770 Internet Users of Cairo, Unite!
I originally posted this rant on Facebook, rather than here, because I doubted it would be of interest to most readers. Some of the responses, appended anonymously at the end, were interesting. But it was only when I discovered that Ogle Earth had created a Google Map of cafes still offering free wifi in Cairo that I decided to republish the rant (thank you, Ogle Earth).
Here’s where to take your business and your laptop:
View Larger Map
(If you know of any other places that have yet to fall into the evil Link.net/Mobinil monopoly’s clutches, follow Ogle Earth’s instructions on how to add them to the map.)
Original post follows:
Link.net and Mobinil, having established a near monopoly on what used to be free wifi connections at over-priced coffee shops in Cairo, have now started charging for the service and requiring customers to provide their email address and mobile phone numbersvaluable information for advertisers, spammers, and security agencies. If the companies mine customers browsing history for interests and neuroses, that information becomes even more valuable. A clever business plan, but customers dont need to play along.
I should say first that I know that this is a petty gripe, and that you’re probably not interested. If you dont live in Cairo, you’re almost certainly not interested. You may want to stop reading now.
Until a few months ago, it was easier to find a free Internet connection in Cairo than it was most anywhere else in the world. Considering that in the year 2000 I used to have to walk an hour and cross a bridge to get a slow connection from a grimy Internet cafe, this was a wonderful and speedy change.
Universal dial-up for the cost of a local phone call helped a lot. But why bother with this when you could get free wireless Internet at something approaching broadband speeds in a swish coffee shop? Free wifi and a space where women could drink coffee and even smoke in public without attracting judgmental stares encouraged demand for ridiculously priced, lousy cappuccinos and similarly ridiculously priced, soggy-white-bread sandwiches. Coffee shop empires were born on the back of free Internet and $4 cups of coffee (in a country where a better cup is still widely available for 20 cents).
As a freelancer, I came to depend on these cafes. I made them my office. Yes, the bill for an afternoon of coffee and juice could be 20 percent of what Id earn from an assignment. Yes, I could probably have done my work more cheaply at an Internet cafe, paying by the hour (or certainly at home but as any freelancer knows, sometimes its worth the money to get out of the house). Yes, the coffee was usually crap masquerading as something with an Italian name. Yes, each coffee cost about as much as a taxi driver grosses in an afternoon if the traffic is particularly bad. Yes, Id have to spend the afternoon smelling teen hormones and listening to really abysmal music. And yes, I was turning my back on one of the best things about Cairo: its centuries-old cafe culture. But for the price, Id get natural light, free air-conditioning, a guy bringing me fresh juice whenever I desired, and, most importantly, a decent wifi connection.
When I first logged on to the Internet at one of these places and saw a log-on screen from Mobinil and Link.net, I knew what was coming. The screen didnt require anything. Just that I press a button saying Activate at the beginning of the session. I was annoyed when it didnt work, which was fairly often at first. But more than anything, I resented the inevitable loss of my free Internet connection. This was the first step in conditioning consumers.
Over the months, more and more of the chains signed up for the Link/Mobinil service. I guessed the companies were offering the cafes free Internet (I cant think of any other reason why the cafes would sign up). When Link.net and Mobinil established a near total monopoly on the swish-coffeeshop-wifi market, they introduced the next phase: users were required to sell their email address and mobile phone number in exchange for as little as three minutes of free wifi.
Judging from the number of people I still saw with laptops in these cafes, a surprising number of people took them up on the deal. Personally, I made the calculation that the inevitable SMS and email spam wasnt worth the Internet connection.
At the time, Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, a local human-rights NGO, and some journalists complained that the new regime robbed users of privacy and anonymity and made it easier for the security agencies to match activity with users. These are valid concerns. But the security agencies could snoop into traffic and match users with activity before. The monopoly just made it easier by centralizing the records on Link.nets servers. And I havent seen any evidence that this initiative was driven by the security agencies, rather than by the capitalistic instincts of the companies involved.
Anyway, Ive stopped going to the lousy coffee shops, but I hear the Link.net/Mobinil juggernaut has now moved on to the inevitable next step: Charging for access. Now, I already pay Link.net for horrible service at home, not because I want to (I have tried to cancel several times), but because Link.net, perhaps aware that their service is crap, has made it so difficult to cancel their service and to switch to the competition that only the most determined and irate customers will deem it worth their time. Im not paying Link for the privilege of using their crap service outside the home. (Incidentally, I know two people who successfully got out of Link.nets incompetent clutches: One got a new phone lineno easy task. The other spent weeks losing work days sitting on hold, having circular arguments, and driving to Mohandisseen, eventually succeeding only by insulting religion. But thats another story.)
OK, so yes, Im an unhappy Link.net customer. Im also a relatively happy Mobinil customer. Thats not the point. I dont begrudge Link.net and Mobinil their fiendishly clever and well-executed plan. But as a former patron of lousy, over-priced coffeeshops who now spends too much time at home, I have a personal interest in seeing their plan fail. If youve read this far, you probably do too.
Heres what I suggest: If you are a customer, do not patronize cafes with a Mobinil/Link.net connection. Ask if the wifi is provided by Link.net and Mobinil. If it is, leaveideally after telling the manager why you are leaving. There are still a few cafes who havent joined the monopoly. Go there, and ideally tell the manager why you have come. If these last hold-outs disappear, buy a Vodafone wireless modem card and take your laptop to a proper ahwa that makes good, Turkish coffee and serves shisha. Swallow your shame and try to ignore the stares when you open your laptop.
If you are a cafe manager, dont participate in the monopoly. What are you paying for your broadband Internet connection, anyway? LE 500 a month? How much money, on average, does a regular customer spend at your place? LE 50? How often in the course of a month do they come? Maybe 10 times? If you lose two customers to save LE 500 on your Internet bill, you are losing money.
If you own a cafe that serves good, Turkish coffee and shisha at sane prices, please install wifi on TE-DATAs network and let me know. If you are an entrepreneur, please start such a cafe. Make it a place where women could go without feeling uncomfortable. You could even charge LE 15 for a coffee. Id still come.
Selected comments after the break:
[Name redacted]
Very nice story.
I first met that in Costa Cafe, Alexandria, almost a year ago. I asked the manager and he said he received the orders from “the state security”. But I can imagine that there is some sort of cooperation between state security and the service providers for the benefit of both.
[Name redacted]
fyi, there is no more free wireless anymore, whether linkdotnet or otherwise. There is new regulation stipulating the minimum pricing for internet service, hence you cannot provide free wireless.
The registration requirements are not new “state security” regulations, they have been there for a long time and were being applied to cyber cafes, and asking for registration for wireless use in coffee shops is just an extension of that existing regulation.
[Name redacted]
good post, but I think you are overestimating the amount of money people in general spend there and what percentage of their customers use internet (i guess it depends place to place).
When I go to those places I have coffee for about 10-13 pounds and thats it. 50 pounds seems to be quite higher than most people would normally spend. So It seems to me, whatever deal they are getting from the company makes it worth their while to start charging.
[Name redacted]
Hey, Link.net did the same with me. Fortunately, I already had another phone line.
Thanks for the post. It is really helpful. At first I, too, thought it was a SS project. Who knows, they could all be in on it. But if this is true, then TE-Data should join, no? Tayeb, what’s the best solution? isn’t the usb modem from vodafone unnecessarily expensive?
[Name redacted]
I’ve got the Vodafone 3G dongle, and yes it is expensive to buy, but if you live here it is a great way of avoiding these new wifi charges and allows you to be a lot more flexible — it’s usable in most populated places in Egypt. Of course, Vodafone knows who their customers are, so there is no opportunity to surf anonymously here. In addition, Vodafone’s service does not support virtual private networks (VPNs), so you can’t encrypt your traffic or URLs.
[Name redacted]
It’s simply not acceptable to let some company that I’m paying money to impose their or somebody’s else’s terms on us, is it?
[Name redacted]
Today I walked into Cilantro Abol Feda after a long absence and i was shocked to hear this card system is all over cilantro branches now!
I immediately walked out to the close by internet cafe and here is yr post!!
Cilantro portrayed itself as the national brand standing tall against Starbucks imperialist and tempting offer.. it promoted the Cilantro Central magazine and claimed to get involved in community projects.. but here it is, working against our interests!!
Should we Do something?
[Name Redacted]
definitely! my humble suggestion is we start by finding the cafes that don’t impose this new system. what else?
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Here is another way of getting a better result: let everybody buy generic 2MB connections in their homes (or more. You spend that amount on bad drinks anyway), spend 200 pounds for a locally-made omni-directional antenna and become a provider for everyone in the neighborhood.
There was a time when I could get online for a few minutes continuously while riding a taxi in Cairo (or hours while in a feluka). Now, people lock their networks.
For a while in 2004/2005, I was very excited about Cairo’s connectivity as the next logical step then seemed like communal WiFi coverage and everybody using connection managers that alternate between different nodes in this one big resource.
Alas, that could actually be one upside of living in central and dense Cairo.
Comment by Amr Gharbeia — September 26, 2008 #
I like it, Amr.
What really drives me nuts is that the ICT Ministry was experimenting with long-distance WiMAX connections years ago.
Now I’d be surprised if the power of that good idea can trump the combined interests of Mobinil and Link.net.
BTW – You’ve also made me feel incredibly guilty about putting a password on my home network. If I ever have money I’m going to get a second phone line and do as you suggest.
Comment by The Skeptic — September 26, 2008 #
Thanks for posting about this.
A standard Shisha cafe in Nasr City’s 8th district called Limozen[sic] offers free wifi. The owner subscribed to a standard DSL connection and managed to set up a wifi router. The price of a cup of tea is 1.5EGP. So yes the math doesn’t add up, there is no reason for Cilantro and others to switch to Mobinil wifi, even though they used to provide their own wifi service in the past.
The only plausible explanation for this is that Mobinil is providing cafes with demographics or other data. These cafes know that charging customers for Wifi doesn’t work, since TheWayOut planned a similar scheme few years earlier (without asking for mobile number etc..) and it never worked.
Comment by Mostafa Hussein — September 26, 2008 #
Thanks very much for the tip about Limozen (which sounds fantastic, but I’m not sure I’d take my wife to “the resting place of lions, and the factory of real men”;) ).
I know it’s a pain to register for Google Maps, but is there any chance you could add it to that map, as well?
Comment by The Skeptic — September 26, 2008 #
Will try to do so, the only problem is that I can’t exactly pin point its location on the map.
Comment by Mostafa Hussein — September 26, 2008 #
Sweet. Thanks!
Comment by The Skeptic — September 27, 2008 #
Just a disclaimer: Limozen (pronounced Limosine, go figure) hasn’t really seen a female patron in over a decade. It is a Balady Qahwa, which makes the availability of free internet all the more astonishing.
The Link-Mobinil axis of evil is an unfortunate development. Sadly though, I worry that we are outnumbered by people who are more than content to pay for their free internet, just like their more than content to pay for their overpriced cappuccinos
Comment by Wesam Masoud — September 27, 2008 #
How about all open hotspots go on this map, coffee shops, residential, or otherwise?
Comment by Amr Gharbeia — September 27, 2008 #
Good idea. Anyone can edit the map, so we could just go ahead and open it to free wifi connections, but out of politeness, let’s see if Ogle Earth has any objection.
Comment by The Skeptic — September 27, 2008 #
Many a news site have picked up on ANHRI’s press release.
And for the record, here’s a link to Wael’s original post.
Comment by Ahmad Gharbeia — September 28, 2008 #
Thanks very much for that, Ahmad! Was lazy about the internal links because this originally ran on Facebook.
Comment by The Skeptic — September 28, 2008 #
Has anyone tried to use Anonymizer when using Link.net?
This may be the way to get free internet and work around there tracking schemes.
Comment by AGotham — September 29, 2008 #
AGotham, Anonymizer and similar proxies serve mainly to hide your identity from the website publishers, not from your ISP. Unless is uses SSL to encrypt your requests.
In the case of Link-Mobinil WiFi issue which Zarwan tackles here, the most direct threat becomes the ISP’s ability to associate your connection session with your real world name&home identity because of the sign-up/log-in requirement.
Basically: You loose the true anonymity which was previously there, and which likely scared the security apparatus. Specially when you take into consideration the mobile operators’ new requirement of registration for all lines.
Comment by Ahmad Gharbeia — September 29, 2008 #