A word of warning to people signing up for Etisalat's eLife service (the fancy new FTTH internet/evision service).
It's easy to be attracted to the higher speeds offered from Etisalat's eLife service however, according to the terms and conditions it will have a 'fair usage policy' implemented from Q3 2010.
A fair usage policy allows Etisalat to set a threshold within which you can download data, beyond this you get charged extra. It is unclear what the actual limit will be and how it will be enforced/monitored however it is considered to be 100GB/month.
To put all this in simpler terms, this limit would mean the fastest eLife package (30mbps) would only allow you to download at full speed continuously for around 6 hours--for the rest of the month you would be charged extra.
Using the 30mbps connection beyond Etisalat's fair usage policy at full speed would incur charges of around 25 dirhams per 3 minutes.
The excess rate per GB is extremely high (25 AED/GB or 6.8 USD/GB)-- to give an example of the cost
-if I were to download a legally purchased game beyond my allocated data rate I might incur a fee of 200 AED
-4 TV shows via itunes would cost around 25 AED
-2 hour HD movie via itunes would cost around 100 AED
If you just use the internet just for checking your email and facebook none of this will probably matter to you, however, given increased usage of the internet as a game/movie/tv show marketplace these data limits will probably affect people in the near future.
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12 comments:
Always look a gift horse in the mouth.
If it's Etisalat, take a dentist with you.
Time to get FUPed up people!!
Ack! Thanks for the public-service announcement, samuraisam. Much appreciated.
Thanks for putting it in terms I can understand.
I'll take the price reduction for a 100 GB cap.. unfortunately Du won't match the offer.
How many people actually go over 100GB? That's 20+ dvd-rips.
anonymous: yeah it may be 22 dvd-rips if that's your thing, however this is the year 2010 and we actually buy stuff through the internet nowadays.
Just through games I've legally purchased through steam this month alone, I've used about 21GB of data. If my computer blew up and I had to redownload all my games it'd be like 300 GB or so.
Etisalat's main aim (as per their information page) is to stamp out bandwidth whores that download as much as humanly possible over their connection through bittorrent etc. If I'm legally purchasing stuff then they should stfu.
In any case take a modern family of 5-6, that's about 25 GB per person.
FWIW, I've used 170 GB on my 2mbps connection this month. If i had been using it flat out I could've downloaded 680 GB.
It's also ridiculous to apply bandwidth caps to a country that is trying to be an internet hub etc. and it's further ridiculous because they're making it the worlds first FTTH country.
And by the way people--this is your fault for sitting their thinking it'd be a smart idea to ask to get 2341234 mbps connections in the UAE.
Anyway, it only applies to the elife package so far, and hopefully they wont extend it to dedicated internet packages.
Hey der pple... well dunno bout u pple.. but i think dis whole elife package sux... 100GB cap is jus bullsh*t... i mean like samuraisam said.. if more dan 2 users use da same connection ur def. gonna cross 100Gb... and to da dude who said..its 20dvdrips.. in case u din kno.. .da 100GB download cap includes downloadin, browsing, you tube videos, hell even dis comment which im postin :P
anyways.. i had a 512Kbps connection n was honestly happy wid it cos well.. it was actually unlimited... but den i had to shift from sharjah to dubai n as per etisalat shitty rule u have to cancel da sharjah connection n re apply for a dubai connection.. now i thot id go der n apply for a 1MBps connection but guess wat ?.. new users.. ONLY Elife package ! no more al shamil.. i checked out da rashidiya office, al twar office and also da al khaleej center branch.. same response... even thot da stupid speed is temptin i dont want it cos of da stuiupid cap and plus der're forcin u to take only their MODEM which costs additional 300bux when i have a reely good Linksys modem.. .so yea im trapped.. .it seems der're plannin to use dis all over UAE in da coming months and discontinue Al Shamil.. in case any of u think im jus exageratin...il jus let u kno dat all dis i got straight from da customer service reps at Rashidiya and Al Khaleej center branch...
so now.. i have to pay more and use less... sux !
anyone got more info.. or if im incorrect... kindly lemme kno.. b4 i go ahead n take dis Elife thingy..
thanx
After reading this, I called Etisalat Customer care and queried about Fair usage policy. Customer care guy said that does is not applicable to me..(i am using 8mbps)... and the most funny thing he said is maybe the website link about fair usage policy is not updated .
I called the customer care, he told me right now its unlimited and there is a limits 100 gig 25 AED penalty of each 1 gig after the limit. but he don't know when they are gonna implement the fair usage policy.so right now unlimited and lets enjoy the moment, this is December update. let see what will be in January
Its unlimited.. i confirmed.. rules changed.. no 100 gb limit etc.. Updated and enjoy
Hi Anonymous,
Did you get it in writing or by phone / in person? If it's verbally, I would stay safe and monitor my usage carefully. You never know...
Data cap is still 100 GB, See the clarification for the new consumer laws (Going to publish in NOV 2012)
http://www.tra.gov.ae/download.php?filename=consultation/Etisalat%20Respons%20to%20the%20Draft%20Consumer_Protection_Regulation_EA%20comments.pdf
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