Inside Iran

Ecotourism, Medical tourism and educational tourism are well known phrase nowadays. But nobody talks about the BandWidthTourism (aka BWtourism). OK! Maybe it is my invention

The word BWTourism came to my brain last week while I was spending a lazy time in a hotel room in Warsaw with a 6640kbps internet. I was going to spend the afternoon in the hotel room so I’ve started killing time on the Net.

I am from a country in which

• The minister of the communication has stated that the 128kbps is the limit for the home users (and I’m paying 27USD for it monthly)
• The internet is HIGHLY filtered/blocked. Many sites are filtered. This means if I type www.Youtube.com, www.flickr.com, www.facebook.com, … I will see a page saying “This page is blocked based on the law”.
• The internet is slow. This not only slows the Net but also changes it’s concept. Youtube is not a video source for me. It is a site with many videos which I get one of them in an email via a link. I have to click on it and wait 4 times the length of the video to load. Then I have to rewind the video and watch it. With this speed, it is impossible to search the videos and browse them. Or you can not just wander in the Facebook. You have to bypass the filtering, slowly accept your friends and upload a photo if you are lucky enough not to get a timeout.

Considering all the above, I coined the phrase Bandwidth Tourism when I was using a 6Mbps connection. I was able to open my own site without bypassing the Net, I was able to search for “U2 concert in warsaw” and watch all the videos or login into the Facebook and upload a couple of photos and search for friends or even test some of it’s apps.

I will be a TWTourism advocate from now on for my friends. I will tell them to take some time and experience the Net as it should be. Just like a person who takes time to visit the nature in it’s real state or going to a country to visit / feel it’s historical sites. I will dedicate part of my next travel to Bandwidth Tourism.