Gaming Bros

If you go and search on the 3G+ (Also know as HSDPA) technology, you will know why it isn’t suitable for online gaming. The problem is that 3G+ uses the mobile network to transmit and receive data and then the data goes into a data line (Broadband) which takes it to the internet. The problem lies with the mobile transceivers (node) and mainly two major problems that can easily be recognized with such technology when it comes to latency. First is the coverage area. With many mobile devices connecting to a node, the coverage area gets reduced and hence your connection to that node will get worse. Generally, this doesn’t happen a lot since the people connecting have to be on 3G to affect your 3G connection but if happens, it can seriously affect your connection. Secondly, the mobile protocols used for communication have a larger overhead. So in addition to your TCP/IP overhead, you got the mobile overhead which is quite large due to the complexity of mobile communication. So even though you can reach to high bandwidth rates with 3G+, your latency is affected due to at least one of the two mentioned issues plaguing this technology. Especially when you compare it to hardwired connections like ADSL.

Now regarding Nawras 3G+, it gets worse since they don’t have their own internet gateway but rather use Omantel’s backbone, which the latter alone suffers latency issues. Just try calling the hotline and tell them you have a problem with latency, they will just go and refresh your line!

From my personal experience, the Nawras 3G+ connection suffers huge amounts of lag spikes (You will notice that everything is frozen for 5 seconds or so) which is really bad for online play. Omantel ADSL, doesn’t suffer from such an issue even on the lower 512kbps connection (again, latency has nothing to do with bandwidth). So if you plan to game online, you have one option: Omantel. Besides, Omantel’s 1mbps connection is 19RO monthly fee with 2gb free + 1RO per GB vs 39RO monthly with 10GB free + 4RO per extra GB that you get with Nawras (Golden package, the other packages are worse). Only way you can go Nawras is when Omantel tells you that you are far from the ADSL exchange in your area (more than 5km) then you are stuck until Omantel adds a new ADSL exchange closer to you.