Qtel's Mozaic TV+ : review

Review and Information on Qtel's Mozaic TV+ package

(Note - this is a review of the Mozaic bundled tv, telephone and wireless internet service - details of Mozaic Mob can be found on the Qtel website.)

Mozaic’s bundle of wireless internet, telephone and television costs just a little more than their telephone and adsl package would cost otherwise. There are two basic TV packages, Asian or Arabic, and we chose Asian as there seemed to be more English language channels.

Most of the channels available on the Mozaic television are available free on satellite television, but you can easily upgrade to paid packages which are quite reasonable in price: 25 riyals for a children’s package, 25 riyals for an Asian films package and 75 riyals for an international films packages.

To be honest, the clinching factor for us was when our US Robotics router decided to malfunction again, leaving us without wireless internet.

Obtaining Mozaic

As usual with Qtel, you cannot order services over the telephone but actually have to go to a service center and order it.

We went to Hyatt Plaza one afternoon as we have found the service center there to be quiet. Sure enough, there was no one in front of us, so we only had to wait 20 minutes before being called by the surly and rude customer service representative. Mozaic was installed two weeks later.

This time the engineer couldn’t be more polite and helpful. Unfortunately, after four hours the system stopped working and it took two more visits by Qtel before it started working again. On the positive side, Qtel did respond promptly after we reported the problem.

On the negative side the engineers were more like the customer service representative this time. The first one left without solving the problem. In fact we didn't know he was gone - he told us he was just going out to check the external wiring and we never saw him again. The second one did manage to sort the problem, but left us with an unsecure network because it was three o' clock and that was his knock off time.

Did I mention that the first engineer was from a company subcontracted by Qtel?

Price

The standard Mozaic package starts at 250 riyals a month. That's what swung it for us, as we were already paying QAR200 just for our ADSL service. Note that the price only counts for one TV set - additional sets cost extra. There are additional pay per view programmes and films, although we haven't tried using these yet. We weren't charged anything for the installation or the hardware.

What you need to order Mozaic

We took along our telephone number, Qtel number, account number, reference number and so on. It wasn’t enough – you also need your eletricity number. When we gave the customer service representative our Qtel number we were told that we were out of range, despite the fact that three of our neighbours have the service. However, after phoning home to get our electricity number Qtel's computer decided that we were now in range.

Hardware

The hardware consists of a large router (Tilgin AB model Vood 453w_A) which is attached to your telephone socket. While your computer connects to the router via wireless, your television is connected to a Motorala set-top-box which is in turn connected to the router by a wire.

Service

We were a little bit worried about reports of flickering and interrupted service, but any interruptions to our service has been minimal. A friend who has had Mozaic longer than us says the service has improved since he first had it installed. After the first hiccup the television set box has failed to work once, but was fine after being turned on and off.

Friends have reported the same thing to me. While it is not a big problem, it would be very annoying if you wanted to watch a program at a certain time, as the top set box does not start straight away but takes several minutes to load up.

One thing that does me is when the television starts up you get the Qtel logo with the same annoying music that you have to listen when you are waiting to speak to Qtel on the phone. However, that goes as soon as you change channels.

The internet has worked smoothly since being installed - in fact, if anything it is faster and smoother than or previous adsl service. The range of the wireless also appears to be good - I haven't used my wireless extender since installing Mozaic.

Conclusion

So far, so good - although we have kept our satellite box in case anything goes wrong with Mozaic...

More info

Ring Qtel on 111 (option 5)

Your opinion?

Have you installed Mozaic? Had any problems, or is it working well? Let us know!

Also see our website articles; Qtel and Telephony in Qatar and Mobile Phones in Qatar

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