Love Etisalat or stay wired

Ever since I shifted from Etisalat Wasel Prepaid to Du Pay As You Go, I’ve had some trouble getting hold of other non-GSM related services offered by Etisalat like Al-Shamil (fixed line internet), wireless hot-spots, etc. One of the biggest disappointment is how Etisalat offers wireless hot-spots, which they call it with a fancy name iZone.

Yesterday when my friends and I were sitting and sipping a nice cup of Starbucks in Ras Al Khaimah we thought of taking our notebook PC out and surfing for an hour. Sarcastically never thought it could be this easy to get connected. There are several ways to log in and access the iZone. Using your Etisalat mobile line- postpaid or prepaid, your fixed line internet username and password, dialup user ID, wireless hot-spot prepaid card, wireless hot-spot postpaid account and so on. At first we thought of choosing the option of using one of my friend’s Wasel Prepaid Line. Unfortunately he sticks to his Du plan and never bothered to recharge his Wasel line. We went to the nearest Etisalat store to get it recharged. Came back entered the necessary details and it bounced back with an error “Invalid mobile number, please try again!”. We made sure the number is right. We made sure we entered the number right. We made sure that we’ll try it for more than 10 times. But it was an epic fail. Waste of money. Calling the customer call center was of no help either. The lady on the phone had no idea of what iZone or Hotspot is. So we gave up this option.

Using Wasel Prepaid for wireless hotspots charges us AED10 per hour. With Hot-spot wireless prepaid card AED15 per hour and AlShamil (Fixed line internet) user gets charged AED6 per hour. Since our first option wasn’t working I went back to the same Etisalat store to see if there is any specific request to be done in order to get this working. The staff told us that only iZone prepaid card works so we bought the card and hit back to the coffee place and noticed even the prepaid card registration asks for Etisalat mobile subscriber number. No other operator of UAE is allowed although there is a input box for International Number though I wasn’t carrying one at that time. Didn’t want to take the risk as I have already lost trust with my previous “10 minutes” back experience. Before we opened the pack that contained we thought twice if AED15 is worth it for an hour of world wide web experience. Then the bulb clicked and I went back and returned the prepaid card and called up my cousin and got the AlShamil username and password and enjoyed an hour of Internet.

Why does Etisalat restrict their hotspot users? Is TRA (Telecom Regulatory Authority) aware of this? The very same day a person from The Netherlands who happened to enter UAE border a couple of hours ago came to Starbucks to do some work online and sip some coffee. He ended up buying the prepaid card and it wouldn’t let him enter the internet. The international number which he entered never worked neither was there any other option of getting it registered. But then luckily he saw us sitting at one corner and came up to inquire. I thought of trying with my friend’s Wasel Number to get the card working. Thankfully this time there was no problem. Overall it was a poor Internet adventure for us. Firstly the cost is too high for the speed and quality they provide. With a minimum latency of 100ms and a speed of maximum 400kbps download and 200kbps upload I would never ever pay. Secondly, they really need to fix the restriction they have put up. Lastly, they need to make the people in the customer call center understand what is iZone and what is Wireless hot-spot. If TRA is aware of this or atleast bothered about such issues, they need to get this sorted out.