Showing posts with label Zain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zain. Show all posts

Saturday, June 15, 2019

5G in Kuwait

Kuwait officially kicks off 5G network today - 15th June 2019. This comes after the Pilot operation of the fifth generation mobile operator networks completed successfully their trials. The chairman and CEO of the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) Engineer Salem Al-Ozainah announced on 28th May 2019. (CLICK HERE to read the official article).

CITRA has approved the additional spectrum in the existing LTE frequency range and new millimeter wave bands (24-86 GHz), which can support data rates of up to 20 gigabits per second. (CLICK HERE to read the official article).

What does it all mean for Kuwait? First and foremost 5G for Kuwait means faster internet speed. For now (15/06/2019), all three network operators will be matching their packages, approximately KD 45 per month for 1 TB of data along with providing a 5G compatible Router.

CITRA has been keeping a watchful eye over the whole 5G network subject and its operators. On 17/06/2019, CITRA reminded all the operators of the commitments they made with the Regulatory in the year 2014 & 2015 about fair market competitions and pricing. More options were brought in the picture with amount options of KD 25 and KD 26 monthly with 2 year commitments with lower data packages.






CITRA
(Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority)
Instagram: citrakuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: CitraKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: citrakuwait (CLICK HERE)
Service phone number: 125

Zain
(Previously MTC)
Company Name: Mobile Telecommunication Company
HASHTAG #5Gzain
Instagram: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 107

Ooredoo
(Previously Wataniya)
Company Name: National Mobile Telecommunication Company
HASHTAG #Ooredoo5G
Instagram: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 121

Viva
Company Name: Kuwait Telecom Company
Instagram: VivaTelecom (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: VivaTelecom (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: VivaQ8 (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 102

Related Articles

CLICK HERE to see the previous post on 'Kuwait's ambition for High Speed Internet'.
CLICK HERE to see the previous post on 'Internet in Kuwait'

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Kuwait's ambition for High Speed Internet

Kuwait's thirst for faster internet speed has been growing. All the Service providers are moving in that direction, be it Fiber Optic cables or 5G networks. CLICK HERE to read the article about projects being executed towards that direction.

Ministry of Communication has been upping their game with Fiber Optic cable replacements of older cable networks in existing cities and installation of fiber optics in all newer cities. This is already helping in increasing the current 10 -14 Mbps to even more higher speed of 50-100 Mbps speeds. Current internet plans by the different Internet Service Providers (ISP) are as below (as of 5th January 2019).

With the Landline ISPs moving ahead in the game, the Mobile ISPs have also been eyeing the 5G networks,  with current speeds of 21 Mbps to 42 Mbps being provided on the 4G networks. Lots of Offer packages are out on all of ISPs.

CLICK HERE for the previous posts about the Internet in Kuwait.

Internet Service Providers of Kuwait

Quality Net
Instagram: qualitynet_q8 (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: qualitynet_q8 (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: QualityNetkw (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1808888 , 1804444

FastTelco
Instagram: fasttelco (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: fasttelco (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: FASTtelco (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1886666

KEMS
Instagram: kemsinternet (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: KEMSinternet (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: KEMSinternet (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1822822

BOnline
(previously Gulfnet)
Instagram: bonlinekw (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: bonlinekw (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: bonlinekw (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1816666

Mada
Instagram: mada_kuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: Mada_Kuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: Mada.Kuwait (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1822888

BWireless
(previously WiMD)
Instagram: bwirelesskw (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: bwirelesskw (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: BWirelesskw (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 1800055

Zain
(Previously MTC)
Instagram: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: zainkuwait (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 107

Ooredoo
(Previously Wataniya)
Instagram: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: OoredooKuwait (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 121

Viva
Instagram: VivaTelecom (CLICK HERE)
Twitter: VivaTelecom (CLICK HERE)
Facebook: VivaQ8 (CLICK HERE)
Customer Care: 102

UPDATES (01/10/2019): OCTOBER 2019



Thursday, March 7, 2013

SkyFall - Base Jumping off Al Hamra in Kuwait

Photo Courtesy to Camco Global Events
First and foremost, this has nothing to do with James Bond 007, except the thrill of jumping-off the top from Kuwait Tallest Skyscraper - Al Hamra Tower. It stands tall at 412.6 meters and is the tallest sculpted (stone clad structure / fully concreted) tower in the world. Yes, Kuwait holds this record. Now, to find someone daring enough to leap off this structure and be the first one in Kuwait to pull off base jumping from any skyscraper in Kuwait is organised and masterminded by Camco Global Events (Their Insatgram Page). As the statement by the event organiser go "Chris McDougall World Champion & Record Holder B.A.S.E Jumper is leaping off Al Hamra Tower". This person is famous for his base jumping and wingsuit flying. 

The important information about the event are as follows:
Date: 8th March 2013
Time: 1 pm Kuwait Time (10 am  GMT)
Location: Al Hamra Tower, Sharq, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Hint to getting to Location: Look for the tallest structure on the Kuwait Skyline and move towards it.
For information on the parking, and which roads next to Al Hamra Towers will be closed, CLICK HERE, Camco Events uploaded the information on their Instagram site. Instagram CamcoEvents, Instagram Al Hamra Tower.

Sponsors for this event are many (as seen the image above), Domino's Pizza (Hope they are giving out free pizza's during the jump), don't get me started with Zain - other than them having one of their outlets in Al Hamra.

Al Hamra Tower, Photo Courtesy to Wikipedia


Other Blogs that mentioned about SkyFall414 are below:
Updated: Video uploaded by Youtube user Kevin Barco. Click Here for Youtube link or watch below
Updated: Video Uploaded by Youtube user & Base Jumper Chris McDougall. Click Here for Youtube Link or watch below. You will get a first person perspective.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Infoconnect 2013 - Jan 27

Courtesy to www.waw.cc
The Infoconnect exhibition will be starting on the 27th January 2013 with the opening ceremony being exclusively for VIPs. Click HERE to enter the official site. A whole week of this exhibition in Hall No 6 and 7 of Kuwait International Fair Ground in Mishref is definitely a place to check out. I am hoping for some amazing offers to be kicking in, be it the telecommunication, internet services or hardware. Usually the telecom companies Zain, Wataniya and Viva go all out during the exhibition making it the most happening place.

The timings for the week from Monday to Thursday will be 9 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 9 pm. Friday 4 pm to 10 pm. One of my personal suggestions would be that people should check out the parking spaces for Hall no 6 and 7; and also the different entry and exits for the Kuwait International Fair grounds in the coming weeks, so that they can have less discomfort during the exhibition days as this is the cold and rainy season in Kuwait. The exhibition is to be closing down by 2nd February 2013. Update: Some photos from the Infoconnect Exhibition can be seen below.

















Monday, March 5, 2012

Zain Flash Mob - Avenue Mall

A trend that has been growing all around the world over the internet and especially seen on Youtube. Flash Mobs popping up in city after city all around the world. Kuwait shows it is not behind in this trend. The flash mob completely organised by the Telecom Operator Zain kicked off in the largest mall in Kuwait - Avenue Mall. The official video can be seen below or on Youtube which has been uploaded by Zain. Already the video has 2.2 million views in the last 2 weeks. The new video uploaded by Zain is the making of the Zain Flash Mob (Behind the scene) which has been uploaded on 3rd March 2012. Many believe that the making of the flash mob will surpass the official video. Both the videos are shown below. Hope you enjoy as the singing and dancing has Kuwaiti touch to it.


Thursday, March 1, 2012

Internet in Kuwait

This has been one topic which I wanted to write about or atleast let people know of. This post is not going to highlight anything new but will summarize some of the things. 2012 brought the number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) down from 5 to 4 for Wired Connectivity.

The above 4 companies have been recently given licence by Ministry of Communication (MoC) for a period of two years for a fees of 250,000 KD (Kuwaiti Dinars). Also along with that, the ISPs were asked to reduce the prices by 40% bringing the internet to some tempting prices. This reduction of price was introduced quiet early (mid 2011) but many existing customers did not know about it until the Infoconnect 2012 exhibition held in Jan-Feb 2012. I doubled my speed after paying a small difference with the new price list. The prices list for all the above 4 ISPs are amazingly similar varying only by 1 KD in most cases. People term this as Monopolization. The above wired internet connectivity is still the most economical for people if one has landline.

Wireless Internet connectivity is slightly new to Kuwait but still not that popular as it is not known to many. Here is a blog post which gives you good idea about the Kuwait experience and price list. I really did enjoy Wireless Internet connectivity experience when I was in India, Bangalore. It was newly introduced into India in January 2007 and I became a testing customer. I had a 3 months of unstable up-down connection till the technical team could figure out the in and out of the technology. During that time, I still hanged onto the wired internet. In India, the wireless internet is not that far off in price when comparing to the wired internet connectivity. In Kuwait, the two companies handling this is WiMD and MADA.

The telecom internet companies are Zain, Wataniya and Viva. They are competing against each other for customers in varieties of products from

  • Mobile Internet for iphones, blackberrys and other smartphones.
  • Single User internet (USB devices)
  • Multi User Internet (Routers - Battery operated to standalone routers)
The telecom networks are still going to have a lot of challenge as they keep jumping the speed. Started with 256kbps to 512 kbps to 7.2 mbps to 21.6 mbps. I just hope that the network backbone can hold up as people in Kuwait are hungry for speed. Look into this blog post for a clearer picture.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Incoming calls on Mobiles FREE

With the VIVA network being activated on 3rd December 2008, the competetion has been started. Along with Viva, the other 2 networks, Zain and Wataniya have made incoming calls FREE. That is calls being received from other Cell networks, landlines and International calls are going to be Free (No charges are going to be applied). This has come as a relief for many people as they used to avoid receiving landlines. Now with this offer, people planning to make calls from their cellphones can grab their nearest landline phones and make calls to mobiles. This will help people on minimising their phone bills. I am sure more offers are on the way with the 3 networks competeting each other.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Exact 8 digit phone numbers

The exact range of 7 digit numbers have been mentioned below in ascending order along with the network they belong to. The 8th digit should be prefixed based on the following:
9 should be added to all Zain numbers which belong to MTC (Mobile Telecommunication Company).
6 should be added to all Wataniya numbers which belong to Wataniya Telecom.
2 should be added to all Landline numbers which belong to MoC (Ministry of Communication).
1 should be added to all Commercial numbers that is Hotline 6 digit numbers (This also belongs to MoC).

800000 - 899999 Commercial Numbers 6 digit Hotline numbers
1000000 - 3999999 Landline
4000000 - 4099999 Zain
4100000 - 4399999 Landline
4400000 - 4499999 Zain
4500000 - 5009999 Landline
5010000 - 5029999 Wataniya
5030000 - 5049999 Landline
5050000 - 5099999 Wataniya
5100000 - 5199999 Wataniya
5200000 - 5499999 Landline
5500000 - 5509999 Wataniya
5510000 - 5539999 Landline
5540000 - 5599999 Wataniya
5600000 - 5699999 Landline
5700000 - 5709999 Wataniya
5710000 - 5779999 Landline
5780000 - 5799999 Wataniya
5800000 - 5899999 Wataniya
5900000 - 5999999 Wataniya
6000000 - 7019999 Wataniya
7020000 - 7029999 Zain
7030000 - 7090000 Wataniya
7100000 - 7199999 Zain
7200000 - 7299999 Zain
7300000 - 7399999 Zain
7400000 - 7499999 Zain
7500000 - 7599999 Zain
7600000 - 7699999 Zain
7700000 - 7769999 Wataniya
7780000 - 7799999 Wataniya
7800000 - 7899999 Zain
7900000 - 7999999 Zain
8000000 - 8999999 Landline
9000000 - 9999999 Zain