It was not exactly a total ‘blackout’, but more of an ‘on/off blackout’. For the past week, internet access in Jordan was totally screwed up.

Forget the mostly useless customer service responses. Forget that Jordan’s ISP are keeping Jordan behind when it comes to broadband access, by still, in 2008, offering 2MBit/sec as the highest access speed. And forget about all the bandwidth capping which strangles users’ connections if they download more than a given amount of data.

Let’s talk about the damage this latest week of intermittent internet service has caused the Jordanian economy.

The big players of the internet access business in Jordan, which are the ISP’s (especially Orange), the Ministry of ICT, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, and whoever operates the Hahsem station should really, REALLY understand that internet access is not a luxury item or kids’ stuff.

When email breaks down, that means a lot of companies can’t work properly anymore. That includes large and small business in every field.

Companies working in the fields of web and software development suffer.

Internet-based companies like portals and web community sites suffer.

Ad agencies, publishers and designers suffer.

Traders, banks and all other kinds of service companies suffer.

Web access is increasingly becoming a basic aspect of a country’s infrastructure. Like electricity, it is expected to always be on. When electricity goes out in Amman for a few, it becomes front page news. Internet outages also make it to the news but are not dealt with the same seriousness.

Last week, some of my team members simply could not work in the office anymore. They decided to go home and work from there, hoping their internet connection at home was functioning. Many were disappointed to find that their home connections were also down or, at best, unreliable.

Jordan’s internet infrastructure seem to be hanging on a thin thread all the time. The speed is not great. Outages are too many and cost is still too high. The problem often seems to be at the Hashem station. For years I’ve been hearing about this or that company intending to get their own data, bypassinng Jordan Telecoms main connection. What happened with that.

We need more connections to the world as a back up. It is irresponsible to have a whole country at the mercy of a single gateway.

It’s time for a shakeup in this market. Maybe the government and the TRC should do something about the quality of internet access in Jordan. Let’s remember that ADSL was introduced in Jordan some years ago only after HM King Abdullah insisted on it, as part of his efforts to turn Jordan into an IT hub.

A new push is needed to upgrade Jordan’s internet connectivity. This is not just the interest of a few software houses and web companies, but the interest of the entire economy and the citizens of Jordan.

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7 responses to “Jordan Internet Blackout 2008: Are Jordan’s ISP’s irresponsible?”

  1. bambam Avatar
    bambam

    Well you kind of answered yourself in this post ;)
    the fact of the matter and from what i heard is that the main reason for the outage is that it happened while trying to establish the connections to the new station which is supposed to go online at the beginning of the year so that we no longer have hashem one as the end all of gateways.
    I don’t think the prices will come down, but according to the sources the quality of service and speed are going to be much better (but then that also depends on the ISP and i would stay away from orange to be honest)

  2. Ali Avatar
    Ali

    And an IT guy like didn’t even notice that the Internet was down!! But my ADSL was slow at home and at work, we had some cut offs but thought that was related to my firm

  3. Ahmad Al-Sholi Avatar
    Ahmad Al-Sholi

    if that was happening due to upgrades, then its good.
    wishing for HM the king to push some guys to do their work scares me to death, to see that many issues are considered complicated or mission impossible whereas they just require to be pushed.
    I am realizing a pattern lately, that even creeped into many private sector corporates.

  4. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    I’m so sick of complaining about how horrible internet service is here in Jordan. I love this country but it needs to get its act together when it comes internet. You are absolutely right… it is not a luxury item anymore. This is basic services… just like trash pick-up, etc.
    Jordan is not and never will be an IT hub with service like this.

  5. A. Hussein Avatar
    A. Hussein

    Once I was complaining (as usual) about the crap that’s called broadband connection at my home and I decided to see the manager of the department and tell him the entire story.. When I met him I started to complain about the VERY HIGH PRICE of this service and how bad is the service and unreliable (its 22/6 not 24/7) he asked me what’s the speed of your connection I said 1Mbps and his reply was a shock for me.. “this is a company like speed, what you expect the price is” then he started to calculate the dial-up connection cost in 24h!! in the rest of world 8Mbps is a very normal speed but in Jordan 1Mbps is a very big luxury stuff.. Orange my ass.. 10GB download quote my ass.. cut the crap and just take a look for what’s happening in the out world the reach 24Mbps connection speed and we still spent quarter of our salary on shitty service of Internet her in Jordan… some policies must be followed to prevent these bastards from extorting us

  6. A. Hussein Avatar
    A. Hussein

    Once I was complaining (as usual) about the crap that’s called broadband connection at my home and I decided to see the manager of the department and tell him the entire story.. When I met him I started to complain about the VERY HIGH PRICE of this service and how bad is the service and unreliable (its 22/6 not 24/7) he asked me what’s the speed of your connection I said 1Mbps and his reply was a shock for me.. “this is a company like speed, what you expect the price is” then he started to calculate the dial-up connection cost in 24h!! WTF in the rest of world 8Mbps is a very normal speed but in Jordan 1Mbps is a very big luxury stuff..just cut the crap.. Orange my ass.. 10GB download quote my ass.. cut the crap and just take a look for what’s happening in the out world the reach 24Mbps connection speed and we still spent quarter of our salary on shitty service of Internet her in Jordan… some policies must be followed to prevent these bastards from extorting us

  7. Tamer Avatar
    Tamer

    Kulacom has it’s own independent gateway and they should be launched by January. Get ready for a state-of-the-art Mobile Broadband network!