Dubai: Don’t expect to stream videos on the complimentary WiFi service offered by telecom operator du as part of the smart city initiative.
Du is offering WiFi in three options in Dubai — free unlimited and fast access to all the government websites and apps, free WiFi at low bandwidth and premium speed at a nominal price.
The complimentary WiFi service with a restricted speed will enable users only to browse the web, use e-mail, text and chat applications, in addition to using social media services.
Saleem Al Beloushi, executive vice-president of network development and operation at du, told Gulf News that the free WiFi speed is 256Kbps. The purpose of free WiFi is purely for “chatting and messaging capabilities” and not for streaming videos.
For downloading video files, Al Beloushi said that residents need to subscribe to its premium service at unrestricted speed.
Even at 2Mbps, streaming videos will see the spinning pinwheel on the screen.
So, 256Kbps is way too small for streaming videos.
Etisalat does not offer free WiFi hotspots.
The bandwidth offered in most free hotspots is shared among a number of users and is constant.
So, if the number of users increases, there could be a drop in the speed.
However, many hotspots also offer paid access with higher speed. Many such facilities at times also provide access to locally hosted content on the server, thereby increasing the speed. This is particularly useful when the information is locally relevant such as in case of facilities available in the hotel or at the airport hosting it.
The number of users that can simultaneously connect to a hotspot is usually designed keeping in mind the expected traffic.
For example, an airport may allow a very large number of simultaneous connections as compared to a coffee shop. To optimise the service, most of such hotspots force auto log-out in case it detects no activity from a device for some time.
“Depending on the size of the location and number of Access Points covering that location, we can handle more than 100 concurrent users per access point, with many access points installed per location,” du said.
Sukhdev Singh, vice-president at market research and analysis services provider AMRB, told Gulf News there could be multiple reasons for not getting the WiFi network but the most common culprit is the log-in page of the host. Many devices, mostly smartphones while using native web browser, detect these log-in pages as spyware or unsafe and do not display login window.
“Some users unknowingly have pop-up blockers activated, not letting them onto log-in page. At other times, though rare and often temporary, there could be an issue with the server as well,” he said.
“We got a message from a customer who said that he got 90Mbps download and upload speed on the premium service. We are continuing the investment in WiFi network and we are committed to it,” Al Beloushi said.
Singh said that one of the main barriers to adoption of network-based data connections is cost to consumers. The new model that du is proposing to offer, is borrowed from the likes of YouTube. To get a free net access, the user will be forced to watch a short video. So basically the advertiser will pay for the data cost.
In case one opts to pay, they will get a “high-speed connection” as well as no obligation to watch any ad.
“However, I personally feel that unless the cost of the paid option is very low, mobile users may still prefer to buy data packs over 4G as it offers wider geographical coverage,” he said.
