Telecoms

Php50k for 10Mbps: true cost of a guaranteed DSL speed

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief September 2, 2012 · 2 min read

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We wanted to get an upgrade to our office DSL last week so I asked for a quotation and was a bit surprised when I was looking for a 10Mbps line with 1.5Mbps minimum guaranteed speed.

If you’re a long-time residential DSL user, you’d be familiar with the usual broadband prices.

I subscribe to a 3Mbps line at home for Php1,995 a month (although I only get something in the range of 1Mbps) but there’s no guarantee what for a minimum speed. The highest residential DSL from PLDT is a 10Mbps line for only Php4,000 a month which they’ve been offering since November of last year.

But if you runa business, that’s a different thing altogether. This is where the ISP will give you a guaranteed minimum speed (more commonly know as CIR or committed information rate).

Here’s what’s a business-type DSL subscription would look like.

So when your typical residential plan of 10Mbps costs just Php4,000 a month, that 10Mbps does not have any guaranteed minimum speed.

If you convert that 10Mbps to a business plan, then you get a minimum guaranteed speed of 1.5Mbps. The minimum guarantee acts like a dedicated bandwidth. The price you have to pay for that — Php50,000.

Imagine, the next time you want to open an internet cafe, be prepared to shell out those numbers on the chart above. That’s probably the reason almost all net cafes around only have up to 4Mbps in their network.

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50k for 10mbps pldt dsl pldt dsl

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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128 Comments

Roldan · 8 years ago

Plus they keep on selling the term “Megabytes”. While what you really get is “Megabits”. Megabits is way way more slower when it comes to transfer rates. 3 Megabytes will yield a 350kbps transfer rate at home.

These people are vicious evil lords of the underworld of business. Die b@#$%ches!

ryan · 13 years ago

Mga sir, may info ba kayo about sa PLDT i-Gate? Lalo na price?

Thor · 14 years ago

“grabe naman. sa canada internet $100 for 100mbps” or about Php 42,200

samantalang dito 10mbps …. or 1,182 Canadian Dollars!!! WHAT A RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!

Hey · 14 years ago

For me, PLDTDSL is much better than any ISP here sa PH. Walang capping kasi. Unlike other ISP providers. Imagine, manood ka ng 2movie sa isang araw via stream or DL ng 2 movies, after downloading, makakaexperience ka na lang ng 30% speed ng plan na inavail nyo. Pagminalas ka pa, monthly ang capping. 25GB/month? Anong magagawa mo dun? Kung nareach mo na cap mo by 15th ng month, 15+ days ka pa mag susuffer ng 30% speed? Hindi nalang. :)

Johnson · 14 years ago

this is totally a rip off. ugh.

Karl Martin · 14 years ago

Definitely the cost is the reason why most of the internet cafe in the Philippines choose to have a speed of 4mbps.On the other hand the first thing to do in order to avail a high speed internet make sure to check factors that you have more control on like spyware on your computer,malfunctioning or incorrectly configured wired or wireless customer routers; and older customer computers lacking sufficient processing power or memory.Failure of any of this may be the cause of slow DSL speed. [ dsl speed guide (dot) com ]

Filbook · 14 years ago

50k for 1.5mbps???? WOW!

let’s not delude ourselves. We’ll only get “CIR speeds” 90% of the time.

If you don’t have this guy’s money then you’re screwed.

default · 14 years ago

i suggest getting fiber line, wificity is cheap. we have 8gb dedicated for 50k to 60k.

ceegii63 · 14 years ago

bakit ganun sir we also have the 3mbps and P1995 plan and speedtests usually show 2-3mbps

akosibatman · 14 years ago

i am a former pldt sales guy…please don’t subscribe to the power packages. i have several clients that are still having problem with the power pack A,B,C packages. so based from experience wag nalang. instead get the leased line package from PLDT SME called the I-Gate. costs the same around 50k although it is charged via USD currency. yan ang sure na dedicated connection only for you. I have seen the installations…power pack a,b,c still has a shared network. just sharing mga sir…:)

jessicanCo · 14 years ago

hahahaahah… grabe naman. sa canada internet $100 for 100mbps… $50k mahal!!! …internet company sa pilipinas sobrang gago!.. monopoly.

Iyan Sommerset · 14 years ago

In theory, if you’re paying 50k a month for 10Mbps business, why not get 10 connections of the 4k a month-residential and stick that in a load-balancing appliance/router?

You can mix-and-match providers so downtimes aren’t too all-encompassing.

Ben · 14 years ago

Because you don’t get better support, static IP addresses and rebates if downtime occurs. Plus, corporate Internet is always separated from consumer Internet.

Iyan Sommerset · 14 years ago

I highly doubt all those are worth an additional 46000php though.

radioactive_balut · 14 years ago

I once canvassed for this kind of connection for a mission critical application that requires a dedicated data transfer rate and high uptime. Mga ganyan talaga pumapalo ang price ng dedicated lines nila. Guaranteed service availability of 363.5+ days ang binabayaran ng mahal dyan.

Amiboshi · 14 years ago

I worked for a big local bank for 2 years, and this is typical pricing for dedicated lines. Aside from the minimum CIR, there is also a minimum uptime that the telcos must maintain. Most of the time it around 98%-99% let’s say for a month. If they can’t keep it like that you can demand for a refund for the downtime, depending on the agreement. Also, there is a escalation process in which the telcos will respond if downtime occurs. Normally residential DSL have sloppy support, but business or dedicated DSL are different.

Ramon · 14 years ago

That actually makes sense…higher cost for better/guaranteed services

sana nga lng itaas nila standard ng service nila, right now, I think they’re satisfied as long as more or less half of their customers are satisfied…won’t care for the other half unless it becomes a big issue =/

David · 14 years ago

@Ramon

And it’s also possible PLDT et al charge businesses higher as a way to “subsidize” costs and/or prices for residential users. Just tossing this possibility, although others surely don’t like it anyway.

Ben · 14 years ago

The more you pay, the better service you’ll receive. It’s the same across the world for any service in IT.

To give you a better idea on how Corporate DSL is better than Consumer DSL, first and foremost, Corporate Internet (not just DSL) has a different network than Consumer DSL. Second, tech support is different, that’s why you call to a different number with Corporate Internet. Third, SLA is better with Corporate, usually 8 hours for DSL and 4 hours for T1 lines and above. Consumer DSL takes 1-2 days for a field dispatch. And finally, bandwidth, delay and uptime has an SLA, which corporate accounts get a rebate if it’s violated.

guest · 14 years ago

pareparehas lang sila mapaGlobe/smart/pldt/sun. walang stable connection sa DSL at sablay na scripted na customer service.

R2 · 14 years ago

Business As Usual. :)

meh · 14 years ago

This is a failure of the government to regulate these companies. This hurts businesses , who wants to pay that each month? In thailand they have cheap fast high speed internet. In the philippines, the internet hardly works, why?

meme · 14 years ago

because its more fun in the Philippines..

David · 14 years ago

Can you reasonably compare rates between two countries with vast differences despite their similarities?

paolo · 14 years ago

I guess it also depends on network saturation. I’m quite happy with my smart bro fixed line na 2 mbps at 1k per month. dito kasi ako sa province and i think di masyado crowded yung network. hindi naman talaga umaabot sa 2 mbps but close to that pag nagto-torrent, heheh. mga 1.6 mbps siya max. consistent din yung service eh, bihira lang mag-down yung connection.

PLDTKamote · 14 years ago

Singapore 100MBps cost only US$30.

Ganid si pldt..requirement nila may PLDT line..who use telephone line nowadays we have mobile phones…

Kpal ng mukha ng PLDT…

Jp · 14 years ago

As far as I know, meron din naman silang mga plans na hindi mo na kailangan mag avail ng phone line, although they rarely hardsell that one.

Not a big fan of pldt dsl though… much more with globe… sky naman biglaang humina…

Sobrang congested na kasi ng Metro manila… sa probinsya namin di hamak na mabilis ang speed even if they are availing of a lower plan than what we have here.

r3i · 14 years ago

better get E1 line. you’ll get CIR of 2mb up and 2mb down. I know a company that offers fiber to fiber connection at around 20k+.

Andy Hwang · 14 years ago

Internet in the Philippines is far far better than Indonesia….believe me.

Lance · 14 years ago

I have a internet cafe on the 4K business plan, which constantly gives around 3.5Mbps, and I started out on the same plan on 2Mbps 6 years ago, but rarely goes down below 1/3rds of the speed. It’s either I get 95% of the speed, or 0%, due to stolen cables.

But the box where I was connected to was the last one put up in our area, so I guess it also boils down to PLDT’s hardware age.

Click Communications · 14 years ago

I can give you dedicated internet connection for USD 150 per mb with 5 Static IP

vince · 14 years ago

my PLDT plan 999 only gets 1mbps in the province. My relative’s plan 1299 gets 1mbps also, but they live near a major metro PLDT office

Omen · 14 years ago

Want to know the biggest roadblock to improved Internet experience in the Philippines?

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=702345&publicationSubCategoryId=

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/opinion/12754-ntc-move-on-ip-peering-means-lower-costs

http://broadbandphilippines.blogspot.com/2011/08/pldt-bucks-ip-peering-warns-of-slower.html

Ramon · 14 years ago

Thanks :-D

But since seeing that it’s from last year… I’m guessing that no progress was made for the IP peering plan? :-(

has any other country have this policy? I can’t believe that this hasn’t gone through just because one company has rejected it =/

PLDT has a point that there are risks but there are always ways to solve those problems, rather than stifling progress, they should work with their competitors (Globe/San Miguel/Bayantel) in finding ways to improve…

But that will only happen in a perfect world huh? -_-

Omen · 14 years ago

Yup, as far as I know wala pang progress dyan. Try doing a trace route to another ISP (if you are on globe for example, try in your command prompt “tracert http://www.pldt.com.ph“)

Based on my tests with the Internet connections I have ready access to right now:

PLDT Globe – needs to go to abroad
PLDT WiTribe – needs to go abroad
PLDT Destiny – needs to go to a 3rd ISP (ComClark)
WiTribe Globe – needs to go abroad
WiTribe Destiny – needs to go a 3rd ISP (ComClark)

I’m not sure why some of the traffic goes through ComClark.

Omen · 14 years ago

Without this, there is little incentive to websites/CDNs (like akamai) putting up a server in the Philippines to cater to Philippine visitors since a large portion of the traffic will go abroad anyway. Unless of course if they put up a server in each of the major ISPs…malabo na yon.

Imagine if all Facebook access, Microsoft downloads and Windows updates, Gmail and Google Drive downloads, etc. are served locally instead of needing to go overseas…

Imagine downloading from a torrent, and there is a seed or a peer that is local to you and you can download from that at full speed even if your ISP’s connection to outside of the country is poor or down at that time…

But this is what the 800lb gorilla does not want to happen. They have the largest chunk of bandwidth going in and out of the country and it is an advantage that they want to protect and fully leverage

Mel · 14 years ago

I don’t think having mandatory IP peering will really improve speed/reduce costs because almost all website and internet content that people in the Philippines access are on severs abroad so the IP traffic will still need to go abroad anyway.

Omen · 14 years ago

Mel, what uses up the biggest bandwidth are downloads like torrents. If you can have a torrent seed or peer that is local to you, then no reason to get the data abroad.

Also, there are caching providers that most of the big websites use. Microsoft for example, uses Akamami for their downloads and updates. These caching providers or CDNs (content distribution networks) deliberately place servers all over the world to make the data access local as much as possible.

Not having the biggest (hopefully all) ISPs peer with each other is the biggest thing that prevents these from happening.

Denmark · 14 years ago

how about the fiber to home of PLDT? does it have CIR?

Ramon · 14 years ago

That’s exactly what came into my mind when I read the title XD

Anyone know if they have a guaranteed minimum for Smart’s Fibr?

Ben · 14 years ago

There’s no CIR for Smart’s FTTH or any type of their consumer Internet products. This is true for Globe, Bayantel and almost all ISPs around the world.

Guaranteed speed only exists on Enterprise-grade products.

Denmark · 14 years ago

it might be off-topic but whats the use of applying fiber to home? why I need to pay Php3500(8mbps) if der is no guarantee I will get that speed? is it possible to apply for Pldt myDsl Biz even im in residential area as long as Im willing to pay? although I know the answer but Im sick of “Up to” word everytime they have ads.

Ben · 14 years ago

Because Fiber optic cables are much more reliable than copper.

Ramon · 14 years ago

Thinking about it… I doubt they will give a “guarantee” to Fibr, they already have these plans (50k per minimum of 1.5Mbps) so I don’t think they’ll ruin it by guarantee-ing the Fibr

But ben has a point, fiber optics are better and more reliable than traditional wires :-)

but the question remains whether it’ll be affected by any other factors like the number of users, etc

adrian · 14 years ago

Too expensive 6mbps yung speed ng hack ng globe ko eh wala pang bayad XD

lilo · 14 years ago

at talagang proud ka pa na nakakahack ka a. dapat bang ikinapproud yon? gamitin ang talento sa mga tamang bagay.

E · 14 years ago

pldt mydsl? never mind… lagi may sira, konti ulan may issue agad. 15 years kaming loyal customer ng pldt landline and 5 years ng pldt my dsl, ang dsl nila lagi may problema ang tagal pa ayusin. now 2 years na kami sa skybroadband, kahit kelan di nagka problema. Will better wait for other ISP rather than PLDT.

bobom · 14 years ago

wait till your area gets saturated and you’ll see how the real service works

alainL · 14 years ago

Konti lang seeds ng ibang torrent. Lol.

Too damn expensive.

jibralee · 14 years ago

bute papala ang globe may CIR na 60% ng original speed mo XD

Techjunkeez · 14 years ago

at least PLDT is honest. did Globe ever delivered?

Ray · 14 years ago

All this time I thought CIR meant Committed Information Rate ^_^

Pinoy_ako · 14 years ago

I thought so too.. ^ ^

Pinoy_ako · 14 years ago

I thought so too.. ^ ^

And I think it is the right term to use.

Justin · 14 years ago

Actually, you’re right (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committed_information_rate) and I also noticed it.

Minsan nga it’s things like this that makes me question the integrity of this blog site. Imagine, CIR na lang di pa nila alam.

Techjunkeez · 14 years ago

“committed information rate” it is.

k · 14 years ago

no way.

Juan · 14 years ago

Welcome to the Philippines !!!

Piplup · 14 years ago

Over hype.. Over crowded sa mga shared lines. Over charging.. Makapal mukha ng PLDT-SMART. They didn’t honor rebate kahit na 3 weeks walang net.

jaybee · 14 years ago

true

some random dude · 14 years ago

if you want a guaranteed 4Mbps download and upload at around $1200 per month. CIR is 4Mbps up and down stream. Im not an agent of the company but from my experience they are worth every penny.

Dhan · 14 years ago

welcome to 3rd world country. >.<

voltes5 · 14 years ago

This is absurd. Only in the Philippines! – where you have to shell out $1000 + for a guaranteed 1.5mbps speed which probably cost just around 10 bucks in other countries. Purchasing power not included pa, imagine ang mahal talaga..sobra.

Ben · 14 years ago

$10.00 for a dedicated Internet connection with a CIR of 1.5mbps does not exist.

Even NTT of Japan doesn’t offer a CIR for their FTTx products. They’ve always indicated that the burst speeds of 100, 200 and 1Gbps offered is not the actual speed the user will be getting.