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How’s Broadband Status here in Riyadh?

Posted on January 2, 2008
Filed Under Broadband, DSL, Internet, Riyadh | Leave a Comment

Five years ago, Internet here in Saudi Arabia is much more like the others. Still, dial up through 56k modem is the main gateway through the internet. Prepaid cards then were sold for 20 Riyals for 20 hours. I think we also pay for additional charges through our telephone bill.

Three months ago, I came back here in Riyadh and was surprised that there are already a lot of broadband users. Yes, I saw them because they are connected through WIFI. But then ISPs rate are expensive excluding the devices. And down speed is slow compared to my connection, myDestiny, in the Philippines. I am not connected directly to the modem because I am using wifi but still I experience slow connectivity and intermittent connection. The access point is in the room above our flat.

I am still trying to convince my father to get us a broadband connection. In that way, I can test whether broadband here in Riyadh is really slow. Anyways, thanks to our neighbors for their wireless connection.

By the way, Another thing that I noticed is that their wireless connections are not secured. And if it’s secured, most of them are using WEP encryption which is more vulnerable to hackers.

The good: Lots of unsecured wireless connection, free wifi, a very kind neighbor.(grins)

The bad: Expensive subscription, down and up speed, lots of blocked sites.