Internet Woes

[HappyBee]

On the one hand competition is always a good thing.   Corporate collectivism is definitely the villain here.

On the other ..... Well ...... Communist collectivists are not noted for freedom of speech or the free flow of information.  Their infrastructure is designed for censorship and control.

We may end up with all the bandwidth in the world ..... and be too afraid to say anything.


Just thinking.

Guess I am excited for completely selfish reasons, like having good quality and less expensive internet

[lost_in_samoa]

completely selfish reasons

Nothing selfish or wrong with wanting a better deal.

Think global, act local.

[FastWalk]

Nothing selfish or wrong with wanting a better deal.

Think global, act local.

amen to that.   

that is a nice saying.

[HappyBee]

Just thought I'd post an update on my "internet woes".

I decided after months of 2G internet to call Smart and ask if they can do anything.

As usual, when I called Smart I didn't have to wait on hold and the staff were kind.

They checked my router settings and found they were correct, and said that they suspect it is the "location". I had established that the router is OK by trying it in a larger town and found that the signal was very strong.

Smart said they would call me back and let me know the results of following up the issue with one of their engineers.

When they called me back, they said that they have concluded that my internet problems have been caused by having "too many subscribers in your area". I take this to mean that there has been an increase in cell phone users in our area, and simply having all those phones communicating with the tower has slowed it all right down.

They said they have plans for expansion in our area but can't tell me when.

I am glad they took the time to follow this up for me. But the quality of internet in the provinces here is just pathetic. And why the drop in connection was so sudden is puzzling to me... perhaps they reduced our bandwidth allocation here and sent it to somewhere more populated?

[Lee2]

Glad they were nice but I have found that like you, they rarely have any real answers. One answer to too much use of late, if true, might be the 4G unit I posted about below, thus in the price range that many more people can afford it, but if you wish to confirm that the only tower you can reach is overloaded, then you might wish to try the internet in the middle of the night to confirm that, and if no faster in the middle of the night, then they are full of it.
 
Personally I feel that my last suggestion the Hauwei B525 or later units with an antenna aimed at the closest tower or another tower farther away might work better for you but it is expensive and there are no guarantees.

Another less expensive suggestion I can make is that you might wish to try the latest fairly inexpensive LTE Unit that recently came out the middle of last year, since it is retailing for p1,995, the Smart Bro Prepaid LTE Home Wi-Fi and it comes with 10G free data good for 7 days and more important it supports the 700MHz LTE band, so 7 days of included internet lowers the price and the new band, if available at your closest tower or any tower you can reach, would make your internet much faster but if there is no LTE available anywhere in your area, then I doubt anything will help.

[Gray Wolf]

Nothing selfish or wrong with wanting a better deal.

Think global, act local.

I think globally, and act hillbilly 

[ABCDeVil]

I know this thread started 4-5 weeks ago and I am so sad for all the folks outside of Manila/Pampanga/Zambales areas. About one year plus ago, PLDT along with other partners in crime, started laying "fiber", mainly in Manila. This was to help and support the Financial HQ (namely Makati) with powerful internet connections. This being said, along comes one of many companies (ISPs), particularly for us here in Zambales (east end) Converge controlled, layed and connected fiber from Manila - Pampanga, now into Zambales. Prior to this, many foreigners used pocket wifi's, cable from CATV, SKY, Globe etc, with the best on offer, was upto 50mb, but really only getting 20 if you were lucky, with most cable ISPs giving only about 3mb.  A few months ago, I heard about Converge in our local town (Olongapo), well I cancelled my CATV cable internet, saving P850/mth but only getting 3mb on a good day, usually in the wee hours of the night/day. So with Converge, we get 20mb for P1500/mth unlimited. Also, if there is any interruption, I just text to a tech and I am dealt with promptly and service is back up and running quickly. As I test the speed, regularly I average between 19.85-22.48 mbps download and 20-250 mbps upload. Of course, with any ISP service, there will or can be, a split second when the service is off/on, that is infrequent and as I said, a split second. The only time I notice the stoppage, is when I am playing an on-line game, otherwise it is not really noticed.

My advice to everyone, is to look around, especially in the bigger cities/towns for companies with fiber. Yes they exist, outside of Luzon, I know, but do not know any company names. We only use a pocket wifi, when we travel, but half the time, we use the hotel wifi. Good luck and good hunting.

NOTE: don't be fooled with ANY company offering "copper" high speed, for bigger bucks, as "copper" in PR is unreliable, to say the least. If at all possible, the only solution is "only" fiber. The subsequent problem with speed only comes from the ISP server or a line break somewhere, between server and your home.

Good luck to all, hope this helps.