, what do you have to lose, worst case you’ll give Orange a headache.
@Nit: lol! Maybe. Sometime they don’t move if you don’t complain. Just like one of the ISP here on my place.
Sometime business establishments happen to do some poor service. Just like the issue of fax machine, some don’t want to change analog fax to digital fax or web faxing. I wonder what they are thinking, now.
enjoy this piece of info the UNLIMITED company is SEVERELY LIMITED there is what they call Traffic Management Policy for peer to peer + single link download can only be downloaded in 18 to 25% of the speed u need a download manager to connect 4 to 6 times o nthe same link for full speed so forget about rapidshare megaupload ……..
this also affects all streaming as it downloads in 18 – 25% of the speed
you wont hear about this when u sign in they totally scam you
to explain more if u use ur internet to brows ur e-mail go with them otherwise its just another one big scam
scrol down on this link and read the last paragraph
http://www.kulacom.jo/faqs/
enjoy what u call the best intersh*t company
I’ve read your problem. It makes me realize that it is really hard to decide and it’s the hardest thing to do in life.
However, I think an offer from Mada is a good offer. I’m only basing my opinion to what you’ve posted. 😀
man i read all your other posts on this issue but this one made me cry laughter like a new born
jad everything you said is 1000000% right
am form saudi and i study here and i have been struggling with internet service in jordan
i cant bileave how weak it is form all angles
orange wimax umax zain kolo not that good
am used to unlimited cap in saudi and a DSL 8mb line not the adsl crap
all i wana say is 6awel balak o i hope u ull get what u want u seem like a smart guy
PS: am using orange and am changing it to something else cuz i paid them 250 jd two month ago to
get a 1mb offer and nothing till now
we’re in 2010 and really disappointed from the internet services given by our lovely sad providers.
i wish i live in Egypt to get and an excellent cost effective service LOL.
its been for me 5 years surfing the net subscribed to the hell of diverse ISP’s, we are just crawling seek the best connection and bigger limit cap with less cost but i’ve found that i’m dreaming.
im still waiting JCS to cover my zone. they would be the light in the tunnel.
my recent best internet expereince with connection was zain e-go , gets 2.4 around down rate min. 220kB/s but i paid 400jd for the year . and now i’m with wi-tribe connecting with difficulty holding the CPE to get the paid air !
FYI
Jordans Kulacom ADSL is not unlimited, even tho there ads say unlimited its only 50gb range
Tho there wimax IS unlimited yet only yearly contracts
why not month or 6 month??? its total bullshit with the current internet companys here in jordan, only wish a real company would migrate here and just rape everyone else with decent prices and UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD
So, which company did you go for, i think i am seriously considering breaking my contract with KULACOM, they are terrible with the new plan, P2P throttling, YEAH RIGHT.
Everything is affected, ALL DOWNLOADS, I am a premium rapidshare user, and I CAN’T USE IT!!! Before they implemented their new plan, I was downloading >5GB a day, now i can’t even reach 300MB!!
I am thinking about switch to JCS, but I haven’t heard much about them here, does anyone have experience dealing with them?
My rapidshare account is about to expire and i haven’t even used it for the past two months! Damn Kulacom!
Well JCS is just as bad as kulacom, you never get the full speed (only at night) and I personally don’t use the internet past 2 am, prefer to use that time sleeping….
and you can’t download torrents during the day, your speed for your whole line will drop if you do (it’ll last about a day with the drop)
as for normal downloads, again during the day you won’t get the full speed….(what you’re paying for)
well, it is true, i’ve found this letter when i search -out of curiosity- best ISP, and i enjoyed reading your story.
i’m living in ABuNsair no wireless is good for us, and i used to be -what supposed to be- good customer of WANADOO at that time. but WANADOO became orange and they promised me better services, which actually didnt see, because at that time, each month i needed to go to the 7th circle to pay my bills. which was exhausting. untill they announced that it is possible that customers can pay via P.O. box. which i did for three months and then i disconnected the whole thing. its because the time i receive the invoice in my P.O. box, handed it to the teller in the same P.O. box office, pay the bill, go home & i receive the notification saying “you did not pay your bill” apparently at that time paying via P.O. needed like 2 weeks for ORANGE to receive the payment.
i did not complain too much because i was promised with the ultimate no-limit1gig from a friend who works in an ISP after hearing my story which he did. but it came the time when my friend moved to another ISP – in a matter of fact went to another country.
so i had to try CYBERIA – ZAIN & then i’m with TEDATA
CYBERIA was a long story – but ZAIN, there were no problem with their offer, its just each now and then and out of nowhere my internet disconnects -knowing that i’m a yearly participant- so i pickup the phone call them and each time they start saying the its all because of the splitter on my phone line. if anyone remembers a small plastic piece putten on your phone line to split the data off the audio – so your family can make phone calls while you are online.
so for ZAIN -when i didnt have a problem ever with this splitter since WANADOO- its all their problem. actually, it was partly true, i removed the splitter and disconnect my family from their lovable talks over the phone but internet is connected, keep it for 10 minutes- and then put the splitter back and we are back in action. and that was a never ending scenario.
until i remembered how nice TEDATA was, and i’m back with it- though i’m using 2gig, and friday for free – i dont feel the speed on friday; youtube is stuttering, half of my pages are semi filled. but i’m just hopping its all because of the mean cable in aqaba. but even though, i’m not changing it because i’m paying anything for orange for internet services.
anybody heard about damamax???
I might be a little late in writing this post, but it came up to me after a search did at Google with the criteria: “What the **** is wrong with Kulacom. Having read one of your posts before (don’t remember which one though soz :p) I wanted to view your experience with Jordan’s ISP’s, as well as the reviewers.
Anyway, I’m a Kulacom user. This is my first miserable time connecting internet to my home, where in the past I would leave normal email checking at work, and chatting in an internet cafe due to their abundant supply of it in Jordan. At first it was great, having a three out of five signal on the CPE, and after a month receiving an antenna to have it jump up one point (what for) and sometimes having it reach five points late at night. To be honest, I wanted an internet connection at home to help with the many downloads I have had to perform and after being kicked out of some cafes for them (they have no respect to a student here). Suddenly, I saw their ad on one of the bridges that are on the way to the 7th circle, and said why the hell not try them out.
They’re great, especially with the unlimited download cap. But to all perfect images there has to be at least one flaw, and that began happening on July. Their service became worse and worse. After a few calls with them, I was told that they were upgrading their network, and would need some time to disconnect their users. My only problem here was why they wouldn’t inform the customer before cutting their service. I mean they did it once, why stop. If it costs them money to send SMS, they have our damned email addresses on the forms that we filled. They’re an ISP for crying out loud, don’t tell me that it would cost them to send emails to users.
After a few arguments with their customer support (who by the way are always interchanged by two people by the name of Mohammad), I was asked to try and cope with them for some time until they finish upgrading the network, in which case they shall try to perform these disconnections at night. That’s great. Thank you for the great response. However I still can’t understand how come their network hasn’t been upgraded yet? We’re in September; they began upgrading on July. Does it really take them 3 months to install a couple of towers and antennas along the University Road to reach Sweileh/Abu Nsair. I really wish I didn’t ask them about their service in those areas for the sake of my friends had i known that they would do such a miserable act.
However, the final straw that broke the house was what happened today when the connection kept coming and going, with some websites loading and others giving me that horrid red page indicating that there’s something wrong with their cache server. However there was one thing that left me quite dumbfounded: i was connected on skype, chatting away with a blobby blurred image of my friends, and none of the website i was trying to access were coming up (i was searching Wikipedia for some information). I mean i would have understood wikipedia showing up and skype having an error in connecting, but this was the other way around. After a small talk with customer support (and at last another person not called Mohammad came up) they told me that they want to reboot the CPE. In which case I told them that I already did that, where they said that their operation would reset the counters, whereas my rebooting would never reset the counters (I didn’t want to get into another conversation with the guy but he was talking bullocks). 5mins, and viola it was reset, only to find that their “reset” was “reset to original factory settings” and thus loosing all the configuration I had on the routing and the WPA key. Another call to the person, and he wants me to give him my password. What is a password if I kept giving it to them (shall change it now for those kulacom employees out there reading this post and wanting to get back at me).
To end a long comment, mate, there are no perfect ISPs in Jordan. They all SUCK. However, if and only if you want to get a great connection, then i suggest you pay more money and become a VIP or “Kebar el Zabayel” erm “Zabayen” and get to shout at their sorry @SSes every once in a while without them giving you that blank stare of not knowing what to do, but can’t say anything about it, and thus shall do what they want to do whether you like it or not.
To be honest mate, after reading your post, and some of the comments above, and finally writing my comment, thank you, you made my day happier. Nothing is perfect here, and thus I shall do as my parents guide me: “la te7mel el solam bel 3ard”. Screw them, let them have fun with their robbing, we shall have the last laugh later inshaAllah.
Finally, I suggest creating an ISP between us (they’re popping out of nowhere these days. I had a person from blue something two days ago saying they’re a new ISP, and another one before them in a month which i forgot about. Honestly, let’s make one, reserve a few MB’s @ Hashem, and sell it between us like shares :p
LOL,
Goodnight
**After writing the below lines about my ISP experience, I found myself writing too much, for those who do not have much time to read, the summary is: Put Kulacom at the most buttom of your potential ISP list, and if after evaluating all options you find yourself considering Kulacom, forget about internet, for god’s sake, use regular postal mail, it is much faster and more reliable!!
*********
Hello all. I want to share my experience with two ISP’s:
I am now a Kulacom user for about 1 week. But I can tell you a lot from my little experience with Kulacom. I was an Orange customer for 1 year, when my contract ended, I decided to switch to Kulacom because they “offer” unlimited download.
With orange I had a true 1MB line with 10GB monthly cap, after I reach this cap, the speed goes down to 128KBPS. I also subscribed for a 1 MB line with Kulacom, but the download speed never reaches more than 256KBPS (the average being around 20Kb/s)!!
Orange at least gives me 10 GB to download at full speed, which I paid for by the way, but with Kulacom you can only dream about having full speed!
When I sat with the Kulacom salesman, he told me that there are only few subscribers in my area, and their Wimax tower is very close to my place, indeed, I get a full 6 bar reception on the Wimax CPE all the time, but all I can do with these bars is to take a photo of me sitting besides them 😀 , because download speed is totally useless.
The Kulacom salesman did not tell the truth when I was asking about their services, he described it as if it was the internet connection from heaven!! I did not believe him, but I expected some parts to be true. Well, I do not blame the salesman, he would never sell a contract if he told the truth.
Now, lets talk about Kulacom’s after-sale service, I have spoken to the customer service several times, to explain my frustration and disappointment with their service. The only thing I get back from them is this line ” There is a note on your name, the technician will visit you soon to fix the problem”. I could not get any confirmation when the technician would come, but I am sure he will come “soon”.
When I signed the contract with Kulacom, I was promised to get the the technician in 3 days period, well, a week has been passed, I even did not get a call back!
With Orange, I got a technician the same day I signed the contract. I too work in a Professional Services Provider Company, but we have much much much higher standards than Kulacom :), When I compare our services to Kulacom’s services, well at least I would never lie to a customer.
I am giving them another 3 days, after that, if no change, I will break the contract, and will start a smear campaign against Kulacom (Kulacom = 1/2 com), they pretty much deserved it and have earned this name and are entitled to it :)…I am being fair here, right? I will be only telling truth and nothing but the truth?
*******
I am a real person living in Amman, my email is belal.d@hotmail.com
I subscribed with Kulakom 2 weeks ago for their wimax !! i heard they are good but unfortunately since then I’m just moving in a circle and facing a very bad customer service , weak signal ! and half of what i paid speed!! i advice you to think twice before shifting to this new company :s I’m frustrated !!
Check out this like page on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Protest-Against-Bad-Internet-Service-in-Jordan/129673020425234?v=photos#!/pages/A-Protest-Against-Bad-Internet-Service-in-Jordan/129673020425234?v=info
Please like it to support the cause of enhancing the internet service in jordan
Firstly, did you ever find a good Internet connection here in jordan? And secondly please join my group on facebook “We Dislike Zain Jordan” I would really appreciate it
Thanks,
Robert
After monitoring my internet connection for one month I figured out that sometimes JCS shapes my traffic slowing down torrents and known file hosting websites, specially in day time, to me this is not a good thing, traffic shaping must be an option.
I’m gonna call JCS tommorrow nd check if they have coverage in my area, otherwise i’m leaning more towards Kulacom than the other wimax connections out there.
I flew in from the U.S. 13 days ago and i really hope the internet here isn’t as bad as you guys say it is, i currently live in Abdoun, Amman
JCS doesn’t cover Abdoun indeed.
I am recently a JCS customer. and their service seem technically stable and I hope their customer care is as good as it should.. I had few days delay when they installed the internet at home.
They also recommend a dlink wireless router as as all other brands (as they claim) raise issues of connectivity.. I use tp link and yes internet goes down at times.. unable to find a logical reason for that yet and unable to find a dlink seller in Amman with available stock too! will have to see how it goes with that dlink brand.
orange is a big no no for me.. I tried before witribe, mada, zain 3g, orange adsl, batelco adsl.
orange jordan by far is the worst of all.
had no issues with mada, I like their connection speed (gets to 3MBps for 2.4MBps subscription where I lived when I used it) – expensive prices though
witribe had very good customer care indeed, fair prices but their technical service stopped being as reliable as I wanted it to be so decided to change. they offered a 23 jd tower installation but decided to go with fiber connection for same setup fee.
zain 3g isn’t as reliable really. when the connection goes to EDGE I feel like I’m in the 90’s again – prices are mid range to expensive
orange adsl is a disaster when anything goes wrong, you can tell the customer care employee you are talking to is at the job because he/she knows some insider in the company and not because of their ability to handle the job
batelco adsl is good. had no issues really although being a customer for few years already.. all adsl issues were indeed from orange side and – as expected from such company. They always accused the ISP of creating the issue.. investigation proved them wrong most most of the time
I’m very fortunate to have stumbled upon this blog here. Never realised internet services are that bad in Jordan.
I’m an Irish student in Saudi. I’ve just finished my school years and have planned to move to Jordan to start college. I’ll be moving from Saudi in about a week from the date this message is posted, staying in Irbid and attending JUST for my undergraduate years.
Could I please get some recommendations as to which internet service provider to join in Irbid? My apartment will have no phone line (which is how I am connected to the internet here in Saudi, got out of dial-up about 2 – 3 years ago). I’m more concerned about having a stable connection than a fast one, nothing drives me to point of tearing the hair off my head more than a connection that constantly drops.
I don’t really download huge chunks of data on a daily basis, I have all the movies and TV shows I want on my hard disk. If it is possible to watch Youtube on at least 360p without cut-offs and constant buffering, that would be great. I’m not a really much of a gamer, rather I’m a serious sim-racer. I’ve set-up my desktop for online simulated racing (iRacing.com, rFactor etc), together with a Logitech G27 and such. Sim-racing can become serious business in the higher tiers (which is what I’m aiming for), where money can be at stake in races… aaahkh I’m blabberring away now… bottom line: I cannot tolerate constant breakdowns.
Please let me know which ISP to go with, which service to subscribe to, and which ISPs to avoid.
Thanks in advance.
stop buying GMO foods from the supermarkets… stop taking vaccines and flu shots…. the American and European Government are SICK EVIL WAR CRIMINALS who inject toxic chemicals and poisons into our food supply
@Forde
im in irbid too, i tried two different companies here many years ago, they just were too bad, and i tried orange then etc, i dont remember their names, i believe they dont operate anymore, and rightly so XD.
although i hate everything about Orange, from their new “plans” to their customer care, etc etc, sadly they are the monopoly here i believe, its been stable for me the past 3-4 years, pings/latency were nice(if ur intersted in gaming, altho they are getting a bit worse year after year). download speeds are fine, . and up time is acceptable. they used to dc ur internet for 1 second(say 10 seconds till ur router is able to reconnect), once each day, i believe they used to do that so they could calculate how much u downloaded, ur download is calculated after ur internet is dc… but that have stopped now , im not 100% sure but its been a long long long while, and im a power user..
basically apart form below average service in Jordan in general, the prices are crazy high, and the download limit is crazy ridiculously low :S. and this applies to every single company..
im talking about Orange ADSL, i never tried any 3G.WImax etc etc , i have this understanding that its only for facebook browsing, and im lazy to learn anything about it, never trust wireless 😛
\\\NOte, i have been away for 4 months, and i just arrived here 2 weeks ago, i installed a wireless card for my pc, since the router is very far from my pc now, i noticed hug latency spikes every few hours for few minutes, i dont know why, i never seen that before, so it probably an issue with my wireless and not the company. if u dont game, its defiantly nothing to worry about 🙂
Hi Guys,
I’m a member of NEXT ISP.
i have been checking this site to view comments and needs, and i kept seeing that everyone want’s no CAP.
we have new offers with no download limit at all (NO CAP)
pleaes check them on our website : http://www.next.jo
or call our helpdesk for info.
the unlimited offers are on 512K, 1M and 2M speeds
Hey folks, I’m back again.
I’ve been using the Zain Broadband flash drive with the prepaid plan since my arrival in Jordan, about 2 months now. Works alright. There are occasional down-times where my internet crawls to a halt and I can’t browse anything, or the connection won’t get through at all. Download speeds are nowhere near the advertised speed, much much lower… and I live right next to the damn Zain agency!
My biggest gripe is the capped download limit and horrendous ping… how the hell can anyone live with a limit imposed on how much they download and their server response (ping)? I’ve considered changing.
Continuation from last post…
Now I’ve been told to switch over to Blue Zone if I’m looking for unlimited internet. They use WiMax. Now the offers, there are special promotions at night from 2am to 7am.
You have to pay 11.60 JD if you are joining for the first time, installing the router that is. You also have to sign a contract that you will remain as their customer for one year. Should you wish to leave them, you are presented with a fine of 70 JD.
1 Mbps: 16 JD per month | Download cap: 10GB, night: 90GB
2 Mbps: 19 JD per month | Download cap: 15GB, night: 85GB
3 Mbps: 22 JD per month | Download cap: 20GB, night: 80GB
4 Mbps: 25 JD per month | Download cap: 25GB, night: 75GB
Now my questions:
1) Is Blue Zone a reputable company? Can I trust them?
2) Is their internet good?
3) Any frequent cut-offs?
4) What about actual download speeds and ping?
Continued:
5) What is a good internet speed to choose? I’d imagine 1 Mbps is too slow… and 4 Mbps might be overkill, more than what one would need… which of these packages is a good option?
To tell you all the truth, All providers are crap. here my experience with ALL i have tested.
WITRIBE (wireless) , is the worst, specially when it comes to technical support.
BlueZone (wireless), will never give you what you are paying for, I had 4M speed subscription, I get at the best 1.5 (150KB) also when you try to download any file, speed goes to1Kb then 50Kb then 150Kb then 0, and repeated in the same way. Speed is crap.
Orange, very expensive. and you pay money for nothing (ADSL-Fixed)
Zain (wireless), I have no idea how I get the 10GB download limit finished, while I am not using the internet for videos.
In europe, I pay 10 euros for 40M line, using that for TV and download all day long without any problems, for example a 600MB file takes one minute
God bless all
regards
Kulacom, it has been the best guys! a client for 2 years now and really satisfied as they offer unlimited download.
Simply they all bad and the worst is umnih none of isp’s customer service are well trained they all have lack of their own field knowledge as one wosrt comments I heard for an evo router from a customer service for a speed issue ” the router is not compatible with Windows 7 ” duhhhh!!!
Simply they all have one methodology if there is great profit do not change the situation.
Every one need to suffer like to find the best of the bad choices in his area, in mine was orange and since of 10 years they didn’t upgraded any device in my area so the most I get is 2mb and it not it is 1.2. I have tried many as your and and I was happy for 1 day only when I get 7mb for the first time from evo which drops down after that to 22kb with a final answer we will not upgrade the tower take your remaining money only back!!!
These companies management need to be burn and bring new talented management whose don’t care only about profits.
They only see us a dollar sign and it size depend on what you pay.
i run a network gaming cafe im sorry to say this , JCS tech guy came to change the wire and end up formating my router where i lost my 25 IP adress for my pcs and ran way with same low speed 0.75 m out of 15 m
im frustrated and my cafe is closed!!!!!!!!!
Who cares right ?! !