Note 65: Aquanet, Champion cheapness

Rubric: Our networks

Akwanet, champion cheapness

Anton Nosik

Today we threatened to talk about relevants, we will try to follow this promise. To do this, we will choose the most relevant for most readers "Vesti" Topic: What is the method of connecting to the Internet - the cheapest?

Repeatedly during the existence of our section, we concerned the question of who, how much and how in Israel connects users to the Internet. Several times in our notes the name "Aquanet" (aquaanet.co.il) appeared - and always in the not too flat manner. Not because we do not like the services or prices of this company, but simply because it is its ambition - or at least hear - the best and talented Internet provider in Israel are in some (very, in our opinion, significant) contradiction with its own technical capabilities.

At the same time, it is time to pay tribute to the aquaeite in regard to his services to connect individual users. Contrary to our most skeptical forecasts and estimates, still a grandiose two -axle adventure keeps afloat, and no signs of its soon extinction on the horizon are visible. Moreover, the Acvanovsky connection service today - in any case, at a price - is in no way inferior to that fabulous service, which has not so long -long the citizens of the "Bezme". A couple of weeks ago, the Aquet line reached Jerusalem, whose inhabitants from mid -August got the opportunity to use the services of this company for dumping, according to local concepts, money. Let us explain the essence of the service.

Unlike all other Israeli providers companies, the Aquan does not take a permanent permanent payment for connecting from customers. That is, the user, who has said three shekels for a month, pays these same three shekels, and saying fifty - pays fifty. Not a single penny of a permanent fee for unproven services, on which the vast majority of our providers are burning, does not charge. (A recent statistical study conducted within one of the leading Israeli provider firms showed that commercial clients used on average no more than 60% of the prepaid monthly connection quota; the number of customers exceeding the indicated quota ranged, according to the study, between 15 and 20%. According to obvious reasons, the results of this study were never published.)

The connection fee levied by the aquaeet is 2 shekels per hour (plus ND), regardless of the time of day and the number of hours used in a month. If you do not take into account the zero night tariffs that are part of the "premium" packages of some of our providers (Netvision, NetMedia, Euroneet), then this is the cheapest price for the connection hour that can be obtained in Israel.

The main advantage of Aquanite services, from the point of view of many of our readers, is the complete absence of even mortgage prepayment. When opening the account, you can choose a retroactive check payment (the account is sent at the end of the month of use and is paid in a form convenient for the client - check, bank transfer, card). This is especially useful for those who do not have a credit card, because to subscribe without it to Netvision or NetMedia services is an incredible headache.

Having tested the Aquanite lines in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, we can testify: they really work and maintain a connection at a speed of 28.8 kb/s. Communication with distant American servers leaves much to be desired, but this is the general problem of all users of the overloaded IBM Link (including an academic Israeli network, which uses the same morally outdated access to the big world). However, with regard to exits to IRC and ties with Israeli academic servers, it is not at all inferior to its solid commercial competitors.

Our skepticism regarding the reliability of Aquanov’s connection is associated with one simple consideration. To date, as mentioned above, the Aquann offer is the most profitable for a private computer user in the local market. If tomorrow the services of this company are in demand, adequate seductiveness of this offer (say, at least a tenth of Netvision customers will want to switch to the use of the academic clock) - this will mean such a load on the line of the cheapest Israeli provider, which will be more than problematic to say it, to put it mildly. And, given the way of charging fees for the services of this company, it is difficult to imagine where it will get money for that modernization of the infrastructure, which is inevitably required. However, the owner of Aquanet Meni Nakhman can notice that it is him, not our concerns. And it will be right.

Concluding the conversation about the record prices of connection, it is worth calling here two absolute Israeli champions to tear off the skins from commercial customers. The company "Kav Manhe" (Trendline.co.il) is deriving from a permanent subscriber $ 2 for each hour of connection, which could be considered a kind of record if the Israeli branch of IBM (IBM.NET.IL) did not occupy the first line in the high -cost championship. Here, for every hour, in excess of the monthly quota, as many as 4 dollars plus N.D.S. According to our information, this is an absolute world record for the high cost of Internet services.

Concluding the conversation about the Acvanovsky services (as well as about the long -expected Similar Bezecov service), you can’t ignore the important question: what to do with the mailbox, if our provider did not provide it to us?

Of course, you can buy a mailbox, and it is not a god of news as expensive - from 3 to 4 dollars a month. However, the meaning of the purchase becomes not obvious if we recall that on our beloved, a free Geocities server (we first wrote about it in November last year) for the reporting period is completely free of 30,000 mailboxes, and no information about the imminent end of the event has yet been received. If Geocities are presented to you with an unreliable provider - free aliasing by USA.net and Netforward.com, where your mailbox can be assigned a pseudonym with the subsequent - translating the “shooter” to any other email when you will have it.

Tomorrow in our issue is another story about the Russian network. Then the announcement of local news and an overview of the September issue of Yahoo !!!! Internet Life.