With this smart move wateen has made it really difficult for wiTribe and Mobilink infinity (due to be launched soon) lets see if the follow the suit.

Wi-tribe has made a very strong come back. In our review of witribe we along with a lot of readers had shown issues with their pricing model. Seems some body up there is listening to the customer feedback and acting upon it.

Wi-Tribe has launched with full adds in print media and billboards, now coming out of their soft launch. continue reading for their packages

They have no become equals to Wateen still a bit expensive , for example wateen’s 512 kb with 5 gb cap is 599 where is wi-tribe is charging 750. I don’t clearly understand the difference between a modem for PC users and a separate one for PC laptop users, my assumption is the PC/Laptop one has a built in wireless router.  Wateen has a standard rate of 2500 for activation and device fees, wi-tribes modem for PC users is cheap how ever the other option seems expensive, you can easily get a wireless router for less than 2000 in market that would mean you can take the pc modem and take it wireless for about 2900, but then again every one is not happy to see too many wires going around, and with current situation of load shedding it’s good to have lesser devices.

How will it fare when users increase lets wait and see. if you have experienced it do let us know

Ohh by the way the 7 day tria

Unlike witribe which had a bold statement and good branding on the package wateen only settled with a small logo on the box

see the picture after the break.

here is a picture

Finally after waiting for Eternity Wi-Tribe has been officially launched,

As we noticed in morning that they were offering free 7 days trial

http://review.com.pk/2009/05/wi-tribe-launching/

I had thought it would take another few weeks but boy was I wrong.

Keep reading for a detailed review of the service

Outstanding Customer Service

I was pleasantly shocked by the speed of their delivery and their customer service.

After requesting a sign up on their website, I received a call in less than 10 minutes (yes this is not a typo ) on my cell phone, regarding my interest in the service. I definitely was interested to try out specially because of the free offer, so I asked how soon can they install at my place and her answer was 30 minutes, I said ok (thinking that the sales person on the other end is being over enthusiastic due to launch), I did ask what would be the documentation requirements which were just a copy of NIC which i asked my wife at home to keep handy just in case (I was in office).

Before the said 30 minutes had expired I received a call from home that they are their and have installed the device and tested it, and would need 1700(Monthly Charges for 1 MB ) + 999 (Installation Charges) up front. Upon my inquiry I was told that the free offer is for 7 days money back (This includes weekends so be careful), so if I am not satisfied I could return the device with a call (they would come pick it up and return the money),
I decided to take the red pill and find out how deep the rabbit hole is

But in short in 40 minutes without getting up from my seat i had working internet at my home I was really impressed, full marks for customer service.

Sleek device

The packaging is excellent unlike wateen’s which only have motorola written on the box, these guys have taken time to spread out their brand on the box packaging

The package contents were this most beautiful looking wimax device I have yet came across, and manuals and cables.

The front was powered up by green LEDs which added to the sleekness of the device, these blinked while looking for connection and stabilized, I was lucky to get full five bars of signal

Back of device had one LAN port and two ports for telephone

For the more techy ones the device is Motorola CPEi 35750.

Download Speed as Promised Upload …

Internet speed was ok not exceptional the download was good around 1.2 MB, but the upload was only about 0.2 MB when compared to servers in Islamabd

the result was more or less same for servers in California

Upload speed is below par.

Tariff Most Expensive around

Their tarrif which is

is on the higher side, as comparatively Wateen is offering a 15 GB Cap for a 1 MB connection for only 1,599 Rupees for same package of 10 GB Cap at 1MB Wateen is asking for only 1,199 which is what these guys want to charge for the 512 Kbps package while limiting the download at 8 GB.

And this is just the Wimax if you start considering the prices of LinkDotNet and PTCL Broadband with the fact that they offer unlimited downloads then these guys don’t even stand a chance.

Will they turn around and offer competitive packages we could wait and see.

But the Wimax Battle is heating up

I was delighted to see this on the home page of wi-tribe. They have finally started showing signs of a launch.

on the contact page there are Addresses for offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad some thing which tells us this will be launched in these major cities first

Also the drop down for contact also emphasizes this concept.

Package details are as follows, I am sure they will introduce more packages as they go ahead currently only 2 speeds are offered each with its own relative download limit

I specifically remember about a month back when I tried to search for Wi-Tribe in Pakistan all that Google returned me were few posts on blogs which discovered the company launching like Greenwhite.org (Disclaimer : I also write on this blog) and on Pro Pakistan. There was another crazy link, where some one got creative and made a blog just to get attention here is the link.

After their massive hiring stints and big adds in local news papers, some time ago their launch was expected some time ago. With wateen and moblink infinity already started, wi-tribe does have its work cutout for them, but broadband does have a lot of potential in Pakistan specially for wimax because the wired connections do have limited availability and prone to blackouts and errors.

Does appearance of their website means that they are nearing to launch ? or do they still have more hurdles to cross we will only find with due time.

But in the end for us consumers more options means more competition and better rates and services.