Wi-Tribe’s Account Portal Troublesome :Day 10

One thing I’ve become aware of is that the wi-tribe portal where you can check your usage history is down most of the time. 9 times out of 10 you won’t be able to access it. That’s one thing the Witribe will have to work on and resolve as soon as possible and the reason for that is that your consumption stacks up so soon for some inexplicable reason that if you’re kept in the dark for too long courtesy the non-working portal, you would go overboard pretty soon.


And that’s one of the fallacies of the wimax technology. You cannot keep it switched on all day as I’ve done a couple of times, because when you do that, the data keeps getting accumulated in your account until pretty soon you have reached the limit. In nine days I had been reported to use up 2.3GB of my 5 GB limit although I had hardly downloaded any mammoth or even watched streaming videos. The most I had downloaded was 700mb and tested the streaming quality by checking just a couple of videos on youtube. The same goes for the rest of the family members who for the most part just focus on Facebook, and I have serious doubts about facebook being a big data chucker.

What we have been guilty of is keeping the device on even when we weren’t really using it. The conclusion is that wimax in Pakistan hasn’t reached the level where you can keep it on all the time or to download to your heart’s content.

It is very much similar to the dial-up system where you only switch on the modem when you need to do something. Otherwise you keep it shut lest it costs you money. In other words it’s a glorified form of dial-up where the speed is not that bad, however the inconsistency of dial-up is present in wimax as well. Or maybe it’s just in witribe and the rest of the brands – infinity, wateen and qubee are consistent.

Wi-Tribe Day 8

I didn’t get the time to check the speed on the 7th day, and it wasn’t terribly important because I had already decided to continue with Witribe and not opt for the money-back option. I’m willing to give considerably more time to Wi-tribe to showcase their level of service.
One problem I did encounter was the blocking of my wi-tribe accounts page. After I had checked my account once, the next time I wanted to check again it showed that my IP had been blocked. Now that reflects badly on Wi-tribe.

Wi-Tribe Day 6

The signal fluctuation is still there. During the day, the signal hovers over the 3-bar mark whereas at night it hovers over the 4-bar mark. Only rarely does it reach the pinnacle at 5-bar. I don’t mind it as long as there’s no variation in the speed.
I’’ve tried the streaming via Youtube, and there’s plenty of buffering involved. However, that’s not entirely the fault of Witribe because people well-versed with the broadband thing tell me that 512kbps does not provide seamless streaming. If you want continuous streaming with no buffering, 1mbps is the option to go for.

So if you want to view streaming video on 512 connection, the best way to go is pause the playback until the whole file loads in the cache.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel Day 5

When I reached home at 7pm, the news was good. Witribe had performed better throughout the day. The only problem was the cable getting in the way.
I embarked on another expedition in search of the golden spot. This time I found one, which although not as good as the current one, was good enough especially since the cable won’t be getting in the way.

I checked all the parameters with the speed test. For the first time, the ping rate was less than 100ms. But I do have some reservations about these tests. Even when the going is bad, these tests don’t really reflect it. The ping test, however, does a better job of reflecting the ground reality, but even that is not 100% fool-proof.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day4

Day 4 was the worst.
When I returned from office, I was informed by the family that the performance was worse than dial-up and the modem showed remarkable consistency in getting hung up at every available opportunity. I smsed the guy explaining the situation and reminding him the need for a lengthier cable. He finally arrives at 10pm, with the wire and another device. He brought the device because he said there are only two reasons that the device ‘decamps’. Either the CPE is faulty, or the signal is too weak to provide sustainable coverage.


After attaching the new cable, he checked the old device for signals throughout my room, and finally concluded that the signal variation was too much and hence the device getting hung up, otherwise there was nothing wrong with the device.
He left me with the old device and the dilemma whether to continue with Wi-tribe or cancel the subscription for which I had only two days left.
Although the rep was polite and helpful, he left me with another problem – a not too long cable. I had asked for at least 25 feet, he brought one which was not more than 20 feet. I asked why, he said that for that long a cable, he would have to get permission which would have delayed my getting the cable. Whether that’s the truth or he just said it to get me off his back I can’t say. Only the Witribe management can answer that.

After he left, I spent the next hour running around the house with the device tethered to the PC as far as the cable would go. I finally placed the device just across from my room where the signal strength was the maximum.

It got better but then the issue of cable getting in the way of the feet arose. I was too tired by the end of this exercise to change the position again.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day 3

Being a Sunday, I didn’t expect the Wi-tribe service to be any good. So it came as a pleasant surprise that it ran smoothly, not great mind you. The fluctuation was still too much. One minute you had the network flying like a F-117, the very next minute it was crawling like a camel cart.

Like the browsing speed, the same condition was seen in the downloading as well, only here you could see the enormous variations reflected in the speeds. Although the sales rep had said when asked about the theoretical and the actual download speed available that both the theoretical and the actual download speed was not much different- 64 theoretical, and 60-62 actual, in reality it varied from 64 to 24 in a matter of seconds.


In the evening, the overall network speed had declined dramatically. This could be the result of the rush hour traffic. But if witribe in its infancy cannot provide consistent speed at the peak hour when its users are not that much, what can we expect when the population reaches critical mass?

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day 2

I called the guy up asking him for a lengthier Ethernet cable- about 25 feet – to reach the area where the signal strength was maximum.



When I returned from the office at about 7pm I got the new that the net performed dismally throughout the day, even worse than a dial-up connection. The biggest problem was that the modem was getting hung up, ‘decamping’ as the guy said.


However, at night although the signals were still fluctuating between 2 and 3, the Witribe service was better.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day 1

What little was left of the day I spent carrying the device to every nook and corner of the house, desperately trying to find an area where the signal strength was good enough to place the device while my family wondered why I had gone bonkers running around the house with a strange black box in my hand. Finally I did manage to find a few spots where the strength was maximum, only problem was, the Ethernet cable wasn’t long enough to get there and I didn’t have any Wifi device to test the coverage there.
In the end I explained the strange device to the family, asking them to test the internet connection as much as possible in my absence.