Monday 3rd March 2008

Pakistan broadband free fall

In an earlier post on bandwidth and mobile prices around the world, I predicted that increased competition would bring down broadband costs in Pakistan. It seems that "drop very fast" was an underestimation and we are witnessing a full-scale price war.

It started with PTCL (yes, the same guys who brought down YouTube last week) when they relaunched themselves last year. Their packages, such as the Unlimited 1Mbps DSL for just 4,999 rupees, caused quite a stir. The quality and support were horrendous but the offer was too tempting for most people to pass up on. Then Wateen Telecom appeared with an even cheaper solution (it really is cheap, unfortunately), using WiMAX as the last-mile medium.

Barely a month ago, LINKdotNET (my ex-employer, previously known as Dancom and WOL) launched their range of DSL packages that were about 20 percent less than PTCL's. I was already using a 512Kbps office connection from them which needed an upgrade so this was welcome news. However, despite having friends on the inside and being within meters of the exchange, both the performance and support has so far been a disappointment.

PTCL's new packages

DSL-512Kbps Unlimited DSL-1024Kbps Unlimited DSL-2Mbps Unlimited
 Rs. 1,199 / month  Rs. 1,999 / month  Rs. 4,999 / month
 Unlimited download  Unlimited download  Unlimited download
 Free Modem & Installation  Free Modem & Installation  Free Modem & Installation

PTCL recently slashed their prices offering twice the bandwidth for the same cost. Amazingly, LINKdotNET has been the quickest to react and has doubled the speed with their latest DSL packages. Though this kind of competition isn't new and frankly, Pakistan is years behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband, it's the sudden change that is significant.

LINKdotNET's new packages

Speed Per Month Volume Per Month Monthly Fees
512 Kbps UnLimited Rs.1200
1 Mbps UnLimited Rs.2000
2 Mbps UnLimited Rs.3900

All this price cutting is great for the consumers. Unfortunately, this has caused a quite visible drop in quality. All these new packages are shared so you're unlikely to ever get the full advertised bandwidth. I'm currently using Wateen's WiMAX connection at home. It is probably the least reliable of any of the services currently available so I must find a copper-based alternative.

As tempting as these shared packages sound, I think I would rather opt for a slower, but more reliable connection. Micronet's DSL or Nayatel's fiber have usually led the market, both in terms of performance and price, though their response to the latest onslaught is yet to be seen. Could be just what I need.

 

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17:33pm


On 20th March 2008, at 17:40pm PKT, Anonymous said:

what problems are you facing with linkdotnet ?

I heard its better then PTCL as PTCL customer service sucks

On 31st March 2008, at 22:26pm PKT, Ersalan said:

Muahahahah! I dont give a deuce!... And you know why : D

On 9th April 2008, at 22:52pm PKT, zeeshan said:

wow dont worry guys pakistan soon will improve n yea btw i am in usa n over here i have internet speed of 10 MBPS yea thats 10,000 kbps lolz n is for like 40 dollars n 1 dollar equals to about 55 or 60 rupees

On 30th April 2008, at 01:33am PKT, Usman Khawaja said:

I had a very poor experience of Link Dot Net’s DSL connection. Currently they are suffering by “internet disconnection issues”. The connection session automatically expires after every two minutes. So after reading comments about Wateen telecom, I will switch to Wateen telecom. I hope they will provide high speed with no disconnection issues that Link Dot Net has.

Anyways, I have written a blog post where I have shared my thoughts about poor services by Link Dot Net. You can read this blog at http://linkdotnet.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/link-dot-net-linknet-disconnection-problems/

Thanks for your attention.

On 29th May 2008, at 20:49pm PKT, Asim Mehmood said:

Yeah LinkdotNet is rocking. Its Customer Services is cool. Guys at helpdesk knows to talk. PTCL is a bunch of idiots and they dont even talk to you properly but thanks God someone on pakistan atleast do follow international standards if not completly than atleast they try to do something.

On 31st May 2008, at 10:18am PKT, Fiaz said:

Using PTCL 512Kbps for the past four months. No cause for complaints, works fast and flawlessly.

On 24th June 2008, at 20:27pm PKST, Mahmood said:

Micronet rocks the best support and awesome customer servcies with unmatched VAS like gaming, backup dilup, online payment etc.

Nayatel although is a bit on higher side due to its ONT first time cost but it is really the most converged service available yet in Pakistan.

On 25th June 2008, at 04:09am PKST, Aamir Zia said:

PTCL seems best to me

Always Get Full Speed as specified in the Package
I am using 2 MB Connection & always got 205 KB/sec .

in Home 512 K

All works Gr8

But Prices are still high then other Developed Countries
Prices are even higher than INDIA

On 7th July 2008, at 15:29pm PKST, Kitty said:

HI,

ihad some bad erperiance with PTCL and wateen thats why shifted to LDN.LInkdotNet really a company and understand cutmer's needs and wants.

On 6th October 2008, at 12:24pm PKST, Masood said:

Sir i get ptcl wirless zte, but i am not satisfy it. in fact i get it that i will download vedio and other things but it speed is 115.2. i get it very difficulties due to financial problems but sir tell me how i can increase it speed.


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