On my top-10-things-I-hate-list is definitely overprices internet access in hotels. In the Sharm El Sheikh Intercontinental a day’s worth of access costs 32 US$. An hour’s access costs 11 US$. This is just crazy.
So I decided to try my luck. Knowing there is GPRS available in Shram El Sheikh (which apparently is also the technology that makes the Blackberry device go beep), I decided to try to access the net through my mobile (connected to my laptop via Bluetooth). And, to my utter amazement, it WORKED.
I hope that writing this post isn’t costing me a fortune, though. I just received my Fastlink bill via SMS and my eyes nearly popped out when I saw how much it was. My average Fastlink bill is 40-60 JDs. This one was 148. Can it be the roaming calls I did from Kuwait? Can’t wait to see the detailed bill when it comes.
In any case I am happy I am circumventing the hotel Wifi!
Comments
4 responses to “Today’s discovery: GPRS roaming works in Sharm el Sheikh”
wow i wish i was half as rich as you are!
Down with the WEF
I hear ya! When I was in India, it was like $8 US per hour, $20 per day, or $300 per month. And it would not allow you to use different computers to connect via the same account either. But when you need it you need it, and have to pay whatever they ask. Hopefully your mobile bill won’t be more than paying through the hotel.
Hey rami..
I got in free, as I’m on a panel. No need to envy me
Salam from Sharm El Sheikh.
Chances are Ahmed; that you’ll be paying anywhere from 10 to 20% on top of the price you’d usually pay while using GPRS in Jordan.
But I know GPRS roaming in Europe is ridiculously expensive, I can only assume it being equally outrageous at our part of the world.
At any measure, operators barely (or never) do money selling data, customers (even the tech-heads) tend to grasp the concept of paying per minute because its something tangible they can quantify, not in terms of KiloBytes!
Imagine if every time you buy a Falafel sandwich from Abu-Jbara, their falafel-barista start weighting your sandwich to workout the cost! If I’m buying a falafel sandwich I’d like to pay the same amount for it each time, if I add hot-sauce, then if the restaurant is stingy enough, I should be told it’ll cost me another so’n’so…
Even bundled MegaBytes don’t cut it as you’ll never know when you ran out of them, was it when someone sent you an unsolicited, purposeless & ridiculously-sized forward of a fish with his Almighty’s name crafted to its side or while uploading an important document to your client! That’s why data never sell as good as SMS, except for specific applications such as Push-mail.