A fellow at WiredPakistan did some Googling and found that Pakistanis enjoy very in-expensive broadband internet when compared to other parts of world. Though there are instances in Pakistan, where customers are not happy with link or customer support at times, but guys this happens all over the world – whereever computer networks are involved, problems may come there.
For reference sake $20=PK Rs. 1600, $1=80.00 (Approximately)
9mbps for $45
1.5mbps for $30
768kbps for $20
1mbps for $18
3mbps for $28
Also some indian ISPs :
Tata Indico in mumbai
512kbps for INR 1850
1mbps for INR 3850
BSNL
512kbps for INR 1350
1Gbps for $56.50/mo
UK
8Mbit Unlimited: 13.50 pounds.
24Mbit Unlimited: 17.50 pounds.
Clearly, Pakistan’s ISPs are offering very competetive rates – with 1 MB link for Rs 1200 or 15$ is ofcourse a great deal.
yes dear;
im using DSL 512KB/s at Rs400/month. Much cheaper thn any other ISPs in the rest of the world.
but i have provide 1mb only 500 rs per month 1mb downloading speed and also 1mb uploading speed….
hmm i think u copied it from wiredpakistan.com forum i read this there 4 days a go and u put it exactly the same things
bro i mentioned it that i took this data from the forum
while i do apprecate current price cuts for high speed data, we must incorporate the fact that americans and rest of the countries compared have much more spending power than us. i believe we are comparing apple to oranges here.
in my opinion, prices need to go down even further to see higher adoption rates. secondly it isnt just about pricing, we know it for a fact that only about 500 k PTCL fixed lines can handle DSL, and we have almost used 50% of that capacity. so price war is imminent on DSL anyways. the real issue is bringing highspeed data network available to users across nation. wimax is a good option, but affordibility is a major concern. we already see wateen going into DSL services instead of further expansion of wimax. So my hopes are linked with 3G, offcourse after it becomes affordable for local consumers.
I don’t know where do you get your facts from, and if you bother to test it, but its utterly wrong just like the pakistani telco sector being cheapest as compared to US in an article on pro pakistani, but i guess i shouldn’t waste time this time. dig deep and you’d know how 1 mbps in pakistan is not even 1 mbps standard if we look at the door-to-door fibre optics technology and cable tunnel’s capacity.
Pakistan does not have that much expensive internet about which this post author is worry, Pakistan is a lot better in telecom and internet things compared to other 70% countries.
i personally believe that instead of doubling the speed they could have lowered the price of package. i mean instead of converting 512 to 1MB for 1200/-. it would have been better to lower the price of 512 package to 600 rupee. why ? the reasons are below.
1)- in USA or Europe one can easily earn 40-50 $ or euro per day (minimum) it means that he can afford highspeed internet at the cost of his half day work.
where as in pakistan how many people can earn even 10000/- per month.
2)- as electronic media is doing a good job in pakistan the internet can also bring some good changes in the life. lower rates will attract more and more people to have an internet connection rather than a fixed price of 1200/- giving 2MB speed. for pakistani money is main problem than speed.
3)- i have used 256 KB connection of ptcl soon after they started. i think a package of 500/- per month for 256KB will be very good for public and people will be facilitated. and like all other luxuries DSL will ot be a thing in hands of just a limited persons.
thanks and regards,
wahaj alam
you are right in saying that ptcl should also offer 512 and 256
but the only reason that i think of ptcl not providing these connections might be the cost of servicing the connection.
@usman and @wahaj. Great insights. Probably the most logical in whole thread.
agree!
This is one of the worst possible articles i’ve read in a long long time. I don’t get how he’s comparing apples to oranges.
e.g.
24mbit UK broadband for £17.50 = $26 = $1.08/mbit
1mbit pakistani broadband for $15 = $15/mbit.
I mean seriously. At this point why not bring up dial up internet – countries in Africa will offer 36kbit dialup, OMG they’re the cheapest in the world!
Calculate per unit, otherwise you’re just being factually incorrect.
although the internet is cheap.. im pretty sure the transfer rate is pretty shit.. like 512 kb,, the tranfer rate or download rate is like 20 kb or somthing.. if im wrong. send me an email to [email protected]
then adbusamed you have every right to shout
a 512 should give 68kbps and ptcl being a dedicated line gives such speeds
your isp may be giving shared connections, if not then check you distance from the exchange, call telephone service center to check your line of any noise or distortion and you can also change your modem.
i m using 512kbps in 1199 only
HI!
The Rates, cost, bandwidth and the speed with that bandwidth vary in all countryies. In Pakistan the 512Kbps doesnt mean you will get 60kbps speed but actually you receive less then that one cuz of the poor infrastructure of telephone lines.
As wahaj says that most of people earning power is very less, so to bring a DSL service with very good bandwtdh but poor speed along with additional cost is plainly discrouging.
Currently I am using 1.0Mbps for Rs.1000/- but the speed is sometime very good and sometimes (not most times) is nothing. its nbot the fauly of ISP but the fauly of PTCL.
The people who have PTCL connection will tell that how the support service dept, the speed of connection really is
In Pakistan bandwidth is not committed but shared.
At peak hours bandwidth is always low.
ptcl is dedicated other than ptcl what i know is all shared
buddy, ptcl is shared. they have lower contention ratios, but you’re sharing bandwidth. just means your node isn’t as busy. have some of the people in your exchange max out their bandwidths and you’ll see yours drop like a stone, or you’ll desync.
iftikhar: yes, but in PK it’s the most oversold from anywhere else i’ve experienced. so if you pay for 1mbit through, for e.g., worldcall, you may get 1mbit complete offpeak but during peak you can barely browse.
In the UK if you’re paying for 20mbit (like I am), even in the most peak of hours I get 15-16mbit without issues, and my browsing is ultimately uneffected.
And, per mbit its cheaper. I’ll stick to this article posted being absolutely useless and being incredibly inaccurate.
The first comment of Aqeel (on March 31, 2009 at 7:00 am) mentions a DSL connection of 512KB just in Rs. 400. Mr. Aqeel, kindly tell the ISP you’ve the service of.
Yar I’m using Dial-Up and you know that PTCL charges a local call every time we connect. Thus using regular internet usually with multiple disconnections yields a bill more than Rs. 600 per month. I’ve also heard (but yet not confirmed) that PTCL charges a local call every 15 minutes. In such a scenario, an always-on DSL package (even 128kb is ok) is best for me just in 400 + 200(line rent).
Unfortunately there is no cable internet service being offered nearby. I’ve also made mind for ISDN once but there is also a call being charged + costly hours than normal dial-up. Plz share if you know any ISP offering cheap DSL just for browsing/research work.
Thanks in anticipation.
@ sharjeel.
i think world call offers 128 and 512kb packages. not 100% sure. if u r a student then get 1mb connection of ptcl in 840 or link,net 1mb for 885 rupees.
actually that is why i say that instead of doubling the speed they should introduce packages which cost less.i think 128KB for 400 rupee will be good for people, who only want fast browsing.
1 MB connection is useless for those who just want to check their mails. 1 MB is good for downloading.
coming to quality. let me tell u that i have been using DSL from September 2007. first package was 256 KB and download speed was 28 KB. then 512 was giving me 62 KB but droped down to 54 KB. plus from september 2008 i started to get problem of disconnection. PTCL never solved it. so after a tough time of 6 months i switched to link.net.
PTCL costs u 1200. but when ur billing on ptcl bill crosses 1000 rupee u are charged with WHT ( with holding tax ) and CED ( central excise duty ) . i am 90 % sure about that but not 100 %. on bill over 1000 WHT is 50 rupee. plus some 3 or 5 % CED on ur bill.
link is giving a good service but my experiance tells me that in Pakistan one will always have problem with dsl. no matter which service u r using. as my first 12 months were ideal with ptcl but friends were abusing ptcl at that time as they were not happy with ptcl.
link has still not updated speed by the way. now they are saying that it will be done till 25th of april, after their 2 to 3 weeks time is over. whereas on the same help line yesterday they asked me that in next 48 hours all our customers will get double speed.
I don’t want to criticize but the purchasing power of the customer is the main difference when we compare UK US with Pakistan.
@Aqeel
Bro which company is offering 512 KB for RS.400, Please mention the name.
Aslam o Alakium
Interesting debate going on about DSL Packges
i agree with you people specially [wahaj]
There should be Packges like 512 For 600 Rupees
Because not every one afford 1 MB link of PTCL which in actuall costs Almost 1600 Rupees along with Taxes and Line Rent etc…
get 1mb ptcl it costs about 800 widout line rent…. and we ussually do pay line rent on our normal telephone lines anyway so thts no biggy…
sorry i forgot its 1mb student package…
dudas in other countires when they say 1.5mbps they mean 1.5mbps. in paki if you get a local ptcl 1mb coneection you only get 10% of the bandwidh which is around 100-100kb/s….
my cousin had a 128kb/s connection in uae now when he is back at karachi he is saying i am getting the same speed at ptcl’s 1mb connection which he used to get on his 128kb connection in uae….
so the information may be misleading….. may be….
@all–
Please note in Pakistan bandwidth is always “Shared”. In other countries bandwidth CIR (Committed Information Rate) is also provided. 512Kb CIR means always 512kb and Shared bandwidth varies according to load!!!. This should be taken into account while discussing about rates/bandwidths.
sk90y is absolutely right…………1 mb connection in usa means download at 1 mb……….it is in Pakistan that telecom guys are fixing us and oftenly give a logic that download speed for any connection is divided by 8 because connection speed is in ‘kilobits per second’ while download speed is in ‘kilobytes per second’…………..for example for 1 megabit/sec connection we get a speed of 110 to 130 kilobytes/sec………but in usa 1 mb connection means download at 1 megaBYTE/SEC…………
Ali Khan,
Are you kidding me!!! :D
Dude, downloads always depend on the website you’re downloading from. And trust me, an internet connection of 6mbps in USA DOES NOT mean that you get to download at 6mb/s speed. I used a 6mbps connection of Comcast for 2 years in USA in various states (California, Georgia, New York, Florida) it’s MAX download speed is 800kb/s and that too while downloading from rapidshare with Download Accelerator that downloads the files in 5 parts.
Dont believe everything you hear from inferiority complexed people who think Amrika is Jannat! :)
rehan,
6mbit provided by comcast should give you 750kbytes/second download speed. your getting 800kbytes/second means you were getting at least what comcast advertises.
i’ve had 10,20 and now 50mbit connections, and get my full link speed every time.
I am using qubee wimax 512kb and getting 62 to 65 kb downloading…Its really a great service…better then poor wi tribe….
there is lack of information in posts.
in uk 8MB connection with 2GB download limit. only virgin broadband offers unlimited downloads with fair usage. and they offered 2MB internet connection.
for example: if u are in uk, the internet companies charge 11-£ for line rent. 8pounds for the first 3months and then 14£ for remaining 9months. minimum contract is 1year.
uk phone line conditions are bad.
in Pakistan, ptcl offers better service with price. u get 1MB internet for Rs.1200.
if u are using fiber optic phone by ptcl. u get full speed of 1MB. remember, if u get 110kb download speed with 1MB connection. its mean u get full speed of 1MB.
1024kbps/8= 128kb
18kb for wrapping the data.
remaining 110kb for your data.
remember, if u are normal net user with voice and web surfing. 2GB data limit is enough for u.
if ur downloader (eg,movies). u must use unlimited data transfer.
so, in pakistan, u get cheapest data and voice services.
chik chik, you’re completely clueless about the UK market. most providers now offer unlimited; check out O2 for e.g. which you can get for under 5gbp/month unlimited downloads for their 20mb package if you have an O2 phone number and use the cashback options. don’t even start comparing uk packages with pakistani packages, it’s a joke.
this comparison is misleading….an inexpensive broadband service is one which is easily affordable for the customers. lets say if a pakistani pays rs1200 for 1mbps connection and a british pays the same amount for the same connection say 10pounds, would it be equally affordable for both the pakistani and the british guy? the answer is simply NO!!.lets see why?
let me compare the earning power of an ordinary pakistani and a british man.
An ordinary pakistani labourer earns around 200rs per day(many of them even less than that.An ordinary brit labourer earns 6 pounds an hour so 6*8=48 pounds = approx 6200 PKR..!! so the same connection which would cost 6whole day’s of work is worth just 2 hours of work for a brit.This comparison could go on for ever and would only prove that the population of developed countries are enjoying broadband ( and ofcourse all other facilities) at much lower rates than us. majority of our population still cannot afford a luxury like broadband so there’s still need for more work to be done
dear iam using an isp in karachi that provides me 1mb speed in jst 400 PKR we surely are the blessed ones
for 1200 rupees u get a shit internet from PTCL that runs 7 days/month on less then 512Kbps even if u purchased 1Mbps service. U also forget, when they say unlimited it means unlimited! when pakistani ISP says unlimited it means they will throttle ur bandwidth down to 128 Kbps after u used 30 GB worth of data volume! 128Kbps is not even enough to open a modern internet page. I think we are paying 15 Dollars too much for such a sorry excuse for internet compared to Japan and USA.