Dubai: Residents of Warsan Village are demanding a solution to the long-pending issue of lack of WiFi connection since the opening of the community almost a year ago.
The tenants and owners expressed their frustration over lack of progress on ongoing discussions on whether etisalat or du will cover the area.
Developer Nakheel told Gulf News the telecommunications challenges at Warsan Village are a commercial matter, and not a regulatory issue.
“The delay in connection is beyond our control, but we are doing everything we can to resolve this issue on behalf of investors and residents. We continue to urge etisalat and du to activate the services urgently. We have communicated this information to our customers and advised them to contact etisalat and du directly for more updates,” said a spokesperson from Nakheel.
Comments from etisalat, du were not available.
Residents say they are suffering the consequences of living in the community without an internet connection.
Filipino resident Allen D., said the internet problem has greatly affected his family business and his monthly mobile phone budget. “It is a real burden for us since we have a family-owned business, and we need to be reachable 24/7 online for inquiries. But with this situation, we can’t even use Skype or any video call app since it has limited speed. We have to bring all our paperwork to the office since we can’t get anything done at home after office hours,” he told Gulf News.
- Allen D. | A resident of Warsan Village
Allen D., pointed out that when he first viewed the villa, he was told a WiFi connection is possible once his application goes through to the network provider.
“After we moved in, we were told the internet connection has to be an LTE connection. We then had to upgrade our mobile phone plans to include a higher number of GBs per month, which costs us double our budget,” added Allen D.
Just the same, Steven Turgeon from Canada, who moved into the community in August, said he had confirmed with etisalat that his e-life services could be shifted to his new home, before making the move.
“They asked me to verify at a business centre, so I visited Al Wasl business centre where they confirmed I could have e-life services. Once I moved in, I contacted etisalat to make the shift. I was told e-life was not available and I had to apply for a temporary solution (Fixed LTE ),” he said.
Turgeon, explained that after applying for fixed LTE, and scheduling for an engineer to come and complete the installation, he was told that 4G LTE was not available in the area.
“I knew this to be false as 4G LTE is available on phones and a few neighbours have it as an interim solution. I went back to the etisalat business centre several times to try and get approval for Fixed LTE or another interim solution, but till date I have got nothing,” he said.
The Dubai resident, who is a system engineer for a telecommunications company, said he has spent thousands of dirhams on buying extra data to get his work done. “I do remote education and can’t access my courses when at home, I therefore have to spend money to go to cafes to get some work done. I have also had to cancel my subscriptions for videos and music, which I use on a daily basis for entertainment (Google play Music, Netflix) and cannot even use free sources of entertainment such as YouTube,” said Turheon.
No internet, no homework
Palestinian resident, Seem B. said her son is impacted most by the internet issue, as he is required to download his homework schedule from the school’s portal on his tablet every day. “Since moving here, it has been the worst experience ever. I have had to buy a data SIM just to be able to download his homework. I also wanted to install a security camera outside my house since our door doesn’t have a peephole, but that also needs a WiFi connection to operate,” said Seem B.
Another resident, Samson Sam from India, said she has been living in the community for five months, and was previously told the telecom infrastructure work would be completed within the first two months.
“We are not able to work from home as we don’t have broadband access. We have to depend on mobile data or hot spot for many hours, spending a lot on data, and fully depending on mobile phones,” said Sam.
