Tag Archives: ADSL

ADSL new prices in Syria

Ok so after like two years since the last ADSL prices cut, they did it again.

This time they introduced new type of subscription which depends on how much of Gigs you download.

Prices are as follow:

Limited by bandwidth

256 Kbps costs 900 SP a month (~ $19) – 2 GB bandwidth – each extra 1 GB costs 200 SP (~ $4)

512 Kbps costs 1200 SP a month (~ $25) – 4 GB bandwidth – each extra 1 GB costs 200 SP (~ $4)

Flat rate (Open bandwidth)

256 Kbps costs 1450 SP a month (~ $30)

512 Kbps costs 2300 SP a month (~ $48)

1 Mbps costs 3350 SP a month (~ $71)

2 Mbps costs 6100 SP a month (~ $130)

4 Mbps costs 11600 SP a month (~ $246)

8 Mbps costs 22600 SP a month (~ $480)

So these are the new prices, what do you think?

Well I don’t they are bad.

But the crappy thing is that they doesn’t have any subscriptions available!! It means that if you and want to subscribe, they got non! That’s what they say. Speed and stablility still sucks.

So what good are the new prices if there is no subscriptions!!?????

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New ADSL subscriptions coming out soon!

People in Syria have been waiting too long for the ADSL, and probably this week or the next one new subscriptions will hopefully be available at reason prices (Strong rumor!).

I’ve heard the the 256Kbps plan will cost 1000 SP (~$19) which is some how reasonable, well at least better than before. But I hope the service will be good with no restrictions what so ever.

So you get your wallet ready, and keep on checking your Local Telephone center for news.

Good luck for all

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Internet, what’s up?

OK, the new year is coming close with some Internet rumors around.

Yes you might see me mostly nagging about the internet connection here in Damascus, Syria, but what can I do? I’m a heavy Internet user, and Technology happens to be my job.

Today I was reading some fresh news, Technology news, and I was shocked when I saw that an ISP in South Korea is serving 100Mbps internet connection, maybe that is not new, but the thing is the price tag, which is only ~24$!
And I found out while reading this news that in Japan the home users get Fiber Optic connection! That is counted in Gigas speed!

I hear this news while in here we are dreaming about some stable ADSL connection with decent price and less filtering. It is frustrating.

So many new ISPs coming out and I lost the interest in tracking their names since I know that they all belong to the same provider (Syrian STE), I’m talking about ISPs like Aya, Sawa, and others.

Let’s talk about some rumors.

They say the prices will drop again, so a 1 Mbps connection will cost about 1000 SP(~$18) which I think is reasonable price. And abviously lot of people will be wanting this service because it is much cheaper than before, so here comes the other rumor which says about 150000 subscription will be available.

Well, I hope this will be true, but I’m afraid that the network won’t handle the traffic since I see signs of bottlenecks already.

Cya 😉

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My ADSL experience in Syria

It’s been almost a month since I got the ADSL subscription and I thought I would share my experience with the ADSL in Syria.

After I heard the prices are dropped last month I went to get a subscription right away, and I thought I would love to have it with the new ISP Aya since it has no proxy and I can access many Internet services that I can’t access if I have choosed the Government ISP (Itisalat or sometimes 190.sy).

I called the ISP Aya, and they told me they didn’t offecially get the new prices! They told me I have to wait for about two or more weeks!

During the time I’m waiting in the second week, I discovred that the Government has new Network called PDN (Public Date Network) which is a collection of networks that provide public data services such as ADSL availble for every body, and from this new Network the ISP Aya is actually is connected!!
So Aya is just re-selling the product!

So Why would I buy the product from Aya if I can buy it directly from the source?
I went to the Itisalat ISP and asked for a subscription on the new Network, and the answer was there is no more subscriptions on the new Network left!!

Appearantly all of the old ADSL subscribers converted for free to the new Network right away after they heard the news.

So I had to stick to the old Network which has proxy and lot of filtering. And I am telling you, IT SUCKS !! It is for nothing but opening web pages, and not all of them of course, even some technical web sites are blocked.

I know there are ways to bypass the ISP proxy, but they are not effective because they are really slow, and doesn’t work always. You can bypass the ISP proxy to make eMule works, or any other sharing or Instant messaging software, but it is not going to feel like proxy free Internet connection. I think most of the Syrians Internet users knows how to bypass these stuff now, I don’t know why they still use proxy.

The reason that I subscribed even though I know it is going to be sucky, is that I heard that they are expanding the number of subscriptions in two months or so, so it would be faster to convert for free to the new Network if I already have an ADSL connection.

Later this month I heard the minister of Communications saying that there were only about 2700 subscriptions availble in all of Syria!! and they are gone. For your information there are 18000000 people in Syria!! and at least 100000 connected to the internet on the old dial-up connection.

They are saying that they are planning to expand the network, but god knows when!

There is also another new ISP in Syria calling itself ” CEC ” or ” CEC Syria “, and it is the same as Aya, taking its connection from the new PDN network, re-selling the product, but it has little extra thing which is filtering! 😀 no thanks. Maybe some people will like it to prevent their kids from visiting some web sites.

And I think the way they make money is because they get lower price from the Government for the connection, and then they just re-sell it at higher price.

So basically there is only one Internet gateway, which is the STE (Syrian Telecom). All the ISPs gets their connection from there. So I don’t think there will be real competition at all.

It is hard for us to get up with technology and all if we are focusing too much on these little stuff.

I hope things will get better, that’s all I can say.

Hasan Bazerbashi

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ADSL PRICES DROPPED IN SYRIA!!

FINALLY !!

ADSL prices here in Syria dropped!!

Now it costs like the following:

One time Setup fee: 2000 SP (~37$)

256Kbps: 2400 SP/month (~45$)
512Kbps: 3700 SP/month (~69$)
1 Mbps: 5900 SP/month (~111$)
2 Mbps: 9800 SP/month (~184$)
4 Mbps: 17000 SP/month (~320$)
8 Mbps: 29800 SP/month (~562$)
And an ADSL modem: 2000 SP (~45$)
And you can add 1 Mbps for any subscription for 4500 SP (~84$)

It is for the first time in the Middle East as I know that you can get ADSL speed up to juicy 8 Mbps !! That is BIG!
That’s not all. I heard that you can keep on adding 1 Mbps until you reach speed up to 16 Mbps!!! That is a first. You can then have your own ISP!

I also want to mention very important thing, and that is there is no limited bandwidth! Unlimited Downloading and Uploading! Which means you can download and upload as much as you want!! That is also really a big thing.
Because usually ISPs like the ones in Jordan limits you with a certain bandwidth depending on your subscription. For example, if you have the 512Kbps, you will have 5GB of download and after that the speed will drop from 512Kbps to 256Kbps until your downloads reach 8 GB the speed will drop to 128Kbps and then will stay like that unlimited.

For the official price list from the ISP look HERE.
Thanks for who ever was responsible for this

What would be the next good step is to get rid of the Proxy which limits the usage of the Internet and filtering everything except web surfing (even filtering lots of usefull web sites).

Have a good rocking ADSL days

Hasan Bazerbashi

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ADSL In Syria Insider Edition!

Welcome to Syria Insider Edition!

We have just received the news from one of our reporters that the ADSL prices will be dropped by the half at the middle of this month!! Expected at 15th of Feb.

Ok guys this is not a joke! This month hopefully the 256Kbps ADSL will be 2500 Syrian Pounds ($47) instead of 4000 Syrian Pounds ($75).

Awesome

Hasan Bazerbashi

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