To everyone’s surprise, Alfa announced today that the Blackberry service is (back to) for 40USD with no additional charges (subject to F.U.P. 500MB).

Two theories here:

1. They actually responded to our demands (had endless referrals from webmail clients and a certain domain teehee, no the domain is NOT alfa.com.lb)
2. I heard a few times that MTC Touch will be releasing a new pricing/service for BB, 400MB at the same price instead of the usual 100MB.

Whatever the reason is, it felt good. I do hope that companies start listening to our demands, to offer real services, and just be closer to the consumers, it’s a simple rule, consumer happy=more business, business 101.

For the time being, thank you Alfa Telecom (managed by Orascom).

and for the reference,

the original post

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