Telecoms

The State of Philippine ISPs

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief June 19, 2006 · 1 min read

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My recent entry at PTB talks about “MyDestiny and the quality of local ISPs“.

While we’re enjoying the fruits of competition in the broadband internet industry by way of lower rates and higher bandwidth, we usually suffer from service lock-ups and really crappy customer service.

They say, we get what we pay for. Does that mean, that my Php1,995 monthly bill for PLDT myDSL (786kbps) isn’t the “ideal” rate and what these ISPs do is undercut services in terms of uptime, annual lockups, and understaffing which causes poor technical support by undertrained staff?

Is the technology not that mature enough, international bandwidth costs a bundle or this is purely greed? I hope not (for the latter).

[tags]internet service providers, broadband internet, digital subscriber line[/tags]

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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25 Comments

dhor08 · 18 years ago

Globelines is the worst ISP here in La Union… poor service, poor connection, poor speed etc..

Digitelone = poor in DL but good in online games
Smartbro = good connection, good service nice for those gamerz.
Pldt = same as smartbro but higher speed

rra · 19 years ago

Bayantel is great. Im subscribed to a 384kbps plan but on the average I get over 400kbps and at times it bursts up to about 1000kbps and it was great. Customer support is not good because they could not figure out certain problems at times, like DSL filters, noise on the line, PC issues, etc. Usually they resort to resetting the port which does not resolve the issue.

They promise a 500 rebate if your issue is not resolved within 24 hours and that is a good deal and a great risk for them to take.

Crze · 19 years ago

what isp would you recommend for those here in davao?

smart bro is out of the question we were just having it installed. and the service was already bad. Let’s just say the people that were trying to install were worthless

prenotrigger · 19 years ago

currently I am subscribed to Bayantel DSl, so far I have two thumbs up for the customer service which will help you out in their basic troubleshooting, and if the problem really goes out of hand, they will send a tech within the 24 hour period(maybe because they don’t want to void their warranty, which they will have to refund a percentage of your bill).

But the real problem with bayan dsl is its poor phone lines. I’m not using a wifi connection but it seems just like it.

*when wind blows i get disconnected every now and then*

*bits of rain will make your connection die on you*

I don’t think this is because of my location because i’m just in the middle of Quezon City.

mya · 20 years ago

Mydestiny is the worst cable internet provider. Their crappy service starts on installation schedules. Mine got delayed for 1 week, my friend’s got delayed for 2 weeks. The downtimes are horrible. It gets disconnected very frequently. Their customer service is the crappiest. My vote: don’t even consider getting mydestiny.

Christopher Quijano · 20 years ago

I have tested around 5 broadband providers for the past years here in Quezon City, mainly myDestiny, GreenDot (PT&T), Meridian Telekoms (before taken over by Smart), Bayantel DSL and PLDT DSL. I have a good impression on the first two companies. I was getting around 200-400KBps download rates on myDestiny and constant connection and reliability with GreenDot. I had a horrible experience before with Bayantel (very slow speeds and unreliable connections) but after a couple of years, it seems that they are now ok.

On Price – myDestiny is worth the payment, GreenDot was a little bit expensive.

Tech Support – ok with myDestiny and GreenDot, bad with PLDT.

kutitots · 20 years ago

Well, that’s true. That’s the same principle behind why I’m enjoying my Zpdee cable internet. There are very few coverage areas, so I don’t think they have many subcribers.

I pay P999 a month for 384kbps, and also have a discount on my Skycable bill. I’m not sure if that’s low, but what the heck, I think it’s worth it. They have an excellent support service. They really walk you through troubleshooting, and if it’s not resolved, the next day technicians will come to your house fixing it or replacing stuff that needs to be replaced.

I don’t know if other people have complaints with regard to their service, but so far, I can honestly say they’re one of the few better ISPs out there. And to think I’m a heavy internet user.

Well, I guess that’s the advantage of having few subcribers :)

vance · 20 years ago

so globelines, in cavite is terrible?? kasi from what i heard globe’s csr are quite bettter than pldt’s and smart. oh wait smart uses pldts csr so no wonder there.. btw globe is the most reliable internet in the market compared to pldt..

jhay · 20 years ago

To be honest, I’m familiar with only two ISPs PLDT and Globelines, maybe because I live in Cavite and they are two biggest names in the telco business here. There are almost no wifi spots here, save for that lonely spot in SM Dasmarinas, plus the big names in cable TV are not that popular or widespread here either. Mostly, we get our cable services (crappier compared to the ones in the Metro) from local homegrown companies and I haven’t of anyone that is on cable internet from around my town of Silang and the next town which is DasmariÃ±as. Some 30km south of Manila.

Still, we also suffer from terrible, terrible technical and customer support.

Noemi Dado · 20 years ago

*rather pioneer in Cable internet.

Noemi Dado · 20 years ago

I’ve been a loyal Destiny subscriber since December 1999. At that time I was paying 1,999 a month complete with Cable TV. Then the plan was reduced when they used the Docsis system so it’s now 1688. The speed is quite fast, I had no choice in those days because they were the first to pioneer in cable TV. PLDT dsl wasn’t around then.

vance · 20 years ago

i just want to point out that theres some ISPs in the market that increased their prices but its only a few..

Well, I agree but having lower rates increase the number of subscribers which I think is what most ISPs’ goal but having to do so as you said it affects their after services and leaving us with untrained tech support…