Zain vs Viva 4G LTE coverage in Budaiya/Barbar

I am quite happy with Zain and I've been using it for a year now

There is a company called Rapid Telecom. They do our internet. We only get Batelco 2mb but Rapid fit a satellite dish on your roof which can easily give you up to 10mb. [moderated]
The technicians are great too. I only have to SMS them if the internet is down and they get on to it straight away.

Lindochka wrote:

I am quite happy with Zain and I've been using it for a year now

Hi Lindochka,

Thank you for your response.
Have you been using their 4G broadband and found it to be fairly consistent?

I have been using VIVA 4G since it came out and I am extremely happy with its coverage and speed. I live in Seef but used its 4G in Budaiya as well. The connection is around 16 to 24Mbps - amazing speeds. Highly recommend it.

Thank you Lindochka, Josnuggles, and brightonguy for your replies and opinions.
After lots and lots of research, I've decided to go with Zain.

Within the time frame of my post, I heard about Viva's try and buy service which I went for. Unfortunately, their store at the city center has 5 or 6 4G routers that can be loaned, and they were all unavailable. The only way to get my hands on them was to wait for the previous person to return. There is not wait list either so it's all about right timing to keep checking. Their other stores around the country only carry about 1-2 units.

I then looked into Zain and a friend of mine knew someone at Zain and was kind enough to come over to our house and test the coverage.
4G speeds went up to 45Mbps! Then average speed was 25-35, depends also on where you place the router in your house.
Ideally, it works best when it's close to a window to get full reception.
In addition, their promotion isn't bad at all.

Also note that even Batelco's mobile network signal is weak in Barbar, unstable going back and forth from Edge to 3.5G (HSPA+).

i want to see that Dish !!!!

Josnuggles wrote:

There is a company called Rapid Telecom. They do our internet. We only get Batelco 2mb but Rapid fit a satellite dish on your roof which can easily give you up to 10mb. [moderated]
The technicians are great too. I only have to SMS them if the internet is down and they get on to it straight away.

It's just like a small osn dish. We have just had one fitted at work too, the improvement is amazing. My boss is actually happy lol

  Magic Dish !!!
if u dont mind
Pls share a picture of your Dish   

Josnuggles wrote:

It's just like a small osn dish. We have just had one fitted at work too, the improvement is amazing. My boss is actually happy lol

It's not a magic dish. The internet cables run to it and the speed magnified. I've used it in 3 properties and seen the before and after speeds in all 3. We don't live in a 4G area so we use this. As for climbing on my roof with a camera - no chance!!! Oh we also have 9 routers running off it. Big house you see...

saar , Who said no 4G area !!! im just want to confirn , is this internet dish ( satellite internet or ip   dish ) ? 😮😳😮
My friends ate staying in saar and using   

Josnuggles wrote:

It's not a magic dish. The internet cables run to it and the speed magnified. I've used it in 3 properties and seen the before and after speeds in all 3. We don't live in a 4G area so we use this. As for climbing on my roof with a camera - no chance!!! Oh we also have 9 routers running off it. Big house you see...

Ok you don't have to quote me 3 times. In the area I live in Saar (it's not 3'' big you know) there is no 4G. Rapid telecom put a dish on my roof and connected the internet cables to it. It didn't cost me anymore money and it works.

I don't appreciate being questioned as if I'm lying. If you don't believe me then up to you!!!!! I don't work for Rapid, I'm just recommending them

Hi Jo,
Can I ask what the approx cost is per month for your set up? I will be moving to Barbar soon
I wouldn't need 9 routers...lol unless my pets decide to hop on the Internet .... There's only me and hubby but the house is quite large..anyway....a rough idea would help
Thanks.

fchaudari76

In the saar, barbar and locations out of the city center. Zain offer a brilliant 4g service that connects via mobile network and a home router system. Best thing to do is go into the store and give them your location and they can check their system for coverage. I couldnt get batelco 4G signal where i live, Saar but Zain had the full Max 4G LTE package available.

As for the service itself:

The network is constant and not once has it dropped in terms of service, speed or reliability. I signed up to Zain's 4G internet (data only) package and it cost me over a year ago 40 BD a month for speeds up to 40mb which gave me a constant average download speed of about 3.6mb per a second. Fast enough to download a movie in under 5 minutes and no issues with online streaming. I had a capped limit of 250 GB of data download per a month which was more than enough for me.

They do offer another package that was 80BD a month and that has a 1000 GB data download limit plus speeds nearly up to 100MB if this is something more of interest to you. The engineer who came out tests both services and lets you know if the higher speed one is available or not, in my case it was but being alone here and only wanted to use online streaming of amazon prime services etc in HD, the 40mb package did a better job than my fibre optic package back home in England did.

The zain website has some offer on now that wasn't available when i signed up o you pay for the first  month for example and then zain will pay for the next month so it works out at like being 50% off

bh.zain.com/en/personal/internet-plans/4g-lte-home-broadband/4g-lte-plans

Hope this helps

you mention your dish from rapid but I can't pull up a website for them. I'll also be in Saar... well Janabiyah to be precise... in a couple of weeks and would like to find out more info. Do you have contact details you can share?

thanks