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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According to Smart, these are the areas where their HSPA+ base stations or cell sites are available so you can expect speeds of up to 12Mbps here using Smart Bro Rocket Plug-It.
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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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Just came from the PLDT-Smart Jump Center in Megamall for the briefing on Smart’s LTE/4G beta testing. Arounda dozen bloggers and tech journalists are part of the first batch of folks to test Smart LTE in Metro Manila.
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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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We featured this HSPA+ capable mobile hotspot from ZTE a few weeks ago and we’ve finally gotten a review unit to test. Like many other pocket WiFi (MiFi) devices before it, the ZTE MF60 is one pretty kick-ass unit. If only it were more affordable.
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According to Smart, these are the areas where their HSPA+ base stations or cell sites are available so you can expect speeds of up to 12Mbps here using Smart Bro Rocket Plug-It.
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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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So tomorrow (July 30), Smart will open their 3G network to everyone and offer free mobile internet for free within a 24-hour period.
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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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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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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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In a recent report released by Speed Matters, Japan topped the list of countries with the highest median internet download speeds at 61 megabits per second. The United States fell far behind with only 1.9 megabits per second:
Between September 2006 to May 2007, nearly 80,000 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (nearly all of them with broadband connections) have gone to the Speedmatters.org site to take an Internet speed test and measure how fast their computers can upload and download data. This is the first national survey of actual Internet speeds, and the results showed just how the US continues to lag behind other countries.
The chart below shows Japan’s internet speed is about 30 times faster than the US, with a few other countries in between:
South Korea: 45Mbps, Finland: 21Mbps, Sweden 18Mbps, Canada 7.6Mbps
You can download the full report in PDF format here. The report does not show results from the Philippines but basing form our recent discussion on the state of DSL in the country, I guess it’s way down there in the charts.
I checked with DSLReports and there’s some data there of 28 independent test for PLDT shows an average 706 Kbps download and 235 Kbps upload speeds.
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}
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!
I’ve been wondering why almost 2 weeks now, my DSL connection has been acting up on me. It connects just fine but in a few minutes, there’s no internet then it comes back again then gone another minute. When I called up the customer rep the other day to downgrade my account, I explained to them that one of the reasons why I wanted to downgrade wast the broken promise they made last January.
Just now, while experience the same irritating problem with the dsl going on and off, I tried to check on my bandwidth speed at PLDTPlay and got this:
I couldn’t believe at first by I also tried other broadband speed test sites:
TestMy. net : 787 Kbps or 0.79 Mbps (96 kB/s)
2Wire : 700.10 Kbps
SpeakEasy : 556 kbps or 69.5 KB/sec.
Looks like a legit upgrade. Ok, lemme try with Limewire. 
The SmartBro installation team just arrived here at my place to hook me up. Took them about 30 minutes to install and configure my account and I’m now running on Smart Bro (Just one of my desktop PCs. My laptop and other PC is still on myDSL.).
First off, some speed tests:
PLDTPlay: 260.3 kbps
GlobeQuest Utilities: 235.0 kbps
2Wire: 99.50 kbps
TestMy: 113 kbps
Smart Bro top speed: 384kbps
During the installation, I talked with the two tech guys and explained to them my arrangement with Smart. The tech guys were actually a bit curious why my account was different, at least that’s what the designated subscriber code says. They added that the subscriber code I am using is for internal use and usually assigned to COs. I told them I hope it does not affect my connection speed from that of a regular subscriber.
The above speed test results would indicate I am in no better luck than any other subscriber. Ok, on with the testing.
Btw, remeber that wifi incident last week at Malate? The techs did confirm to me that it’s something they’ve also encountered before and when they reported it back to the NOC, they were told that it’s for an experimental hotspot. Looks like Airborne Access is going to have some internal competition of sorts.
