Are you using Dhiraagu ADSL Package wisely? Be carefull !!!!!

It is very likely Maldivian will face this type of billing using dhiraagu ADSL Package. They are increasing the bandwidth but not increase the download and upload allowance for the bandwidth. Please user your ADSL package wisely. Read below article and get the lesson from it before it happen to you.

Canadian hit with whopping 85,000-dollar cellphone bill

An oil field worker in western Canada was shocked this month to be charged 85,000 dollars for surfing the Internet on his new mobile phone, local media said Thursday.

Calgary resident Piotr Staniaszek, 22, had signed up for Bell Canada's cellular phone service at about 150 dollars per month, with unlimited mobile Web browsing.

He believed the plan allowed him to use the phone to connect with his computer, using it as a modem to download a lot of data, high-definition movies and other bandwidth-hungry applications.

But when his first bill arrived in the mail, Staniaszek realized to his horror that the company was charging him on a per-kilobyte basis for Internet downloads.

"I didn't know what to think. I thought there was probably a mistake," he told public broadcaster CBC. "I told them I wasn't aware that I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer."

A spokesman for Bell said the company will adjust Staniaszek's bill to 3,243 dollars, as "a measure of goodwill."

But Staniaszek said he still plans to try and fight it, "because I didn't know about the extra charges. Nobody explained any of this to me."

"The thing is, they've cut my phone off for being like 100 dollars over," he told CBC News. "Here, I'm 85,000 dollars over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on."

Source: AFP

TAM threatens to cut VOIP to Maldives?

The Maldives Telecom watchdog,TAM has threatened to shut off services which offer voip telephony services to the island nation without license from it.

According to a general notification from its website says illegal use of pay services like skype, mig33 and others who provide international direct calling could be prosecuted according to their set of rules.

Recently both Wataniya and Dhiraagu has decreased their tariff rates for international calling because of the indirect competion from out side sources. Still both companies cannot offer a better service because of high competion from Skype and Mig33. Both skype and Mig33 offers much more lower rates to call overseas.

It seems this threat is an empty one just like the past threats from the TAM, which is actually run by the people who have influence from the local cellphone operators.

From Shaukath Blog

Kuwaiti mobile operator, Wataniya the National Mobile Telecommunications, may be sold

By: Internation Herald Eribune

DUBAI: National Mobile Telecommunications, the second-largest Kuwaiti mobile phone operator, may be sold by its controlling shareholders after receiving several approaches.

Kuwait Projects, an investment company with assets of more than $18 billion, is leading a group of National Mobile shareholders with a combined 51 percent stake that will consider offers, Robert Hipkins, a Kuwait Projects spokesman, said during an interview Sunday. Several potential purchasers have expressed interest, he said, declining to identify them.

"It's a question of making sure that the return for the shareholders is maximized," Hipkins said.

National Mobile — known as Wataniya — has a market value of $4.9 billion. It has four million customers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria and the Maldives. The company's 2006 profit increased 39 percent to 73.2 million Kuwaiti dinars, or $252 million, from 52.8 million dinars, a year earlier. Its shares have climbed 31 percent in the past year.

The stock did not trade Sunday because of a public holiday in Kuwait. Executives of Wataniya could not be reached for comment.

Mobile Telecommunication, or MTC, is the largest Kuwaiti mobile phone company.

Emirates Telecommunications — known as Etisalat — is one of several companies that may buy the stake in Wataniya, Mohammed Omran, chief executive of the company, based in Abu Dhabi, said last month.

Arab phone companies are expanding abroad as their home markets mature.

9 bids for Saudi license

The Saudi Arabian telecommunications regulator said that nine groups had submitted bids for the country's third mobile phone license.

Bidders include Orascom Telecom Holding, Oger Telecom in Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Turkcell, a joint venture between the biggest Turkish mobile phone company and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire, the Saudi Arabian Communications and Information Technology Commission said Saturday.

Bids from Samawat-Bharti group, MTN Group, Mobile Telecommunications, Reliance-Al-Rajhi, Tawasul-Digicel and MTNL were also accepted, the regulator said.

The third license could fetch more than $5.3 billion, the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported, citing unidentified industry sources.

Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates paid $3.2 billion for the kingdom's second mobile telephone license in 2004.