KZBlog

So we recently moved apartments and I have been left Internetless. Whereas before we had KazakhTelecom, the state-owned telephone company, as our telephone company and Internet provider, we now have Kaztranscom. It appears that in Astana certain construction companies make contracts with certain Internet and cable TV companies and the residents have no choice. We cannot get KazakhTelecom services in this building. So there is some competition, but it’s sort of fake competition in that we can’t actually choose.

As Chris Merriman has pointed out, on his blog and in person, at some length, Kaztranscom has a number of issues. First of all, all of their Internet packages have limited traffic and you pay a huge premium if you go over the limits. Their so-called “unlimited” package has a speed of 128kbs, or two times the speed of dial-up. Plus, they say they will not set up our modem for wireless Internet because “people have complained about problems with wireless.” Apparently rather than address those problems, they have chosen to simply refuse to provide wireless. No big deal, I’m sure I can figure out how to set the modem for wireless. Nevertheless it’s a bit annoying.

Compounding that is the fact that Kaztranscom only works with a limited list of modems so we have had to buy another modem. I’m no IT geek but I don’t understand why only 20 modems work with this service. I’ve never heard of certain modems working (or not working) with certain ISPs before. Finally, the process is annoying in that we have to give them our modem, which they will set up at their offices. Then they come to our house and set up the modem with the computer. Surely they could do everything at once at our house. I don’t particularly like the idea that they will fiddle with my modem while I can’t look over the shoulder and see what they are doing. Ah well, I’m sure it will work out all right in the end. But for the moment, until I buy a new modem and get it set up, I am only on dial-up which makes posting to the blog expensive!