First things first: Fuck you!
Now, when Alfa Telecom (managed by Orascom) released their Blackberry service, they offered an unlimited local data plan and a F.U.P. of 500MB. the whole service at 44USD including V.A.T. so far so good.
But to everyone’s surprise, today they announced that the data plan is unlimited at 200MB and every extra 1MB might be charged 1USD. what the fuck?
unlimited? at 200mb? it’s not unlimited!
Dear Alfa Telecom (fucked up by Orascom), here is the definition of unlimited (Merriam-Webster)
un·lim·it·ed
Pronunciation: \-ˈli-mə-təd\
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century
1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted <unlimited access>
2 : boundless, infinite <unlimited possibilities>
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined <the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy — Sir Winston Churchill>
so, my dear Alfa Telecom (Managed by Orascom who caught the Lebanese way of doing business and deceiving, it took you some time!) please change the unlimited to “limited to 200mb” and “we will definitely charge you 1USD for each extra 1MB”
“For local usage with a fair usage policy of 200MB. Alfa reserves the right to charge $1 for each extra MB exceeding 200 MB for personal usage or 100MB for commercial or non personal usage. All applications operating on the BlackbBerry® handset should be authorized by RIM.”
I doubt that ATMO (alfa telecom managed by orascom) will feel generous and NOT use their right to charge a 1USD for “each extra MB”
How do they expect people to invest in this country when it is mandatory these days to have proper data connections?
A 3GB 3.5G HSDPA plan in Syria will cost you 33USD. I miss them, I am gonna move there. (for 44$ I get a 512kb dsl connection with 4 GB plan from shitty Cyberia/Ogero)
and for 35USD you can get a 5GB GPRS plan from Orange Jordan (56USD for an unlimited data plan).
Our telecommunication infrastructure in Lebanon is nothing but a JOKE!
Edit: A post related to Alfa/BB after they changed the policy again
by ZuZ
19 Jan 2010 at 14:06
It appears that the main reason of this whole fuckup was to convert the biggest number of prepaid users to postpaid!! And I think they pulled it off!
G u switched ur phone line right?
by Soupy
19 Jan 2010 at 14:10
Going to disable it and switch to MTC, just to make a stupid statement
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by ZuZ
19 Jan 2010 at 14:17
Not stupid at all..
don’t worry am fucking with mtc as we speak, and getting revenge for u with the 800mb + traffic I’m sucking monthly with my 5$ unlimited wap..
Got some gossip that Charbel Nahas will follow up with the issue shortly! We both already know it’s just empty words bas it will be interesting to hear how he’ll explain this shit!
by Woody
19 Jan 2010 at 14:18
FUCK YOU ALFA!
BEST THING IS TO GET THE SATELLITE PHONE THURAYA AND USE IT! FUCK LEBANESE OPERATORS!
by Soupy
19 Jan 2010 at 14:24
If they mentioned on the Blackberry page that prices and policy is subject to change without any prior notice, it would be a bit bearable. But they NEVER mentioned that.
As for Mr Nahas explaining this shit, lemme use my “michel hayek” powers: “the network couldn’t handle all the bandwidth, the government is blah blah blah blah, to ensure that we offer a good service (good if it was offered in 1546 B.C.) we had to give a new definition for unlimited (200MB) and charge 1MB for every extra MB IF WE FEEL LIKE IT.
they hold the “right to charge 1$ for every extra MB” I wonder if it’s handmade from genuine leather and Armani designed it!
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by Mouse
19 Jan 2010 at 14:45
I loved the way you are tutoring the concept of UNLIMITED ! with the whole pronunciation thingy! amazingly ironic! So you ! :D
by Liliane
19 Jan 2010 at 15:09
they suck
by Hussam
20 Jan 2010 at 01:01
So typical of the Lebanese government to screw us over for some extra $$$. That’s fucked up. Will be working with Zuz to drain the unlimited $5 WAP connection on our iphones. W huh!!
by johnny
21 Jan 2010 at 06:53
Just cancel your contracts/stop using the service, they’re just exploiting the blackberry craze and the show off mentality
by Soupy
21 Jan 2010 at 14:30
That’s the plan. Before they messed it up, it was 500MB BB service for 44$ where 250MB GPRS is at 27.5$, so it was the logical thing to go with the 500MB. simple figures dude.
by Super Biatr
22 Jan 2010 at 04:57
About Unlimited*:when you saw any advertising with Star (*) above words this mean you should refer to explanation to the bottom of Advertising in small font size letters.And this what happens with alfa and with others just to attract customers.Who do not know.
by Soupy
22 Jan 2010 at 10:27
I am going to consider that you are joking.
The whole thing was available in the “fine print” (the small font size letters) stating that it’s 500mb with F.U.P. We found out that it changed to 200MB with 1$ for every extra MB, because again, we read the “small font size letters” AKA fine print. And they didn’t mention in the “small font size letters” AKA fine print that they have the right to change the pricing whenever they want without any prior notice (this is what professional companies do). Hence why we got angry about the whole BB policy. But it’s all good know.
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