TRA 2015

TRA in 2009 (on the topic of Skype):

"I don't see the TRA being anti-consumer," he said. "We opened up the market. We are trying to protect consumers. The TRA is a government agency. We have wider issues to worry about. Consumers only have their own concern to worry about." (source: http://gulfnews.com/business/telecoms/tra-denies-anti-consumer-charge-1.266598)

TRA in 2015 (on the topic of actual consumer protection):

"The TRA had said last year that as of May 18, only 55,555 mobile numbers had been successfully transferred out of 190,185 requests submitted in the first five months of the mobile number portability service’s availability. 

The regulator also said that the 134,222 rejected applications included some that had been resubmitted more than once by the holder of the number. 

In yesterday’s statement, the TRA said that a joint team would be formed comprising the TRA and the operators “to find appropriate solutions to customer complaints”.  (source: http://www.thenational.ae/business/telecoms/uae-telecoms-regulator-steps-up-oversight-into-customer-complaints)

Given that it is 2015 and du and Etisalat still do not have any real interconnection between their broadband networks (i.e. 0 competition) and given that roughly two thirds of all mobile portability (i.e. Etisalat>du or du>Etisalat) are failing (i.e. roughly one third competition), has the TRA really done a good job of worrying about the "wider issues" thus far?

Alert! SMS alert

"SMS [this code] to [this number]", they say. What they don't often say is how much that SMS is going to cost.

One of my friends has recently discovered a potentially rather expensive yet legal scam in the UAE. Quoting him:

"...take care with those 'Stop receiving SMS by texting (a 4 digit number)' messages - Etisalat will charge you up to 30dhs for the privilege! Most orchestrated by a 'ghost' company in DIC (Cellhub Ltd) whose number doesn't work and whose web presence is empty - the word 'collusion' comes to mind...

and

"...and to find out who owns any of these mysterious 4 digit numbers you have to call another Etisalat number - charged at 3dhs a minute - they'll initially hang straight up (to bank 3dhs) and if you're daft (or annoyed) enough to call back, they'll keep you on for an average of 8 mins (yes, tried it!) and then tell you they can't help and you should call 101 (the guys who told you to call them originally!) - geez - and all this is legal!"

I've not been able to verify the above claims independently, but please beware.

All services offering SMS communications that cost the user a premium (radio stations, advertisers, etc) should be required to state every time precisely how much the message is going to cost.

]}:-{>

Etisalat Efficiency

I'm sure everyone here has ventured to Mall of the Emirates and seen the 50 meter deep queues at Etisalat's outlet.

The majority of these are people paying bills. Bills that could be paid on an electronic kiosk or through an ATM or through the internet. Does Etisalat think to provide electronic kiosks to cut down the queues? No.

Even for a simple transaction like cancelling a 49 AED / month service Etisalat offers no method of achieving this this via the internet or phone; they insist customers drive to an Etisalat office or outlet.

The best question of all... Is why Etisalat has an outlet immediately outside Virgin Megastores and another one immediately inside Virgin Megastores. They both have practically the same amount of staff, are about the same size, and are both just about as useful (i.e. not useful) as one another.

It's a great feeling walking past the 50 meter queue outside to the 10 meter queue inside. I'm not even exaggerating, I've been doing this since they opened this outlet and it works every time. I save countless hours every time I do this, having said this I still waste 30 minutes waiting for the inside counter to be able to serve 3 customers.

Of course, no one should be surprised by this high level of efficiency coming from a company that couldn't notice someone pinching their pockets for two entire years.

Blackberry dumbphones

Assuming the BlackBerry ban isn't mere saber rattling, is it not disgusting that consumers will have to bear the costs of the TRA's decision to ban BlackBerry services?

Not only the cost of devices, but for companies and individuals to swap over to different devices?

It is absolutely not enough that the TRA require du and Etisalat to provide services in place of devices we've all already paid for;

"Both telecommunications operators – Etisalat and du – were informed of the decision earlier today. The notification was delivered with an instruction to ensure minimal consumer disruption in the provision of alternative services." (from www.tra.ae)

So where are the calls from Etisalat and du arranging delivery of our new phones that haven't had their feature-list suddenly cut in half overnight?

If this all turns out to be a failed attempt by the TRA to try and force RIM to co-operate with ridiculous laws who will refund consumers that went and bought new devices in the belief that BlackBerry services would be banned?

Given the absolutely atrociously ridiculous cost of on-the-fly 3G data in the UAE we're all going to end up "forking over yet another ton of money to Etisalat and du once again" (so common that we can henceforth abbreviate it to FOY-ATOM-TEA-DOA)

Also, at a time like this, let us not lose sight of the General Policy for the Telecommunications Sector in the State of the United Arab Emirates:

"3.3 Become the Regional ICT Hub
The Government will support the development of the UAE as a regional ICT and telecommunications hub by:
[...]
3. Ensuring a secure environment in telecommunication applications and usage, including information security and network security, authentication, privacy and consumer protection by developing Policies and Regulatory Framework for this subject."

So to ensure that the UAE becomes a regional ICT Hub by "ensuring a secure environment", the TRA's grandmaster plan is to ban anything that is a secure environment?

With front page CNN, BBC, Slashdot, New York Times the UAE is sure set to become the regional ICT hub in about minus 8000 years. What will the TRA find reason to block tomorrow in its continuous quest to 'protect consumers'? Skype?

Is it little wonder companies like Skype have set up shop in Bahrain and not the UAE?

Will the TRA use this extremely sound reasoning:

Blackberry data is immediately exported off-shore, where it is managed by a foreign, commercial organization. Blackberry data services are currently the only data services operating in the UAE where this is the case. (from www.tra.ae

to start blocking services which are managed overseas and are encrypted like Gmail? Will the TRA start outlawing all encrypted communications including https websites so we can no longer use banking facilities in a secure manner?

Etisalat, eLife and unfair marketing practices

I called Etisalat this afternoon regarding their eLife services which I have posted about previously and have come to some interesting conclusions. Most of all the information provided on their website and the wording that they have chosen, as well as the unavailability of proper information appears to be unfair for consumers.

The information Etisalat offers is as follows:

• There will be a 100 GB LIMIT on the UNLIMITED eLife packages
• They claim that it is under test and have no idea when it will be implemented
• They have no idea how it will be implemented (i.e. what happens after bandwidth limit)
• They have no idea of what the costs associated with such a limit would be

How are consumers meant to make informed decisions with their purchases when Etisalat is holding back information in such a way? Especially when eLife is offered with a 12 month contract.

Technically speaking Etisalat is offering an unlimited connection at this moment, however they have already previously mentioned things like fair usage policies and such on their website which they have since removed which is a little bit more than suspicious (in that it seems they are trying to make customers purchase an 'unlimited' connection on a 12 month contract that is going to be limited in the near future while making no solid information available).

At the moment there is no actual mention of any limitations at all on their website and this information is only available via phone; there is one webpage regarding the FUP (fair usage policy) however it is no longer linked to anywhere on the site and it makes no mentions of prices or any technical or solid information whatsoever.

I particularly find it interesting that the TRA is always so adamant about 'protecting consumers' when it comes to Skype or security threats on BlackBerry Messenger, but don't seem to do much of anything when it comes to actual consumers. Their policies make for interesting reading...

"2.1 Price Transparency Before Service Offering
2.1.1 Prior to offering service to consumers, licensees shall disclose the
following:
(a) all prices that may apply, including deposits and pre-payments;

(Taken from TRA Price Transparency Policy)   

Etisalat had no idea when I called what the prices of additional bandwidth would be. Which means they are offering a service to customers without being able to inform customers of what pricing will actually be. This means that Etisalat is not being transparent in their pricing.

"2.2.2 When a Licensee offers a service which is priced per a certain number of usage units or in another similar manner, that Licensee shall provide the functionality for consumers to know their available units."

(Taken from TRA Price Transparency Policy)   

Etisalat does not currently offer any method for tracking bandwidth usage. To be fair they do not actually have a bandwidth limit yet, however if they are offering people a service that will be limited in the near future it would be considered fair to provide consumers with this service right now so they may ascertain the accuracy and functionality of such a service and also tailor their internet usage to fit any future limits.

"2.3 General Publication Requirements
2.3.1 Licensees shall publish, in a form easily available to consumers,
the prices for its services offered to consumers.
2.3.2 The information shall be published in a manner that is up-to-date
and easy to understand.
2.3.3 Where Licensees make more than one service offer for the same
service, they shall make available the prices in a manner that enables
consumers to compare the various offers.
2.3.4 Licensees shall provide a means for consumers to contact licensees
for further price information."

(Taken from TRA Price Transparency Policy)   

"2.1 No marketing communication or practice shall, or be likely, to mislead, confuse or deceive consumers by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise."

(Taken from TRA Marketing and Communications Policy)   

Etisalat's elife packages are displayed on their website as UNLIMITED yet are going to be LIMITED.
I ask you, is it "easy to understand" or "accurate" when a service is offered as unlimited when it is actually going to be limited?



The dictionary definition of unlimited for those of you who are interested:

"un·lim·it·ed

 [uhn-lim-i-tid] 

–adjective

1.

not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade.

2.

boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.

3.

without any qualification or exception; unconditional."

The usage of the term 'unlimited' in telecommunications marketing has already proven contentious in other countries, yet the TRA has taken no action against Etisalat for it.

"11.1 References to prices, services, terms and conditions, or comparisons thereof, shall be clear and transparent and shall not mislead or deceive or be likely to mislead or deceive consumers."

(Taken from TRA Marketing and Communications Policy)

Obviously when Etisalat uses the language 'unlimited' consumers are going to be mislead into believing they are paying for an internet connection without limits when it will in fact have limits. 

"2.3 Any footnotes or disclaimers in marketing communications or practices
shall be readily visible and legible, audibly apparent and understandable
and shall not contradict, materially qualify or otherwise alter the basis of
the communication or practice."

(Taken from TRA Marketing and Communications Policy)

This limit is mentioned nowhere on their website. The only specific terms and conditions that I could find was a simple "terms and conditions apply" which appeared to be in reference a special offer, Etisalat did not expand upon the terms and conditions for that promotion on their website. Etisalat's terms and conditions PDF makes absolutely no mention of any future bandwidth limitations or fair usage policy and does not fairly warn consumers of what they may end up paying.

"8.1 Marketing communications and practices shall not exploit the credulity,
lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers."

(Taken from TRA Marketing and Communications Policy)

This last part is what it all comes down to. Etisalat is offering a service which will be limited in the future and is not making adequate information available to consumers, furthermore, consumers who are not technically savvy will not understand the implementation of a fair usage policy on a connection that is described as "unlimited", especially when Etisalat has made little effort to inform customers of what the actual fair usage policy is and provide any solid information. Their usage of the term "UNLIMITED" is a sham and is deceiving and taking advantage of consumers who will be caught unaware when the fair usage policy is introduced. (Etisalat has already previously written on their site that the fair usage applies which would mean some customers believe the FUP is in effect when it currently isn't and this would be detrimental to people wanting to use their connection freely without fear of incurring extra costs)

Etisalat also refuses to offer telephone and internet services under seperate billing with eLife. I have read reports online of Etisalat forcing customers to abandon their Al Shamil internet service (which is just an internet service and does not include telephone connections) and this in itself is alarming. I have also been told by Etisalat's 101 number that some Etisalat business centers are no longer offering Al Shamil at all.

6.2.5 Anti-competitive bundling or tying – bundling or tying products or services offered in Relevant Markets, and which by doing so does or may restrict, prevent, or distort competition in one or more of those Relevant Markets or another Relevant Market;

(Taken from TRA Competition Safeguards Policy)

This means, hypothetically, if you moved house and only had eLife and no traditional copper services you would have to purchase phone and internet from your ISP (in a bundle) and would have no method to subscribe to each individually. Given the upcoming interconnection between Etisalat and Du this would mean a very anti-competitive situation in which you may have to purchase two phone lines to get better offers from different providers.

EDIT: It appears based upon information on du's website and their customer support line they are doing the same forced phone/internet bundling with their 'real broadband' packages.
du said on the phone that they have no information about what would be available (i.e. whether seperate telephone/internet connections would be offered) when the interconnection starts.

This potentially means (as a worst case scenario) at the start of the upcoming interconnection (apparently in a few weeks?) will leave customers already in 12 month contracts unable to usefully purchase individual services from other providers without doubling up on services they already have, although lets see what happens.

du and Etisalat's "real broadband" / eLife packages both come with 12 month contracts. For me as an Etisalat customer this is a problem. If I were to hypothetically sign up for eLife tomorrow, and then du made phone lines available in my area in 6 months time I would be disadvantaged for wanting to use the competitors services because I am in a 12 month contract that forcefully bundles both phone and internet services.

Additionally, du also said on the customer support line that there is no bandwidth limit on their 'real broadband' packages, they have also stated on twitter that there is no fair usage policy.

"6.2.9 Anti-competitive customer lock-in - locking-in customers through unduly long-term contracts, and which by doing so does or may restrict, prevent, or distort competition in a Relevant Market;"

(Taken from TRA Competition Safeguards Policy)

"2.1.2 Where a service is packaged with another service and/or product, licensees shall inform consumers of the price they would pay if they obtained that service and/or product from licensees separately and of any additional conditions or restrictions that apply."

(Taken from TRA Price Transparency Policy)   

What can you do? There are other TRA policies that do hopefully protect the consumer;

   

2.2.4 Licensees shall notify consumers individually, at least twenty-eight (28) calendar days prior to any price increase or any change that has the effect of a price increase.
2.2.5 Licensees shall offer consumers the opportunity to terminate their contracts without penalties before an increase in prices takes effect.

(Taken from TRA Price Transparency Policy)   

This means that when Etisalat changes their price they must announce it to consumers and you have the right to discontinue services without incurring any penalty for terminating your contract. However, as Etisalat seems intent on preventing people from making separate subscriptions to telephone/internet/etc you may find yourselves out of options in a country that supposedly doesn't have a telecommunications monopoly anymore.

SMS spam in the UAE finally coming to an end

Mobile phone users in the UAE can now opt out of annoying text message spam, after a ruling from the Telecommunications Regulations Authority (TRA).

Prompted by the anger of millions of mobile phone customers at their days being interrupted by unwanted text message offers of reduced prices at the local supermarket, membership deals at the country club and, perhaps most annoying of all, a bargain text-messaging plan from their mobile service provider, the TRA has brought in a regulation that users must be able to block text spam.

Mohammed al Ghanim, the director general of the regulator, said: “After receiving many complaints from customers about random marketing SMS messages, the TRA decided to introduce this new policy to curb the annoyance such messages cause,” said

After the announcement from the TRA, Etisalat said its customers could opt out of spam messages by texting “b etisalat” to 1011 without paying a penalty. Customers of du can text a blank message to 5293 to block all mobile spam.

Best part of article:
"It is not known whether either company intends to publicise this latest initiative with an SMS marketing campaign."

More here: Block on mobile phone spam for UAE users (The National)

Du, Etisalat, the TRA and the future

According to The National, Du is (finally) soon going to gain access to Etisalat's telecommunications network...

The telecommunications operator du is set to gain access to the network of its rival Etisalat within weeks, ushering in a fresh wave of competition in the phone, internet and television market.

If the move goes ahead as expected, UAE residents will finally have a choice of telecoms providers regardless of where they live.

Etisalat has a monopoly on traditional telephones, internet service and cable TV throughout most of the country, while du services a small area of Dubai that includes newer neighbourhoods such as Dubai Marina and Media City.

“Welcome to competition,” Farid Faraidooni, the chief commercial officer for du, said this week.

The development will be a boon to du, which has been able to offer UAE consumers only mobile and landline services because of regulatory and technical issues.

Here are my personal predictions for broadband internet access and telecommunications in general in the next 12-24 months:

• Du and Etisalat will begin a price war and heavily reduce the cost of their bundles (i.e. internet/tv/phone bundles) in a short timespan in an effort to gain market share.
  
• We will see impossibly ridiculous combinations of high-speed internet with low bandwidth (like Etisalat's connections that you can only use for 6 hours at full capacity in an entire month) In light of bandwidth increases for internet connections it is likely (and already on the way to happening) that we will see people having to pay for additional bandwidth through their teeth (like Telstra in Australia
  used to charge 465 AED per additional GB). Because of these bandwidth restrictions we will be 'heavily reliant' on content provided by Etisalat / Du.
  
• They will make it harder to individually purchase services (i.e. a separate internet or separate telephone connection) and harder to purchase services with no obligations.
  
• They will both introduce things like yearly contracts, ETF (early termination fees) and start ramping up the fees so we can enjoy full duopoly greatness; the contracts will make it hard for us to move between Etisalat and Du. You can already see that Du's new low priced, high speed connections have a 12 month contract with a 100 AED early termination fee (in my opinion this isn't too bad)
  
• While the price of telecommunications will seem to come down, we will all be at the mercy of contracts with our telephone companies and will end up paying heavily for breaching them.
  
• Skype will still be cheaper.
  
• The TRA will probably say "no comment"
  

(Of course this is in many cases a worst-case scenario prediction and is just a prediction so take it with a grain of salt. But please do ask Du and Etisalat as much as possible before signing anything and research whatever services you purchase as much as possible before agreeing to anything)

Etisalat data caps on ftth elife

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.

No more SMS to Australia

For some reason or another Etisalat and Telstra, Australia's largest telco have decided that their customers being able to SMS each other is somehow not a worthwhile service...

"In another amazing move in the telcommunications world Etisalat has, according to the customer service operator..."through mutual aggreement have discontinued SMS between Telstra and Etisalat indefinately, sorry for the inconvenience"

--more here

Link thanks to anon

FNC attacks internet-censorship loopholes

"The FNC report also blamed the TRA for failing to prevent the use of proxy software that allows people to bypass blocks on hundreds of websites classified as “forbidden”.

“There is also some software that allows downloading things without going through the filtering process,” said Sultan bin Hussein, a member from Umm al Qaiwain.

“Peer-to-peer software is not being blocked,” he said.

“We notice the effect of this problem in the crimes committed by children and violence among the youth. All of these crimes are influenced by the internet.”

Mr al Ghanim said it was not possible to block all “forbidden sites”.

“Companies that offer peer-to-peer services change their websites and there are thousands of them that keep changing,” he said. "

More here: Give us cheaper telecoms says FNC

Does anyone anticipate the TRA trying to block VPN's anytime soon?

You can read more about this at the Federal National Council website (google translate)

Google Earth blocked?

The Google Earth application appears to be blocked via Etisalat connections at the moment.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?


More here: http://www.pprune.org/middle-east/408823-google-earth-blocked.html

Thanks to anon for tip

Facebook... Big Brother again?

Can't access it. Not a computer issue or location issue. As far as I can tell Facebook access via Etisalat is down. Are they up to their block shenanigans again? Probably. I can confirm that it is possible to access Facebook in a roundabout way which I prefer not to elaborate on, so that suggests that there is no problem with Facebook itself.

Any New Dubai residents on the Du network care to comment? Are you guys still getting Facebook?

Etisalat talks back!

Update on the annoying Etisalat text message saga. The good thing is that I got a reply from Etisalat's Customer Care Centre by email the very next day. Somebody must have got the message (17 times)…

The bad news (in bad English) is that “In reference with your case, we would like to inform you currently there is no provision to block incoming SMS from Etisalat.”

Maybe I didn't clean my ears properly this morning but to me this sounds like an admission of providing an incomplete amateurish service.

But behold; apparently “a solution for your request is currently under development and you will be informed accordingly once the solution is developed and approved. We apologize for the inconvenience faced by you.”

Apology accepted. But I wonder just how long it will take them to develop a solution to the problem of blocking SMS from a particular source, because at the same time the message from the Customer Care Centre goes on to give me precise instructions on how to block SMS from a particular source:

“Note: To stop incoming message from the company, simply send the message b followed by the content provider's short code or name of the message sender to the number 1011. The message is "b (4 digit short code)" to 1011”

Etisalat's SMS do not show a short code, but a name. Although I completely trust Etisalat's admission of applying the blocking command to any other company but themselves, I thought I better check and immediately sent “b etisalat” to 1011.

“Sorry can’t process your command. Unknown request.”

facebook group

Funnily enough, someone has gone and created a new facebook group. It is called 'I bet I can find 1 million people who hate Etisalat spam text messages' and is open for membership now.

Dear Etisalat,

"PLEASE,

STOP SENDING ME TEXT MESSAGES IN ARABIC.

STOP SENDING ME TEXT MESSAGES IN ANY LANGUAGE.

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR PROMOTIONS.

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO TELL ME.

IF I WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING I WILL ASK YOU.

MY NUMBER IS 050-xxxxxxx.

REMOVE THIS NUMBER FROM YOUR SMS LIST.


Yours sincerely ..."


After receiving 8 unsolicited text messages this morning from Etisalat in Arabic I wrote *) the above message to Etisalat customer "care" email address. Let's see what happens now.

*) I sent the email 17 times.

.il (Israel) TLD unblocked?

Has anyone else found the Israeli TLD to be unblocked from the UAE?
On my Etisalat connection it seems to be open.

Here's a URL you can try it on: http://www.google.co.il/

Etisalat announces 30mbps

Etisalat has just announced 30mbps internet through FTTH connections.

"Available in the FTTH connected areas and priced at AED 699/month, the new 30 Mbps package will also be made available for existing customers in the FTTH coverage area, who are keen on upgrading their account."

...
"FTTH will also allow Etisalat to launch a much faster package of 100 Mbps in the coming months"

Is anyone else worried that we might face monthly bandwidth caps with the introduction of these higher speeds? (It happened in Bahrain with the Boycott Batelco movement in 2006)

UAE Blackberry story reaches BBC

It's not news, but the BBC seems to have a comprehensive report.

BBC:

The update was prompted by a text from UAE telecoms firm Etisalat, suggesting it would improve performance.

Instead, the update resulted in crashes or drastically reduced battery life.

Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) said in a statement the update was not authorised, developed, or tested by RIM.
...
In the statement, RIM told customers that "Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application... independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smartphone".

It adds that "independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server".
...
RIM has now issued its own update allowing users to remove the application.

unblock flickr

The TRA asked for our feedback and here it is:

As we sit on the eve of having the worlds biggest video sharing website cut to shreds by a 500 word long list of censored keywords, aside from the obvious questions like who was paid to sit and compile these 500 words and did they get paid for doing so, I think it is high-time to ask questions about another site that was blocked, then unblocked, the blocked again, and then unblocked again and then finally blocked completely across the UAE in which status it has remained for the past 2 years.

It is extremely unfortunate that the TRA, Etisalat and Du, can’t find a way to unblock Flickr so that it may be used again by people in the UAE. It also raises a question as to whether or not they have actually tried. The usual excuse for flickr’s block is as-usual completely redundant and as-usual ‘nudity’, it also as-usual relates to someone being a bit lazy.
According to Khaleej Times which claims to be quoting a TRA statement:

“It does not have the technical facility of blocking prohibited contents, and it cannot be partially blocked; where such facility is available on YouTube, Facebook and other similar sites.”

It sounds like someone from the TRA didn't actually check on anything before making that statement; images actually MUST be categorized on flickr as being safe, moderate or restricted. This affects whether they show up in searches or whether they are publicly accessible by someone without a flickr/yahoo account.

Funnily, this is a strikingly similar policy to Google images, deviantart and several other websites, yet all of them remain unblocked; infact by the same standard prohibited images are impossible to block via Google images yet that remains unblocked and flickr remains blocked.

Also interestingly enough is this paragraph on the flickr help section:

“Note: If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service so won’t be able to turn SafeSearch off. If your Yahoo! ID is based in Germany you are not able to view restricted content due to your local Terms of Service.”

I wonder how much effort has been put forward to have UAE-based id’s be unable to access adult material?
Anyone from the TRA care to chime in?
(braces for TRA/RTA/KHDA/RERA strategic response 101: “unavailable for comment”

Of course placing blame upon the TRA etc is one part of the problem, the other problem is you, yes you UAE-based internet users… You wouldn’t sit there and do nothing if facebook was blocked, yet when one of the largest photo websites on the internet gets blocked no one cares. Join this facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83349217846 and help get flickr unblocked in the UAE.

FTTH

No its not a new abuse, though seeing where the origin is, it just might open a whole new door to witty new phrases.

FTTH stands for Fibre-To-The-Home technology. Etisalat's latest offering to provide data, streaming and video services straight to the home with one optic fibre cable.

The boys were in today installing this fancy new thingybob, and it should be up and running in 2 months.

I would be a tad embarrassed to wear something with that on it though!