SINGAPORE–As usual, being in Singapore has reminded me how unfortunate we Filipinos are when it comes to our information technology infrastructure.
Frankly, I don’t know how our telcos do it. I don’t how, year after year, they can get away with providing us with lousy service while still raking in money. While the availability and affordability of broadband has, to be fair, improved over the years, it doesn’t change the fact that what passes for broadband in the Philippines is laughable by the standards of other countries, such as Singapore. And forget quality of service — if all the horror stories we hear about the quality of broadband in certain areas are anything to go by, even when we part with our hard-earned money, we’re never really sure just what kind of service we’ll get, depending on which area we happen to reside.
So why do telcos get away with providing broadband services that are sometimes much slower than dial-up connections? Why are we consumers expected to grin and bear it if the service in our area is horrible due to some technical problem or lack of adequate coverage?
And to think of all the money they spend on glowing ads that tout how cutting-edge their technology is and how much they’re improving the lives of Filipinos. How many Smart Bro users out there feel like puking whenever they see those ads claiming that this service is the “broadband ng bayan”? Where exactly are these areas where Smart Bro actually has speeds that qualify as broadband? And if you’re one of those users who doesn’t get to enjoy these speeds, sorry ka na lang ba. tiis na lang?
You hear horror stories about all broadband services in the Philippines, whether it’s from PLDT, Globe, Destiny, whatever, that you start wondering if availing of these services in the Philippines is a crapshoot, a game of chance, only we keep ending up with crap.
So what’s the solution to finally ensuring that Filipinos won’t have to put up with shitty service? Is it finally time to get rid of the service area scheme, because quite frankly, I’d like to have as many choices as I can — if only to get the lesser evil. How much are telcos actually investing in their infrastructure?
It’s a pity, because we Filipinos do have world-class talents and skills. We can compete with the best of them when it comes to creativity. But unlike Singapore and countries more blessed than we are, we’re held back by private companies that keep dropping the ball when it comes to infrastructure — and a government that keeps letting them get away with it.
So tell me, who’s your broadband provider, and what’s your horror story?
October 4th, 2007 at 9:28 am
[...] par with Hong Kong [ HK tops broadband survey of Asian cities, Manila ranks 19th ] or Singapore [ Do we actually have broadband in RP? ], can’t we address first the issue of digital divide and lack of [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 4:44 am
[...] first wanted to document this when the Do we actually have broadband in RP? and how’s your DSL in the Philippines topics came up three months [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 10:36 am
[...] par with Hong Kong [ HK tops broadband survey of Asian cities, Manila ranks 19th ] or Singapore [ Do we actually have broadband in RP? ], can’t we address first the issue of digital divide and lack of [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
SmartBro is the worse broadband provider i have ever encounter.
plan 999 with 384KBPS? yeah right, i only get less that 40 Kbps i just got it installed 3 days ago and i hate it.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
PLDT sucks. They have been overcharging me. You know the Guild Wars promo last year? I availed it last March 27, 2006. It’s supposed to be charging me for 1 year only but until now they’re still billing me with that!
Another thing is I lost connection from July 23, 2007 to August 2, 2007 and it’s their fault because they already told us that the error was on their side (Loss of configuration or something like that). They told me that they will give me a rebate… but my billing came and they didn’t even deduct it!
I’ve been complaining to PLDT every year for 6 years already. I’m a PLDT myDSL Professional subscriber since 2001. That’s 3000 a month and they still have crap service.
PLDT sucks I wish I could bomb the corrupt people there.
oh and another thing… yeah i’m using the professional package… but my speed is just the same as their plan 999. sucks.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Hi!
Just read all your complaints, and will add mine: observed PLDT dsl torrent download speed in United Hills Village, Paranaque (next to FTI) is anywhere from zero to 5 or 7kbps during peak hours (my dialup is quicker), and seems to max out at about 70kbps mid-morning.
While comparison is inevitable, let’s not forget - as someone has mentioned - that Singapore, HK andTaiwan are all island states. Easy to install infrastructure; and of course easy to police! The Philippines is a collection of Pacific islands. Getting connected has been a bitch since the year dot, and that includes the two-way traffic of control (by CEOs and politicians) and feedback (by us). So we’re still, frankly, a bit feudal. Control is crude, and effective feedback is non-existent. This isn’t a complaining culture. “Customer service” is in reality a buffer between the order enjoyed by privilege and the chaos which it more-or-less administers. Unless and until we organise, what we are doing here is blowing off steam.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
It’s enough to say that the government and the private sector have not done much to improve online facilities. South Korea went into it successfully when the private sector and the government invested $100 million each and brought in a foreign investment $800 million about 6 years ago. That explains why 85 to 90 percent of households are connected by fiber optic.
The Philippines should also wake up.
Anyway, one has to do what is available. In my case, I’ve just been doing online business for quite sometime, in any way I can, marketing goods and services worldwide, with the meager Internet infrastructure in the country.
I hope things will improve soon.
July 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am
My broadband provider is Smartbro and I have no horror story, yet, to tell you. (Sorry, Joe.) But based on the other comments, there is much room for improvement in terms of connection speed and customer service. It is really up to us, the subscribers, to force telcos and the NTC to fulfill their promises and do their jobs. If there is a lobby group for the improvement of internet services and telco services, count me in. And since Joe has such a determined and fighting spirit, I guess he should start one.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Just to share my experience with one of the telcos. We are subscribed to globelines which used to be under the name of my sister. We were also using their broadband connection which used to cost Php 2,000 a month for a 384kbps(plan Explore). Around 2 years ago, my sister moved out of our house which made my dealings with the telco a bit tiresome since it was still under her name. December of 2006, I applied for a change of ownership so I that I can deal with them directly, after fulfilling all the requirements, they told me that it would take 1 billing cycle to process the transfer. Guess what? After countless follow ups and even a letter of complaint, they were able to transfer it after a full year! Meantime, they have offered a much lower rate for their broadband which I wasnt able to adjust to immediately since the ownership was still being processed. There wasn’t a satisfactory explanation on what caused the delay. It was truly frustrating.
And btw, squeaky wheels get the attention needed so try to understand if we whine..it does not totally mean that we do no action about it. Changes happen after revolutions, and revolutions don’t start without some whining at first.
July 7th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I’ve hopped from provider to provider and this is the common denominator of my observations: Customer Service Sucks Bigtime! I am not complaining of substandard speeds. Well, where can you 768kbps for less than a thousand bucks? But customer service is another matter altogether. CAll me most unfortunate, but with one DSL provider who advertises malakas ka sa kanila, 10 harrowing days of angry calls passed before they restored my service. It also took the same provider one whole month to transfer my line to a new location, which happens to be in the same building. Another provider totally failed to repair my line. After 3 weeks, I gave up on them and had my subscription terminated. This “broadband ng bayan” fared better. I’m actually getting speeds higher than the advertised 384kpbs. Nakabawi naman siguro ako sa sama ng loob ko sa dalawang malalaking telcos na iyan.
July 7th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
We are suscribers of both smart and globe broadband..we had our smart bro for almost a year now..but we didnt have a complain maybe smartbro worked very well in our are here in gensan..but until one agent of globe broadband offered me to get their broadband..then, my horror broadband story began when they already installed globelines broadband at home..the first day i test it..i get disconnect every 15mins..whew! the days went by..I thought it’ll improve but it became worst..I just recently experience having no internet connection for 2 days.I want to cut the connection off but of course i cant they’ll let me pay for it..why shoud I pay when all I did get was a very lousy service.This is not fair maybe they should make a revision of the contract they have..that if on the first month and the customer is not satisfied with their service she or he can cut his connection without paying 2 times the bill and paying all the materials they have installed!.Im so upset.Everyday I always get a lot of headache using Globe Braodband Because my sister is the one who uses smartbro.If they’ll only understand me and let me cut off my connection because I am working on the internet 24hrs. and their broadband has caused me a lot of trouble and wasted time..
Globe broadband doin’t market ur broadband if you think that it is not working very well in an area.And try to revise ur contract with the subscribers bec. all of what is written their only were only for ur benifit.Ur company is big please maintain it’s credibility.thank you.
July 7th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Just come here to US and you will enjoy the new 5mb speed and the normal 3mb cable DSL strength. Or maybe just have your own OC3 line a whopping 155Mb from AT&T. That’s broadband bro, unlike in the Philippines broadband is snail speed.
July 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
ehehehe
July 7th, 2007 at 12:07 am
If we are not happy with the ISP’s sloppy service and false marketing gimmicks, then why do we still subscribe to them?
Is it because we do not have a choice?
How about choosing not to subscribe with those DSL or broadband lines and stick with dial up! Period. That’s it! Makes your life worthwhile instead of whining about how your internet life sucks.
Sometimes Filipinos are slapping themselves on the face. They keep on complaining about the service yet they write on blogs, forums, but not directly to the agency concerned. The internet is there for you to provide the email addresses of these agencies, write to them!
Look at the political climate in the Philippines. They all want change yet they choose Gringo, Lacson, trapos and artists who had been known to plunder their country.
During Marcos time, the country appeared to be the tiger of asia, but because of politics, it was a roller coaster ride with Cory, Ramos, Estrada, and now GMA.
You all want her out, right? Who you want next? GRINGO?
July 6th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
The only way for us to get improved braodband service from the providers is to abolish the onerous “lock-in” period to keep the providers honest.
Subscribers will then be free to change their provider if it does not deliver.
As it is, a subscriber is held hostage and forced to endure 12-24 months of bad service or else pay a hefty fine for early termination.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:37 am
In reality and technically speaking it is impossible to meet the data speed those ISP’s claiming. It’s a data sharing hierarchy plus all the medium factors to consider I bet it won’t happen you get what you paid for. It’s just all about marketing strategy to entice we subscribers. NTC should do their job as a governing body to scrutinize and study what this company’s marketing to the people…..ONAD
July 5th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Don’t deprecate our country too much. Although it’s really fast here in Singapore, not everyone is happy. Just check out Singapore forums about Singnet and Starhub.
I’m into Starhub Ultimate Maxonline too, supposed to be up to 100Mbps. But the real speed I get is 0.964Mpbs. Still fast, but clearly false marketing.
July 4th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Well, it’s a poor country. What do you expect.
July 4th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I think comparing broadband connection in the Philippines and Singapore is firstly outrageous. The author simply did’nt get it and I guess simply does’nt know anything about the market dynamics of telecom industry.
Comparing SG which is the size of Makati City to Philippines which has around 7000+ plus island is just mind bondgling.
Although I agree that service level is definitely not acceptable in most cases… but has improved after the deregulation of the industry - now you have a choice. I recently got a DSL connection since 2006 , internet speed is acceptable and I only needed to add 200 pesos on my telephone bill.
I do hope that further research is put into the blog next time….
July 4th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I am subscribed to Skydsl at 384 kpbs and I got as 384 upload and download. Hooray! To get your actual speed use DUMeter and not just any web broadband speed meter because the will offer different results.
July 4th, 2007 at 5:55 am
^^ oo nga, evrything works in Singapore, while everything here is so slowwww!!!
worse, manloloko pa, magnanakaw, sinungaling, punung-puno ng katiwalian…
in other words, walan kwenta!!
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Joey,
Meron bang class action suit of any kind against these nefarious providers? If you know of any, please inform us, your readers, and I’m sure a lot will be willing to support this move.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
not sure of the technical definition of broadband but i can surely compare it to dial-up - and most of us assume that if we get broadband - it ought to be faster than dial-up! but its not always the case!
here’s my experience with our so called “broadband” here in the Phil.
i regularly use 3 “broadband” lines: Globelines here in Davao City; SmartBro in Manila; PLDT DSL in Pasig.
I’m subscribed to a 2MBPS Globelines here in Davao but my speed usually clocks in at an average 93kbps!!! Not even half of the subscribed speed!
My SmartBro is even worse. It sometimes clocks in at 40kbps (frequently less pa at single-digits-kbps)!
Both lines also suffer from frequent dropped connections (which is infuriating since I’m an avid mmorpg gamer. hello? death by deadlink!!)
My 5mbps PLDT DSL line is decent at 3mpbs… and hasn’t given me problems since the early 1990’s when i subscribed to it. so I’m happy with that one service. but its also outrageously expensive.
i usually check my net speed via internetfrog.com
so is there decent broadband connection here? yes - but only if you’re willing to pay an outrageous amount for it!
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
try bayantel unlimited, its dialup but its fast enough and you can be online continuously. its 799 per month with phone connection.
i had to get this because pldt nextgen phonelines are slow connecting to bonanza and other isp. i think pldt is throtling the connection so you go to their vibe isp or their dsl
authorities should look into this pldt practice
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:51 am
It is not true that telcos can provide internet in the whole country thats a fact. Much more, they can not provide for the broadband requirement of the Government so that all municipal and provincial offices can be connected to a secured intranet which is needed to deliver e-Government services. A secured and reliable intranet is necessary so that those bad days in agencies like nso, dfa can be over. With intranet, goverment work to bring the nso certificates to the provinces instead of the people lining up every day in quezon city.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:54 pm
since the question being posed is “do w actually have broadband?” and some people are defining broadband as somewhere around 200kbps … then in my situation the answer is a resounding NO!!!
i have three net connections that i use: 1 SmartBro in Manila, 1 DSL in Manila, 1 Globelines in Davao.
1. The SmartBro “Broadband” registers an infuriating 90kbps on average (sometimes less!).
2. The Globelines in Davao is a supposed 2MBPS connection but in reality we average 200kbps. (WTF? not even half of the advertised speed!)
3. The PLDT DSL in Pasig is a 5mbps connection and we get a fantastic 3mbps average connection. Happiness!
The SmartBro and Globelines also suffer from frequent dropped connections which is a huge bummer as I’m an avid mmorpg player (hello? death by dead link!)
July 1st, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Here’s a bit of history. For many decades during the analog age, PLDT rules as the single biggest phone company despite giving lousy service and limited connections. Up to the early 90s, a phone line can be sold for 10,000 upwards by a lineman or someone who already has it simply because of the limited number of available lines. PLDT was slow to expand despite the demand. They were earning from long-distance call traffic so they could afford to drag their feet.
Sometime in the early 90s, Singaporean premier Lee Kuan Yew, builder of the first First World country in SE Asia, addressed the Pinoy business community with Pres. Ramos onstage. Lee was known as a man who will not mince words and, in the course of his speech, chortled about how Philippine business could even imagine getting off the ground when phone lines were so scarce. This embarrassed and irked Ramos who promptly went after the tail of Tonyboy Cojuangco and then liberalized the telephone industry.
Fast forward. Today, PLDT and other telcos are doing the same foot-dragging and backward business practices that pull down the country. Poor service, high charges, slow progress, skyhigh profiteering. Siguro sanay lang ang Pinoy na pagsamantalahan.
July 1st, 2007 at 3:37 am
I am currently subscribed to a ‘tycoon’ plan of 768kbps with ‘2mbps download speed’ with globe broadband and I am not satisfied with their service. We experienced slow downs, intermittent data loss even though the router shows i’m connected. Sometimes we failed to pay the monthly bills, and after we settled our accounts, it will take more than 24 hrs to reconnect it. by the way, how can we measure the CIR? Can it be measured by a Site?
July 1st, 2007 at 1:17 am
I think that its only a matter of time before we can truly get fast and reliable internet connection here in the Philippines.
The market for broadband internet is just starting to emerge here, largely due to the current offers of relatively cheap broadband (ex. Smart Bro and Globe Budget Bundles).
Since these companies have just realized that there is a market for such a service, they would want to invest more on it to capitalize on the trend. But right now its a fight for who has more subscribers, and we simply cannot expect that the service will be 100% satisfactory because their focus is on this at the moment.
I have read though that both Smart/PLDT and Globelines have invested rather heavily on data connections (cables,etc.) to meet the growing demand. We can expect that in next year or two the services that they provide will significantly improve, and hopefully can at least equal our more advanced counterparts abroad.
June 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
stop whining. I have a 10MBPS in singapore via SingTel and it doesn’t feel like 10 MBPS. It’s only 10MBPS if I connect to Singtel website and services, other than that, I don’t get the advertised rate.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:58 am
I’m currently hooked up with a wireless broadband of Globelines (Speak N Surf). Many are saying that this service didn’t even pass up for a broadband connection, and I got horrible stories from the Web about it.
But I have no choice coming from the place where I live where PLDT said all of their DSL slots have been filled up, and that took me almost 10 months of waiting, and counting.
Well, I was able to get wireless internet, and got my broadband for the first time in my 10 years of accessing the Internet. I, in effect was forced to get it though, even if I know that their service has been crappy. It slows down whenever 6PM comes, no matter what DNS server I’m registered into. Plus, they would intentionally slow your line down if you call their tech support for help, saying that is part of their SOP in monitoring and determining the problem.
Now I know that a subscriber like me cannot just call Customer Service to complain because they may slow down your internet connection under the guise of troubleshooting a subscriber’s connection.
I really envy other countries’ internet speeds, especially those coming from Taiwan. How I wish too, these giant telcos will be filled with conscience over the way they now treat their subscribers.The billions in revenues they earned every year will be nothing unless they truly give updated broadband and telco service to the people.
However, I still believe there are some people behind these telcos that have the human heart to listen to our long suffering gripes. To them I’m now clinging to hopes of an even brighter life, as one telco proudly banners in their new, revitalized marketing catchphrase.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[...] @play: Do we actually have broadband in RP? [...]
June 29th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
lousy broadband service in the philippines is caused by seperate decisions by their marketing department and their IT department. they take on more than they can chew and we end up on the losing end. this is true not only for home users but for businesses as well. we used to subscribe to a dedicated line which was supposed to be sdsl and never was our upload speed at par with our download speed which would result to high latency and choppy voip service. to think our adsl connections outperforms the t1 connection in terms of upload speed. sigh. consumers in the philippines are always made to compromise and accept whatever lousy service we are accorded to.
June 29th, 2007 at 10:34 am
hmmm
bandwidth meters on the Internet measures your PC’s access to the server hosting the meter and not necessarily your own access
try using MRTG and open as many sites as possible to knwo if your connection clips at the peak
most internet cafe owners subscribe to the lowest plan and connect as much PCs to it thereby slowing the connection. They complain to the telco for slow connection and yet they should be the one to blame
you can have broadband connection here if you have the money to pay for the right bandwidth.
don’t beleive marketing guys telling you you get 384 kbps, 1 Mbps et al. Those numbers are just burst speeds i.e. you can only get them if the common uplink is not busy. ask for CIR (committed information rate) and if you didn’t get it as stated in the contract, complain
June 29th, 2007 at 8:47 am
simply put it this way…
pinagkaka-kitaan pa ung investment nila kaya hindi pa ma-upgrade ung service nila..
imagine buying a cellphone na worth Php30k tapos may lalabas na bagong model with far more upgrades after a month, papalitan mo ba agad?
Actuallly may point nga din na maliit ng Singapore kya almost wired ang country but mind you, the money here always goes to the right pocket…
Customer service is always top priority..
Isa pa wala kasing private company na may funds and connections na pwedeng i-step-up agad ang service nila kaya hindi maka-sunod ung ibang competitor, minsan hinaharang ng ibang agency kuno…
Hay …we could only hope, as I have heard Singapore is projecting by 2015 that all household will be having a pc and a free internet wi-fi connection..sa pinas 20yrs pa? aaahh okay…
June 29th, 2007 at 8:46 am
your article mentioned about your broadband experience in Singapore and broadband standards, you should present comparative facts and figure of broadband providers (locals & standards if any) so the readers can better accept your allegations.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:31 am
dear bros. actually phil not lagged behind,, thre are almost two hundred countries , and phil is in top 50 in internet con, go to india and some middle east countreis and africa,, or even in veitnam , and see how there internet working,, mamatay kau sa highblood try nu din maginternet sa bangladesh at pakistan and eastern europe,, and you will appreciate internet in the phillippines..kung gusto mo wala internet mamuhay ka sa myanmmar at bhutan o kaya sa tibet .. will regarding adds,, will no bodys perfect,, if they intend ,, dont worry they will pay in due time….. rol california dude
June 28th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
I have ComClark for my broadband provider in The Philippines. They have always been reliable and very little downtime, even compared to my US broadband provider, Time Warner. The only drawback is customer service. I guess thats my gripe for every Philippine business. Try emailing a Philippine business to inquire information or to file a complaint, you’ll get the run around like no other. That’s if you even get a reply at all. ComClark has also land line and cell numbers you can call for customer service. One number doesn’t work. The other one I called, someone answered the phone as “Hello? Who is this?” LOL, only in The Philippines.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
[...] @play: Do we actually have broadband in RP? [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
DigitelOne sucks big time! I went thru each post here, and I agree that the government should really step up efforts to have these ISPs clean up their act. We’re not getting our money’s worth. i live in the province and I’m paying well over P2,000 for a 512kbps service, sure I get 420kbps on good days but I cannot count how many times I’ve called their Customer Service hotline to complain. When will the gov’t or NTC/DOTC for that matter or whatever gov’t agency who’s driving a red plate ever get these ISPs to fix these problems once and for all? Slow connections, drop connections, high CRCs, line attenuation problems…? come on guys, you’re getting paid aren’t you? Why don’t we have a LAW against these slackers? Para saan pa yung opisina niyo kung marami na kayong natatanggap na complaints, pero walang action?
June 28th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Hello,
Akala ko, ako lang ang madalas ma-high-blood dahil sa kabagalan ng internet connection jan sa Pinas.
We Filipinos are shortchange in many ways by just living in our own country. But the good news is many of us now are finally recognizing the bad. And by just talking about it we raise the level of awareness and hopefully some brilliant soul could stumble upon it and resolved this paralyzing issue.
I can’t imagine a company that is PLDT that earns 33 Billion Pesos every year could stomach the slow internet connection these days. Hello! Internet is everything now, and speed matters most.
I do online PSE stock trading here in Korea in such a breeze but I dread the moment of coming back for a holiday in Phil for a nightmarish internet connection.
Not that I am proud of connection here in Korea or that of Japan where I live for 6 years with fantastic internet connection…but my God, I am praying that our countrymen wise-up, stand-up and deliver and show to the whole wide world that WE FILIPINOS CAN !!!
Desmer
Seoul
June 28th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Let’s have a REVOLUTION para matapos na pagdurusa natin. Walang kwenta lahat ma Gov’t., Politicians, NPA, Bayan Muna and etc.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Facts/Figures:
Singapore: Area = 704.0 km², Population = 4,483,900.
Philippines: Area = 300,000 km², Population = 88,706,300.
Metro Manila: Area = 636 km², Population = over 10 million.
It’s not fair to compare the internet services of “the smallest country in Southeast Asia” to that of the whole Philippines especially when the former’s population is not even half of the NCR’s. The thing is, kahit man lang sana sa metro manila ay maayos ang internet (after all it’s the center of the country). Sadly though that’s not the case. Kahit hindi na ganun kabilis (kuntento nko sa 384kbps), basta wag lang paputol-putol (intermittent according to SmartBro) or worse totally walang connection.
That’s the big problem here - it is the quality of service/connection. Of course, quality comes with infrastructure. Singapore is already a developed country (sa liit ba naman e), whereas ang ating inang bansa, ayun, nghihikahos pa rin (20 years pa daw according to GMA bago tyo maging developed - wish ko lng). So magtitiis na lang ba tyo? Well, kung di nyo matiis mgabroad n lng kyo!!!
The definition of “broadband” or broadband internet access varies from country to country & from standard to standard but in general, any connection to the customer of 256 kbit/s or more is considered broadband internet. So going back to the question do we actually have broadband in RP? YES, absolutely. Next question, is it at par with developed countries like singapore? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
naku kung i post ang mga horrific stories sa broadband connection offered by different telco baka hindi kayanin ng hardware storage ang magpopost…
I got a very disappointing experience with SMARTBro lalo na ang kanilang customer care grabe kung ano ano tinatanong sa akin sinasagot ko naman pero yugn needed action di nila ginagawa. Hindi nila ma maintain ang speed na ina-advertise nila. hindi na sila na hiya. Itututo nila ang isa pang sub-contrator company nila e sila naman ang kumuha nito. bad.. very bad ang speed. It took me 1 week to down load 340MB file. lagi pang wala connection sa Las Pinas Area ako. Tapos sabi ng customer care na i check ko daw ang speec connection ko sa internet. Paano ko kaya macheck e sabi ko wala nga ako connection. Ang galing ng customer care ng SmartBro ano?
Isa na lang sana may Batas or Law for this to protect us. kasi ang nangyayari I advertise nila na ganito ang speed ganito ang services tapos may lock in period ka na 12 months babayaran mo yun and suffer ka if you experiencing bad service. tangalin ang lock-in period para kugn di ko gusto ang services wala na akong pananagutan kanila. Ang kakapal ng mukha ng mga taga SmartBro.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:26 am
damn, i wonder how it feels surfing @100Mbps speed…whoah!
it’s a pity how we languish here back home with all these telcos fooling us all around and round and round…
nice one joey!
June 27th, 2007 at 8:50 am
[...] @play: Do we actually have broadband in RP? [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 8:08 am
In the USA 200 kilobits per second is defined as already broadband. The Philippines is not really far off in terms of speed. I think the problem over there is unreliable service. The Filipinos only recourse is to complain and complain until you get the proper service.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:31 am
In my office, we were supposed to have a T1 connection… but I don’t feel it’s a T1 at all. We only have 9 PCs to share with it.
June 26th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
i got connected with the globelines broadband at my residence in leyte last september of 2006. from the start of its connection until now i havn’t taste a better service. it’s good if i can use continuously the broadband for 1 straight hour. on - off - on - off - on - off. that’s what they call DSL. they’re good in advertisement. SH_T!!!
June 26th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
It doesn’t make me feel better about the service that I have especially we have all these Filipinos abroad who keep insinuating that our service is inferior. My family uses Smart Bro in the province and so far it’s doing ok. I used PLDT when I was in Cebu and I was able to surf, download and watch streaming videos without any problems.
I don’t know about that 100 Mbps that a lot of you have mentioned, but I noticed that it’s the “regular” speed I’m getting when I check the speed of my connection. I don’t think it’s an accurate representation of the actual connection that I have, however. Has anyone tried to use any of the free online tools that can help gauge your actual speed?
I have to agree that there’s so much more left to be desired with what we’re getting. Customer service sucks for one, and the hidden/extra charges are quite preposterous. But then, those who are abroad and boast of excellent connection may just be keeping from you the bad side of their service. Speaking as a former call center agent for a DSL provider in the U.S., they also have crappy service in many of their areas. Check some forums. They do complain about the same things as we do: speed, charges, crappy customer service…
Personally, I’m happy that I can go online at a decent speed. If our telcos can improve it, make it more affordable and give us better customer service, I will be a much happier camper.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Ayos lang kung may disclaimer. Problema, sa advertising pa lang niloloko na ang mga tao. Like they would advertise that you’ll get, say, 1Mbps, but in fact you’ll just get 512kbps. now, talking about truthful advertising, eh.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am
What I want to know is how accurate are bandwidth meters. One moment it reads something like this and other time it’s much lower.
I suggest that internet providers at least give their subscribers a week ,or longer, for free trial and give back money if not satisfied. We feel ’shortchanged’ whenever we don’t enjoy the full benefits they provide.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:34 am
a part of it has something to do with economics. Given the high costs of rolling out and implementing infrastructure: local lease lines, outside plant, networking equipment, Internet port in the US and the submarine cables from the pinas to the US and you’ll see the idea behind it all.
add to the über-pricey charges of the telcos themselves on smaller ISPs in their int’l lease lines
telcos need to defray those fixed cost while maintaining the (bad )service.
add to all that marketing and operational costs
note that the peso lags so much behind the dollar (where cost of equipment, IP port and submarine cables are paid) and tell you P1000 is just about $22 a month.
$22/month is a paltry compared to the cost of the infrastructure alone.
oversubscription makes up for it. that’s why if you really need broadband, you need to pay for a premium service where the bandwidth is reserved for you.
about bad customer service and false advertisements, file a complaint at the DTI
stop whining about Singapore. They have the money to pay for the bandwidth
I used to work in a telco/ISP where I managed an Internet gateway
June 26th, 2007 at 10:25 am
We can”t also blame internet providers. Some of us tend to be stubborn and insist on getting a connection far from the need. If you’re in a business say internet cafe or a corporate establishment, you”re supposed to get one that suits your immediate needs and that of customers of your customers and rather than going for the most cheapest plan. We are talking now of a network connection , that is, many PCs are sharing the bandwidth.
June 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
internet connection here is a big lie,not only the service, but the charging,they claim that it was only 999 but when the bill comes it was P1500…what do you call that?
June 26th, 2007 at 6:49 am
I guess we’re lucky kasi sa province maganda service ng SMARTBRO ko…or maybe marunong lang akong magmaintain ng computer? 90% of Internet connectivity problems are mainly bec of lack of knowledge and negligence of the user. Although our Broadband services here are definitely not at par with other countries, survey shows we’re still better off compared to “hitech India”
June 25th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
We have a broadband service but is not covered by quality of service, you can take it or leave it. How come that our BPO industry is growing while our Internet facilities still sucks! Where these companies get their telcos huh!?
June 25th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
VOIP as once included in Globe’s list of services now its gone even there call center agents and subcontractors and employees and the company as well is very silent about this. I still have an unused top up load of about P400 since February and still now yet to be refunded or to be reflected on my monthly bills. its now June
June 25th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
we have SmartBro at home. I guess we were outSMARTED coz the connection is so bad, every so often it gets cut off. And we have to shell out P999 every month. We see their advertisements everywhere. But the service is UNRELIABLE!
June 25th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
hi all,
we all share the same sentiments.
internet subscribers should be informed that when an ISP claims that they can provide you with 128, 256 or 512Kbps of internet connection, subscribers should ask their ISP, what is the CIR or commited information rate? the CIR is what you pay for. CIR normally way too low than what this ISP claims. if they give you 512Kbps this only means that your connection is burstable to 512Kbps but your actual connection is way too low, you’re paying for your CIR. don’t be fooled by this large/fast bandwidth. your connection quality depends on where and how many subscribers are connected simultaneously. for example, wireless broadband is a shared connection. depending on how many of you are connected in a given area divide the bandwidth and it gives you your connection speed. simple mathematics but most subscriber are totally unaware of this reality.
the govt should act on this marketing ekek of these giant ISP’s claiming this and that but at the end of the day what you’ll get is their lousy service and lousy connection.
dont blame the ISP’s, blame our govt. and its corrupt officials at NTC.
NTC should be liable for all this lousy internet services.
puro kasi lagay e. puro kurakot kaya malakas ang loob ng mga higanteng negosyante gumawa ng kalokohan dahil corrupt naman ang govt natin. they can just slap this officials with their money and that’s it, they can do anything they want. sino ang kawawa sa huli? tayong mga taxpayers at end-customers.
June 25th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Why the shitty service? The business and political elite are used to taking what s not theres, reaping other people’s rewards and giving us less than what we deserve. I think they should all be labeled neo-Kastilas.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Sa bahay ang ginagamit na lang namin postpaid Dial-up ng PLDT. Diskumpiyado kasi ako sa DSL ng PLDT. May areas na ok lang ung bilis, meron naman iba na sobrang bagal, o minsan na-lalaglag pa un connection. Nagtataka nga ako dun sa sinasabing 2 year contract. May nakalagay kayang guarantee dun, or disclaimer about the speed? Could we actually file a class action suit ba yun, para ireklamo services nila, like False advertising? I mean, ilang porsiyento ba ng bilis ng internet ang masasabing acceptable? May nabasa kasi ako minsan na minsan up to 60% lang ng claimed speed, covered pa rin sya.
Also, when I read foreign online blogs and columns, parang iba ang speed ng DSL at broadband. Mali ba ako? Comscie grad nga ako pero di ko pa rin gets.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:38 am
You want me to give you an honest and real answer?!
As Pinoy working overseas with the hopes of going back home and because I could not find a job in Manila, I was trying to create a “job” for me so, I opened an internet cafe in Antipolo. I intend to close it in a few weeks. Reason? Visit my site.
Here’s the site: http://www.myinternetville.com. The entries I made pretty much sums up our life with PLDT DSL.
June 25th, 2007 at 2:06 am
I agree with Dr Charles. It’s an OK here in Spore. Not even a single day of discnnectivity (except that Taiwan earthquake). I just pity my brothers and sisters there who are sitll studying thatcant get the most out of broadband services even inschools. 5years may still be not enough to solve this.
June 25th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Ang pagkaka alam ko “up to 2MBPS” means makukuha mo yan pag kunti lang ang gumagamit ng bandwidth, kapag marami na kayo paghahatian nyo yan. So kapag ang plan nyo e merong nakalagay na “up to 2 MBPS” maaaring 10KBPS up to 2 MBPS.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Looking at Joey’s video footages and those feedbacks of other Filipinos here reflects what typical Filipinos “become” when they emigrate out of their own country and become “planted” in other countries. They will brag what their host countries have what their own country doesn’t have. Filipinos are best at “killing their own kind” otherwise known as “crab mentality.”
To the Filipinos working and planted in Singapore, clean up your acts, stop whining about your country, and help to make it better. Comparing Singapore to your country in terms of physical wealth will do your country no good and bespeak of unprofessionalism about yourselves.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Stop comparing the Philippines to Singapore. First, what is an archipelago compared to a single island?
Such lousy service is there for the Filipinos because they subscribe to it. Just like the politicians, they are up there because the Filipinos themselves are choosing them, either by hook or by crook. And who cares? Walk the talk, baby! Stop writing and show some action instead!
June 24th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Hello,
Telcos in the Philippines still uses twisted pair line in providing broadband service, which I believe is inferior versus fiber to the home (FTTH). Twisted pair is used to carry analog signal and even if telcos employ DSL regardless of the speed without changing the network configuration, it will still result in poor performance. Huge investment is required to meet the broadband standard i.e. 10 Mbps or greater, and I don’t think that the Phil telcos are ready for that.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
And then there is Globe “Invisibility”. The Globe website claims that 3.5G HSDPA is available in Baguio and La Trinidad. But where? - even the service centre at SM Baguio can only get EDGE. I cannot even get EDGE. Globe tie you in for two years but then do not provide the 3.5G service that you subscribe for. When are DTI and DOTC going to jointly ensure that Globe provide the service that it advertises and we pay for? Why are DTI not providing proper consumer protection and forcing Globe to issue refunds when they do not provide the 3.5G that has been paid for? Why did DTO give Globe a permit for its Visibility advertising campaign if the infrastruture to provide the 3.5G service was not yet up and running? Broadband in the Philippines is a joke!
June 24th, 2007 at 2:22 am
hi forbes, thanks for visiting. your comment wasn’t deleted. all the comments on our blogs are queued for moderation, as explained in the comment form. i had a backlog of comments and wasn’t able to approve the comments sooner. sorry for the delay but i have to moderate comments for most of the blogs on our network
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
patawa yung ad ng smart bro ano? broadband ng bayan, kahit saang sulok ng pilipinas daw. eh wala naman ako sa bundok, along the road pa, hindi town proper, pero di ako abot ng coverage. i am using a 3G phone to get online via smart internet na crawling at 230.4 kbps mas babagal pa pag mahina ang signal. don’t ask me how much i pay smart on a monthly basis just for the data sessions. yun nga lang problogger ako so tiis, i need internet at home so badly.
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 am
[...] Alarilla asks “Do we actually have broadband in RP?“. Yeah, we do, it’s called Digital Substandard Lines. [...]
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:06 am
Mr. Joey,
Nag place ako ng comment dito in reaction sa write up mo.Bakit po nawala?Is it too intimidating?Panu kaya aaksyon mga taga DOTC if those people who removed my comments are too scared publish people’s strong comment.Alam nyo naman na manhid mga taong gobyerno kaya ang kailangan nila maanghang ng comment para magsing.
Takot ka Mr Joey mawalan ng trabajo kung ikaw bilang moderator ang nag erase ng comment ko?
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:12 am
I feel sorry to see what the services our telcos are providing to us filipinos…
And for most of those still living in the provinces, the broadband Internet of the information age is far far away from their life till now, and clearly there is no hope that this will be improved very soon, say, in three or five years.
Even the government, who want to connect their office together with broadband connections and build e-government applications, began losing patience with these slow developments and poor services across the country provided by private operators, and decide to build government owned national broadband infrastructure for public services with no charge and better services than the private…
Year after year there are arguments that privitaziation provide big development in telecom sector. Somewhat, it’s true, remember you are in metro manila or those big provincial capitals. You can even apply for a 3G terminal which can provide you realtime tv videos even you are running a car in Makati CBD. But, imagine you travel out of metro manila, then you muse be wondering where am I? where are those cute services? why no telephone, why no broadband? why no 3G video call?
I agree that the government need aggressive actions to push forward the development of our national communication infrastructure for better public service and better efficiency. Think about the e-government applications, you will know that no private operator are interested to this government affairs. Instead they are focusing on invest more in big cities to make more money…
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
Me and my friends already filed complaints with regards to PLDT Plan888 and PLAN 990 which promises “Hi Velocity Broadband Internet”. Well, They only offer 88kbps for Plan 888, is this broadband to them? It runs at par or even slower than dialup. Nobody seems to regulate and check all these lies companies promises to us. NTC did received my/our complain, but until this very moment we all suffer.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Why can’t we stop comparing ourselves and our infrastructure to someone else. I don’t think that Filipinos are quite lagged in technology or infrastructure. I been in the “so-called” first world countries working for a company that will soon change the way people perceived the Internet. And it stunned me that the technology inside the Philippines is much more advance and the individuals maintaining it are way up amazingly skillful. This is not about connectivity, but it is about optimizing the connectivity whether it is a dial-up or a faster than dial-up.
Of course, if your purpose of using the internet is about downloading stuff or into that cam-to-cam voice chat world then it is another story.
We should not be bothered by what other countries can offer. Rather, we should be focusing our strengths and amplify it further.
FYI, there is no such thing as 100Mbps broadband access upstream/downstream full-duplex as what you are claiming of. The effective throughput of both upstream and downstream backbone is roughly in either a T1 or an E1 though multiplexed to get more bandwidth.
The IT in Philippines should be boosted with an emphasis on strong mathematics and availability of low-cost computers to every possible household and even schools nationwide. Even with just a pc with a dial-up connection, it will open the infinite opportunities in cyberspace. Then use it well and learn.
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Yeah. Kurakot kasi lahat ng tao dito sa Pilipinas. No wonder walang asenso. Yung tropa ko na nasa Japan 100 Mbps ang speed samantalang ang pinakamabilis pa lang na naranasan ko dito sa Pinas ay 1MBps. Tapos ang mahal pa ng service. Yung mga TV commercials, pinapakita dun kapag nagvi-video chat parang live streaming pero sa totoo nyan, sobrang bagal parang 30 frames per minute. Bad trip. Nakakasuka na ang broadband dito sa pinas sana naman ayusin nyo ang serbisyo nyo. alam kong hindi lang hanggang 1Mbps ang kaya nyo. 386kbps na nga lang hahatiin pa. ang speed ko nga ngayon 15 kbps samantalang ang plan ko ay 512 kbps. bwiset!
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
hi! its my first time to get connected with the Internet using the smartbro…
I just wish the govt will make some measures to discipline providers that do not give efficient service which customers deserve to have; rebates, slow internet… and too high payments..
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
hi joey,
i agree with your observation and comments.
we’re currently connected with bayantel dsl (1024 kbps), but it’s way slower than what they’re claiming. everytime we check with 2wire.com, the broadband speed ranges from 100 to 200 kbps only! downloading speed is roughly 10kbps.
your high blood pressure will only get higher once you complain with their “customer service” agent.
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:51 am
I was one of the first subscribers to a wireless roaming internet service by globe after i realized the need to get online wherever i am since my work is in angeles city and my family is in mla and oftentimes i am not home. They promised 1.8mbps speed in their advertising hype. When i got it a year ago now i could only get 236kbps in my residences! The speed they promised and proven in malls are only true if the area is covered by 3g. Most residences i think arent under 3g, sometimes not even 2.5g! So there i go having to wait for another year before i can finally escape from this horrible ordeal!
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:49 am
i thought it was just smartbro that sucks. I just signed up and got connected exactly one week ago today and there never was a day that I had no reason to call them. I realize I am tied up to them for one year and have no recourse but to grin and bear it until after so I can shop for another internet provider.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 am
I could not believe my eyes reading this page off an http://www.inquirer.net site (yes, strictly speaking, it was a blog off site but then again the link was prominently displayed on your home page).
“You hear horror stories about all broadband services in the Philippines, whether it’s from PLDT, Globe, Destiny, whatever, that you start wondering if availing of these services in the Philippines is a crapshoot, a game of chance, only we keep ending up with crap.
So what’s the solution to finally ensuring that Filipinos won’t have to put up with shitty service?”
I don’t mean to be picky but such terms as cr*p and sh!!ty are just too much to be read off this page or an http://www.inquirer.net page. Reserve that to flame wars on forums online, digg it?
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 am
Check out: http://www.livingincebuforums.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=2333
June 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Everything here in the Philippines is slow. Many Filipinos are hardworking only when they’re outside the Philippines.
June 21st, 2007 at 4:34 pm
what else can you expect from our greedy businessmen? it’s either they’re sycophants to whoever is in power to maximize their bloodsucking of their helpless customers or they are conducting their businesses in illegal or semi legal ways. and our government? ayun, busy sa pagnanakaw! mula sa pinaka mababang pulis patola hanggang doon sa nakaupo sa malacanang. anyway, not all of them are like that. only most of them. umasa pa kayo.
June 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Cheers for Singapore, where you can’t even discuss politics on a message board without getting arrested.
No thanks.
I do agree that slow speed sucks though. Can’t download stuff fast enough. And sometimes, my PLDT DSL disconnects, kicking me out of whatever game I’m playing.
I hope they improve.
June 21st, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Hi Countrymen,
We dont need a new BROADBAND Project for the country on the moment, just make use on what our Phil Govt owns and presently available.
We should open our eyes and see what Telecommunication facilities our Govt owns and working.
1. National Power Corporation they have the Fiber and Microwave Backbone & Switching facilities around the country.
2. Armed Forces of the Philippines they have the Microwave and Switching facilities from Aparri to Jolo.
3. PAGASA They have Microwave and Data transmission facilities in some major areas in the country.
4. DOTC (Telof) Butel one of our govt agency that handle Telecommunication projects they owns most of Communication facilities that is on LEASE to OWN around the country that is run by ( DIGITEL for Luzon, ITALTEL for Mindanao) this facilities is on lease for 30 years so now they still have almost 15 years before this contracts end. So make the best of it.
5. Plus other govt agencies that have some local telecommunication facilities provided and purchased by them.
What is to be implemented is to provide a national switching and data hub that is easy to every one to connect, the national BACKBONE already exist.
The best solution is to allocate the Wifi and Wimax frequencies for govt use and for commercial use so it would be easy for govt to move and implement.
Cheers,
Johnpal
June 21st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
oh yes. i agree. phil telcos charged equivalent amount of money (forex factored in) but services sucks. not only we get slow connection at 386KBps, more often than not, we dont get any connection at all. i thought we only get power and water interruptions in the philippines, we get i-net interruptions as well
10 MBps connection in HK was the fastest i know until i visited singapore april last year … my goodness .. 100 MBps rocks!
June 21st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
It is a proof that the Philippines is really controlled by some big businesses. There is no other reason. The President down to some cabinet members are controlled, whoever they are, many citizens know them.
In fact they hold some control in the legislative and judiciacy branches of government.
So, don’t be surprised why we have that kind of broadband service in the Philippines.
June 21st, 2007 at 7:16 am
Hi there,
We’ve been operating an internet cafe here in laguna for the past 6 yrs. DSL or broadband when we startup wasn’t available in our area then. We and even the customers were satisfied with a shared dial-up then. Then PLDT introduces DSL in our area and we were the 1st to experienced it. Sure it was a horrible experience, intermitent connections, lost connections, and lousy customer support. So i got fed up and switch to Digitel DSL. Even worse, every month since the 1st month of my subscription, we lost connection from 3 days - 1 week. What a disgust! I wonder why i even learned from an engineering team of this telco that they are limited to 2mb connection speed shared to subscribers of 8 or more in w/c some are subscribed to 512kbps or above, can u imagine? if these 8 subscribers are simultaneously connected to the internet, how much speed at most can they get, 256kbps? and they are offering con speed above this? it’s a clear indication of cheating people. When can we ever have a service worth for the money we spend? maybe in my dreams.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:31 am
Mr. Joey,
I knew for a fact that there are NTC personnels who are aware of so many complaints as manifested at the forum of http://www.tipidpc.com alone,pero ang kakapal ng mukha ng mga tao dyan sa NTC they don’t do anything to resolve the issue.Maraming pwedeng gawin ang taga NTC like; shorten the contract to one (1) month or issue a guidelines regarding rebates.Tanung ko lang po sa mga taga NTC,1)bobo ba kayo? 2)malabo mga mata ninyo? 3)bingi ba kayu? o 4)may lagay bang bininigay buwan buwan ang mga higanteng “provider” kaya ang mamanhid ninyo sa mga reklamo naming mga Broadband customers?
June 21st, 2007 at 12:48 am
ISPs like Digitel makes it virtually impossible to get rebates. I learned this dismal lesson about a month ago through a number of irate calls to their customer support dept to complain about intermittent service.
I have also complained about one peculiar phenomenon with their connection: ever so often, connection would be interrupted but only for about a second or two. This is so frustrating, specially if you are downloading/uploading something.
June 20th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Gather around all the subscribers and create a loud noise so the providers can hear. He will be forced to do something to insure quality service - if there was any in the first place.
These providers get away with poor service because subscribers don’t round themselves up and speak with one voice.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hi,
There’s this one time NGN promo from PLDT which I was interested in and contacted PLDT immediately. After months of trying to get rid of the overcharged home DSL from PLDT, the promo they’re claiming to be a good solution was already closed and after evaluating that my area is ok for their NGN line, suddenly they declared that I have to wait for another promo or subscribe anew to the overcharged home DSL with another 1 year lock in and when I refused they gave the lamest excuse of running out of frickin’ ports (where the line is originates from PABX or bigger machine usually through a card). With all the posters and ads they placed, they just pretend that all of their customers are easy to be convinced of their marketing strategy that is to squeeze out every penny in our pockets.
Here’s a bonus, two of my officemates got lucky and availed of their DSL service bundled package….I ended up calling 172 for them due to the slowest DSL ever …. your ordinary ISP dial up is even faster! Whew, we’re three DSL customers all got a share of service problem, 100% customer dissatisfaction.
I’m still waiting for their connection because IT’S THEIR SERVICE AREA therefore I have no choice and there’s nothing I can do about it. Yeah, probably I’ll keep on ranting.
June 20th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I’m very sorry about this comment, it’s not topic-related though. You should have proofread this article before you have posted it. There are typographical errors, missing words, etc. But I agree with your comments about the broadband providers in the Philippines.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Hi, Joey:
The problem is structural. Each Internet Provider has their own line to the Internet overseas and there is very little local interconnectivity.
In the early 2000s, ISPs saw the need to put up local Internet Exchanges–a good idea, except that every major telco wanted to put up their own Internet Exchange, and charge others for connecting to theirs.
As a result, we have several unconnected proprietary Internet Exchanges.
There have been several encouraging developments that offer hope for the bandwidth challenged Philippine subscribers.
1) PhOpenIX has been established as a non-profit, neutral Internet Exchange. Members share costs of operating this exchange, instead of having one owner charging everyone else to connect. At the moment, however, PLDT is still not a member of this exchange.
2) The Taiwan earthquake taught us some lessons within ASEAN: We can’t just connect independently to Japan and the US, we need to connect with each other and to points further on, such as Europe and South Asia. There are already several projects planned to boost ASEAN connectivity, following that embarrasing experience when major telcos were forced to connect through a medium sized ISP that owned a line to Malaysia. Only a a few weeks earlier they had been trying to squeeze that ISP out of the market.
3) Because we already have a neutral Internet Exchange, we can already have a Philippine Root Server, which will speed up DNS queries tremendously. It won’t speed up game play, but it works wonders for the web.
So, there is hope for the future, as long as we keep reminding the telcos that we don’t want to be merely connected to the Internet, we want to be a PART of the Internet.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Hello.
I am a physician working here in Singapore and I just came back after a 3 week vacation in RP.
It was heartwarming returning to my 100 Mbps Starhub Maxonline connection.
Most internet cafes I visit in the Laguna area, whether PLDT, Globe or Smart crawl along at 386 kbps, even less.
One of my neighbors on Smartbro had no internet connection for 3 days and intermittent connection for 1 week and he can not even get a rebate.
Even horrifying still is the fact that he is tied down to a 2-year contract he can’t get out of.
A reliable and cost-effective internet connection w/ excellent customer support is one of the perks here in Singapore.