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Omantel’s New Offer: Pay 99 Freaking Rials for Your Internet Connection

April 27th, 2008 | Posted in Uncategorized

I was not impressed by Omantel’s new broadband packages, they are ridiculously priced. Here is the breakdown for home packages:

  1. Package 1, connection speed 512Kbps, and 1baisa per MB @ RO 12.
  2. Pakage 2, connection speed 1Mbps, 2GB free bandwidth, and 1baisa per MB @ RO19.
  3. Package 3, connection speed 2Mbps, 5GB free bandwidth, and 1baisa per MB @ RO29.
  4. Package 4, connection speed 4Mbps, 10GB free bandwidth, and 1baisa per MB @ RO39.
  5. Package 5, connection speed 8Mbps, unlimited bandwidth @ RO 99!

NO MENTION WAS MADE ABOUT THE PRICE CAP, but I called just now to check and the guy who answered had no idea what the hell the price cap is, but said that the cap is still RO 39 for all packages PLUS the rental price (RO12 to RO39). (UNCONFIRMED, CHECK THIS POST)

The pricing of these packages is crazy, let’s not even talk about the 100 Rial package, I can’t imagine myself even just paying RO20 for 2GB of bandwidth. And are they trying to act all stupid with awain their “1 free email account included” – who the hell wants to be stuck using the ugly @omantel email or their buggy web based client? I also would not dare to install a random anti-virus software they are also ‘giving free with all packages’. Don’t they realise that the point of broadband connections is sharing the connection among many computers in the home, what is the point of giving a single anti-virus license.

The new packages of Omantel show us badly how much they enjoy their monopoly.

I can’t believe they dare to charge people RO 99 for an internet connection, I just can’t.

Why the hell don’t we have any other internet ISP in Oman yet?! This is absurd!!

PS. Not a lot of people know that internet connections are marketed using ‘bit’ speeds and not ‘byte’ speeds. The small ‘b’ is for bit and the capital ‘B’ is for byte. People who work at Omantel do not even know that (just confirmed that when I called now). This means that a 512Kbps means 64KBps, so a 600KB file will take about 6 seconds to download. A 8Mbps connection speed equals 1MBps, that is ONE Mega Byte per second and not EIGHT Mega Bytes per second.

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  • Undercover Dragon
    Omanhell ... I prefer Nawras. I often get close to 1800kbs as measured by speedtest.


    Yes, the lack of a cap is a potential problem, but I'm obviously not downloading enough movies because I've yet to hit the 10GB limit. And of course, Nawras have to go through Omanhell's servers anyhow, by law. A friend there said they could get 10x the bandwidth via the UAE for 1/10 the price they pay to Omantel right now...



    But the main thing I like about Nawras is I'm giving less money to Omantel.
  • Blue Chi
    The thing about Nawras is that there is no cap on the usage. So you can easily end up paying hundreds of rials for your internet if you download a lot of movies and stuff.
  • Yasir
    thanx for the ps about the Byte and bit ! i wouldnt have known this !
    how does this compare to the nawras service ?

    im stuck with the usual broadband connection and im not satisfied at all but im not sure wether if its a wise decision to switch to nawras or not !?
  • Kishor Cariappa
    Thanks for the info on 'bit' and 'byte'. Looking at the ads in the morning, I was almost like 16Mbps, WOW! Oman badly needs another ISP to set things in order!
  • muscati
    The problem with Omantel is that they are obsessed with comparing their prices with competitors in neighboring countries. If you complain to someone in their management he would most likely reply with "we are cheaper than Etisalat". I also blame our government for not having a national policy/strategy on connectivity which forces Omantel to provide affordable broadband to all households.
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