Yesterday, PLDT and Intel held a joint event to present a partnership for the PLDT WiFi Zone and the Intel-powered ultrabooks. They didn’t really share anything concrete plans bewteen the two brands but it was an opporunity for me to ask a lingering question — can paid public WiFi still survive in this time of cheap mobile internet and free public WiFi?
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Wi-Tribe has recently (not sure exactly when) upgraded all the speed limtes of all of their broadband plans, including the top Plan 1998 from 2Mbps to 4Mbps. Not bad considering my PLDT DSL plan is charging the same rate but only pulls down 1Mbps (supposed to be 2Mbps or 3Mbps).
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The year 2011 was a great year in the field of technology. We’ve seen a lot of new stuff and developments in the last 12 months. I’m sure 2012 will be even better and more exciting. Check out my top 10 tech predictions for 2012.
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In a TV commercial aired last Saturday, PLDT introduced a new DSL plan which offers up to 10Mbps for just Php4,000. That makes it the top broadband offering under the myDSL service line-up (PLDT MyDSL Plan 4000).
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Since October 1, Smart has switched the plug on their Smart Bro Rocket Plug-It to use volume-based data pricing (same as Always On). The recommended bucket plan is Php200 per 180MB. So I tried it on my Rocket Plug-It to see how much I’d consume in a day.
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Been in the boondocks for about a week now on a semi-vacation mode (and semi-retreat kind of way) so I’m not able to regularly publish new entries here. With a thousand miles away from mega Manila and a couple hundred more miles from the nearest city, my mountain resort hide-away is almost devoid of any internet coverage.
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That’s according to a recent report of the FCC in the US — broadband subscribers in the US only get around 50% of the promised internet speeds by service providers.
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For the past 5 years now, we’ve seen a huge growth in internet penetration in the country. At the same time, we’ve also seen the barriers to entry go down in favor of consumers, partly because of competition.
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Last month, PLDT sent out word to subscribers that they’ve prepared the network for the live-streaming of the Pacquiao-Clottey fight on WatchPad. Manny turned out a winner but how about PLDT’s WatchPad?
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BayanDSL is now offering live streaming TV and video-on-demand to all it’s DSL subscribers and Sky Broadband customers. Available channels include ABS-CBN and cable channels.
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Just realized that since all the telecom players (Sun, Smart and Globe) are now offering unlimited 3G internet and subsequently lowering the prices down, 3G is officially cheaper than DSL.
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Last May, Globe Telecom sent us a formal statement regarding the peer-2-peer bandwidth capping on their network — claiming they’re not doing any bandwidth capping. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have such provisions in the subscriber contracts, a copy of which is posted below:
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For the last couple of weeks, my PLDT DSL connection at home has crawled to a turtle’s pace. I don’t often get this type of problems in the last 4.5 years but this time, it took longer than one would expect.
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Sky Broadband seems to be tipping the scale for broadband speeds with offerings of up to 6Mbps and 12 Mbps packages for residential accounts. Just got a pamphlet from their roving people asking residents to switch.
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In the years that typhoons have hit Metro Manila, none have dealt much damage to electronics at home. That’s until Typhoon Frank hit Manila this week-end. It’s all Frank’s fault – the metrowide blackout busted my DSL modem.
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We were discussing about broadband connectivities over at Rico’s blog where he’s recommending ETPI’s 5Mbps package for Php35,000 a month. I haven’t tried Eastern Telecoms ever so I cannot attest to their connection uptime and reliability but have heard so many complaints about their residential offerings, dubbed evoDSL.
And while I suggested getting 2 separate DSL providers and using a D-Link Load-Balancing Router to hook them both up, I also discovered PLDT has published newer bandwidth caps for its residential plans.
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Joey Alarilla asks “Do we actually have broadband in RP?”. Yeah, we do, it’s called Digital Substandard Lines. *heh*
Been hooked up on DSL for about 4 years now. Before that, I languished in crappy dial up connection. I started with Greendot at 256Kbps for Php2,750 for about a year before I moved to PLDT DSL paying Php1,995 at 384Kbps speeds. They then upgraded the accounts across the board and my Plan 1995 got 512Kbps, went up to 786Kbps and now at 1.2Mbps.
If you think about it, the 384Kbps cap is now 1.2Mbps after 4 years at the same monthly rate. I should be happy right? Well, in a way yeah. Them DSL providers would make you think/feel the same. The premium residential packages now are at 2.2Mbps and 5Mbps (Alabang area only).
However, those free upgrades to higher speeds aren’t any good at all when you’ve actually checked the actual speeds. Ever since I’m on the 1.2Mbps line, I’ve always checked my bandwidth on different days of the week and various times of the day. Here’s how it fared via Broadband Reports:
It’s like it’s just half of what I was told my supposed connection is. The only time I’d get that promised 1.2Mbps is when I ran the bandwidth test via PLDTPlay. So, the line from my place to the PLDT servers tops at 1.2Mbps but my actual DSL speed from PLDT to the outside world is just half of that. Great. So those upgrades we’re all getting all these years were a farse?
When do we get Singapore’s 100Mbps speeds to their homes? In the year 2020?
This is not just any other bandwidth meter around. It tracks your location, including your ISP and upstream provider. You choose which server to connect when measuring your bandwidth. Here’s my results for my PLDT myDSL 1995.
It’s supposed to be rated at 1.2Mbps. The connecting server I used was Bayantel. The system also saves a whole bunch of data from other users so you can dig them up, get the average for your area and even compare the performances of other ISPs. This one screen shot report I got the the Metro Manila area:
Interestingly, Destiny is topping the charts with average speeds in excess of 1.6Mbps. That’s almost twice that of the runner up, PLDT.
Should be really useful when people move houses or something. They’d be able to get the average performance of an internet provider in that location.
{hat tip to Dave Starr}
Over at PTB, Arnold is taking a spot survey from readers on the status of their ISP’s connectivity. For my end, it’s still spotty. There will be times that the speeds are decent (though not at par with normal) and there will be times that it’s totally useless to go online.
I have PLDT myDSL which is the worst hit. Surprisingly though, Smart Bro seems to be doing much better than expected.
So, I went out and tried several AirborneAccess hotspots but couldn’t login. Then I discovered that my free account from them already expired last December 31. Time to use that Globe WiZ backup but none is in sight.
Again, Smart 3G/GPRS saves the day. It’s not really that fast but feels better than dial-up (97kbps via 2Wire).
How’s everybody else’s connection nowadays?
Found this at the PC Express website:
“The DI-LB604 is the newest addition to our range of routers that includes the industry’s latest technology. It provides all the functionality needed to establish a reliable high-speed Internet link while at the same time protects past investments,” said Mr George Wong, Marketing Director of D-Link International Pte Ltd.
The Load-Balancing Router with features 2 WAN ports for load-balancing and a fast-acting fail-over mechanism for dropped Internet connections. 4 Ethernet ports provide wired connections to up to 4 computers. Thus, users can set up a high-performance network that offers the fastest and most reliable speeds, without sacrificing their past investments.
Advanced Network ProtectionWith SPI and NAT firewall with DOS attack protection, the DI-LB604 provides secure and reliable network connections. System logging, ACL and VPN pass-through protects the network against outside threats.
Easy Management and SetupThe DI-LB604 can be easily configured using its web-based management interface.
The DI-LB604 Link Load-Balancing Router will be available soon at all PC Express branches.
If from what I understand here is right, this means you can hook up two DSL accounts and combine them into one router and get an effective connection rate equivalent to the sum of both broadband connection.
So, I have an existing PLDT myDSL at 1.2Mbps and another Smart Bro account at 386Kbps. If I use the DLink DI-LB604 router, I could have 1.586Mbps connection speed on my network. If one is down, the other is still hooked up. Cool! I want one!
