Telecoms

Why is 4G/WiMax in the Philippines slow?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief March 8, 2010 · 2 min read

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While WiMax has been introduced in the country for some time now, people are still complaining it’s not really fast. So, yes, 1MBps isn’t really fast but can we really afford 10Mbps right now?

Both Liberty Telecoms and Globe Telecom are offering 4G or WiMax but for the most part, the packages are between 512Kbps and 1Mbps. And as far as I know, each one of the Globe WiMax towers is maxed out at 8Mbps. If ever Globe offers an 8Mbps plan in the future, I think it will be in the Php5,000 range.

Come to think of it — if telcos will offer 10Mbps WiMax for Php5k, will people switch to it?

The only reason I can think of now why they’re not offering really fast connection packages is that they don’t want to eat into their own market. Probably the same reason why a 384mL can of Coke is more expensive than a 384mL bottle of Coke (nomadic vs. fixed).

So, if you’re looking for a 10Mbps or 100Mbps connection, you need to shell out Php3,995 (10Mbps) and Php14,995 (100Mbps). I think that 10Mbps for Php3,995 is a sweet deal. Problem though is that Globe only offers the service to posh villages like Forbes Park, Serendra, Bel-Air Village and Urdaneta Village. I believe PLDT has a similar offering in Alabang for a number of years now.

For the rest of us that’s not rich enough to live in those areas, we’ll have to settle with 12Mbps of Sky Broadband.

I remember, about 5 years ago, it was great news to see ZPDee Cable offering 64Kbps for only Php690 a month. Today, for the same amount, you get up to 2Mbps. That’s 30 times the speed for the same price. If we follow that trend, I reckon we could get 60Mbps for the same price by year 2015.

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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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140 Comments

Aries · 16 years ago

bakit bagal ng download any sugestion ganda naman ng signal ko,wala naman virus pc ko kasi nakadefreeze baka meron mas maganda dns server para sa mindanao pakibigay lang thank you gamit ko 10.4.1.182 , saka 1.4.1.180 35kbps lang pinakamataas kuha ko pag nagdownlod
wimax Globe broaband 1k bayaran baka meron kayo idea maayos ito
signal Connection Status Connected
Connect Frequency 2622000KHz
Upload Data Rate 182 bytes/sec
Download Data Rate 144 bytes/sec
Signal Strength 100%
ALL SC Link Quality 97%
1/3 SC Link Quality 100%
ALL SC CINR 29.56dB
1/3 SC CINR 33.11dB
RSSI -61.75dBm
UL_FEC 16-QAM(CTC)1/2
DL_FEC 64-QAM(CTC)3/4
BSID 00:00:1B:D8:28:20
POWER 13.00dBm

Statistics Upload Download
Ethernet Bytes 194.683MB 1.091GB

Harley · 16 years ago

just wondering, can i use my wimax connection at home and attached it to my cdrking router? i used that cdrking router for my 3g connection i have from globe and having no problem at all. but with the wimax, i just cant connect to the internet, just the local connection. what would you recommend, buying a new router? kindly help me with this. thank you!

0917*******
0922*******

Rocky · 16 years ago

In Finland the regular speed is 1Mbps at the price of 30 to 40 euro. We still have the lowest charge per 1 Mbps. There is a new provider that offers better speed depending on plans.

rodel · 16 years ago

carmona cavite

rodel · 16 years ago

boss ako po taga carmona my speed is 512kbps dami nmn mabilis connection k pero ngyn sobrang bagal my signal nmn po 3 signal pero sobrang bagal po pag ganito ng ganito lilipat n po ako s iba hnd nmn po kc magamit ung globe wimax nyo……..

TaysanPeeps · 16 years ago

agree ako kay JohnCarlo, ang Taysan,Batangas naiiwan na ng mga kalapit municipality. haay. di na lang sa wimax kasi sabi ng iba mabagal din yung service. maganda kung iuupgrade ng globe or smart yung cellsite dito. GPRS lang kasi eh. better if i 3G or HSDPA nila para mas ok. or maglagay ng phonelines para maganda and internet connection. almost majority of people here kelangan ng net. so, please please globe pakinggan nyo kami mga tayseno.!!!tnx

John Carlo M. Ebreo · 16 years ago

Yes sana malagyan din kame ng wimax connection dito sa Mapulo, Taysan Batangas Philippes beside Fortune Cement Corporation need talaga namen po para sa mga shop at connection namen sa abroad sana pansinini ng Globe ung lugar namen kasi ung ibang kalapit na municipality meron na. Hope fully More Power po

Salamat po Mabuhay po Kayo

rain · 16 years ago

I also have a globe wimax 1Mbps plan, i frequent get a record of 1.02Mbps(126 KBps) Download Speed and a 0.98Mbps Upload Speed. The newly utilized network from globe rocks my world. haha

Ricardo · 16 years ago

Plan 1Mb ba sya, di ba aggregate yung 1Mb download and upload? Ganun din yata sa smart canopy.

box · 16 years ago

meron akong wi-max 1mbps 995 plan, test ko sa speedtest .51mbps download speed tapos .51mbps din upload speed, ok na ba un para sa plan ko?

box · 16 years ago

i mean .51mbps pala not kbps sorry sa nauna, di ba dapat pag 1mbps sana man lng lagpas sa .51mbps? parang 775 lng ung plan kasi .512mbps lng ung 775 peso e??

box · 16 years ago

meron akong wi-max 1mbps 995 plan, test ko sa speedtest .51kbps download speed tapos .51kbps din upload speed, ok na ba un para sa plan ko?

Rian · 16 years ago

May Witribe na 4G na rin dito sa kanto namin pero sabi ba naman may capping raw after 5Gb. Anong klaseng broadband naman yung offer na yun tapos P995/month pa

IVAINS · 16 years ago

Other than speed you may want to ask about SMTP Port Blocking. I know for a fact that both Globe and Smart block SMTP Ports 25, 26 & 587. Some may not care about this, but if you are running a business and would like to use your company’s website SMTP you won’t be able to. You are forced to use your ISP email account & SMTP. So if you want to establish a corporate email identity – forget it.

MyMaria · 16 years ago

As for me, I think I can live with my current wired and 3G connections. Globe 2mbps for 1295 is great and it comes with landline. I get really stable connection and a 190 to 210 KB/s for RS downloads during peak hours. During wee hours in the morning, it even reaches up to 1000 KB/s! Also has HSDPA signal in my house and using a SmartBro prepaid, I get up to 300-400 KB/s for RS downloads. Not bad at all. Not really interested in 4G… especially here in the province. Pretty happy with current speed and stability. :)

Took a screenie.. check here for my recent actual download speeds for today: http://img.skitch.com/20100319-ea5fdrua79cid9mxkr3wxfpuga.jpg

I’m not really sure what the speedtest means (or of its accuracy) but with Globe, this is what I’m getting right now: http://www.speedtest.net/result/753855047.png

Anonymouse · 16 years ago

Dami negative feedback ng Wi-tribe sa Tipidpc.
Ironically, mas bago technology pero mas mabagal sa luma :( Parang kotse lang to, mas higher model man, kulang naman gas pangit din. Unlike nung mga luma mas marami gas. Aanin natin ang mabilis na 4G kung kulang naman bandwidth supply nila.

cycle11 · 16 years ago

@seeker

ang swere naman ng lugar niyo. sana ganyan din sa min

legend of the seeker channel · 16 years ago

@bokoi

i’ve already tested the stability of both globe’s wimax and smartbro in my area. my sister uses globe wimax in her room and i’ve seen how stable her connection was(at least for our area only). halos consistent 1mbps download speeds for both video playback and highly seeded torrents even at the middle of the day. my smartbro is almost the same. stable all the time but not as fast as globe’s wimax during daytime use (maybe because they have more subscribers here since they have been around for a longer period of time). so that’s it, either i renew my contract with smart or switch to globe which are both stable and almost have consistent download speeds of 1mbps in my area. but as i said the i’ll go with the one who bumps up their maximum speed for the same price i am paying right now which is hopefully soon. good night!

bokoi · 16 years ago

@ legend of the seeker channel
wag mo muna prioritize yung mataas rated speed. tingnan mo rin stability ng connection mo.

isipin mo lg, mataas nga rated speed mo pero hindi mo naman nakukuha at putol2x pa compare sa kahit na 1Mbps na speed at stable connection naman…
1Mbps is fast already assuming na kuha mo talaga atleast 80% ng subscribed speed mo…

bokoi · 16 years ago

@iamupset

lahat ng ISP Megabits per second yung offer. Ala po nag offer na MegaBytes per second. kung refer tau sa download speed, MegaBytes per second yun kaya MBps yung nakikita mo sa browser mo and usually is maliit yung value compare sa subscribed speed mo na Mbps. kasi nga 8bits, 1 byte…

iba rin yung Kbps at KBps.
yung speed rating na 512Kbps, download speed nito is about 62.5KBps

kuha?

Henry · 16 years ago

Wimax is not 4G. They’re only 3.9G.

They’re using 802.16j not 802.16m for it to be considered 4G.

And if you have downloaded 3 gig of data, your connection will go down to 256 kbps.

You guys should check the thread in TipidPC.com

vince · 16 years ago

how would you feel if the 4g ISP you subscribed to suddenly dropped in speed. You called up customer service and you found out there is a cap, after XX gigabytes you automatically get lowered speed. But its nowhere on the website, on the ads or on the contract?

legend of the seeker channel · 16 years ago

hi frostbyte sana nga maabot na ako ng 2mbps download speed ng smart. lumang canopy pa rin ba gamit ng mga naka-2mbps? alam ko kasi 1000kbps lang kaya nun (download + upload) kaya ang settings ng sa kin 800 kbps download + 200 kbps upload.

fr0stbyte · 16 years ago

@legendoftheseeker

There are select areas in the Metro that have been to 2Mbps by Smart (including me). They might roll out the upgrade to the public soon.

legend of the seeker channel · 16 years ago

yeah 1 mbps is slow even for moderate users. my 1 mbps smartbro lock in period had already expired. still waiting on which provider, whether globe or smart will upgrade to 2 mbps. that will be the deciding factor on whether i will renew my contract with smart or move on to the next faster provider.

Beau Rudd · 16 years ago

We have been using Wimax for about two years now in my office and the shit rocks, the best internet connection I have ever had.

symbiandreamsdotcom · 16 years ago

@bob

What do you mean by heavy user if you are just a single person using that speed. That is already too much. Heheh.

Isa pa ang nakita q sa globe, HIGH ping which means cons, compare to PLDT na mas maliit lang young PING.

Anyways, I still like GLOBE!

Frank · 16 years ago

Regardless of the speed, Philippines is still on its infant stage when it comes to internet connection. Until then, stick to cable connection which delivers the most fastest connection, as of now. In my opinion, if they’re going to introduce a fast connection like 4G make sure their advertisement delivers its promise.

maxi · 16 years ago

Liberty is not yet done rolling out their machines. I think they are only about 30% complete.

kisaeng. · 16 years ago

globe’s wimax has an absolute higher latency.

frm 112.198.64.86

louie · 16 years ago

sana mag upgrade ang smartbro d2 sa davao. 0.5Mbps pa kasi, sana mag 1 Mbps naman cla

chris · 16 years ago

broadband is really expensive here in the Phil.

iamupset · 16 years ago

@Bokio/Jaypee:

medyo naguluhan ako ng konti, meron bang ISP na nagooffer ng MegaBits na connection? I thought it was always understood that connections are either in Kilobytes per second or Megabytes per second. Mali ba pagkaintindi ko?

I don’t know if this still applies, pero more than the max burst rate, I always ask ISPs what the committed rate is for their packages, kasi yon yong lagi nilang ndi minimention sa contract or even in advertisements/promos.

Bob · 16 years ago

@symbiandreamsdotcom: 1Mbps is slow for a heavy user like me.

fr0stbyte · 16 years ago

That prediction may be right. SmartBRO’s Plans right can easily reach 2Mbps (constant) on selected areas and 1Mbps on peak hours. Sa Globe? Ay ewan, never heard of a single positive comment ’bout them from my friends.

Miguel · 16 years ago

Not just the domestic infra but the huge capex in buying fiber capacity going abroad.

@bi3L · 16 years ago

Yeah.. the problem is not the infrastracture but the ROI (return of investment), since ISP are still scrambling on how to get the money that they invested on 3G or any other system that they have. But if the competition gets tight.. I think we can get the 10Mbps and 100Mbps connection sooner than 2015. Since competition is not only good for end user but promotes innovation, better service at a much lower price. :)

Jaypee · 16 years ago

@Bokoi
Ah i see. salamat po.

Jhay · 16 years ago

I guess 5 years would be go down barely noticed and before we know it, speeds have gone up to levels predicted by Yuga. Hopefully, that is…

Bokoi · 16 years ago

@Jaypee

Parehong 12Mbps lg po. ala pong comparison sa Mbps at mbps. yung meron is yung MBps at Mbps…
b=bits, B=bytes

symbiandreamsdotcom · 16 years ago

1Mbps is too much already but for a single PC or 2 lappies only. :D like Globe!

drealmarlon · 16 years ago

idptOOOO got the point!

drew · 16 years ago

ok na sakn ung 1Mbps.. ng papasalamat nga ako dahil ng upgrade ung isp nmin at niretain nla ung price. hehehe

nanayMo · 16 years ago

We can howl all we want, but that’s how things are in this part of this earthquake-threatened planet. Stop complaining already.

idpt0000 · 16 years ago

it’s sad to tell you that similar problem exists in hk …. but the obstacle is more about the money spent on 3g infrastructure has not yet recovered … and the telco are not willing to invest more on 4g until they are satisfied with their own return …

Jon · 16 years ago

Sir Abe, I have to add that this does not only apply to 4G services, but also to other wireless ISPs using 3G/3.G.

I do hope your forecast would be accurate, that by that year, we would be getting such speeds. I also think that these wireless ISPs should not be in a hurry to offer such speeds right away. They should work on improving the stability, reliability and signal strength first. There isn’t much practical need for a 10mbps+ connection at the moment.

jab · 16 years ago

it would be great to have connection speeds like those in Korea… but I’m afraid the price would sky rocket… hopefully we can get more internet providers to invest here so that everybody will keep their prices competitive…

Jaypee · 16 years ago

Sir hindi ba “mbps” lang ang mga packages ng sky broadband and not “Mbps”? so ‘yung 12mbps nila is different/slower from 12Mbps? Compare that sa 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps ng Globe.

Need clarification here. Thanks.

JM · 16 years ago

Or, for that matter, why is Internet in the Philippines slow but expensive? Haaaaay buhay! :P

StrayArrow · 16 years ago

How about us here in the far far far provinces…. anyway if the prices are that, then I think I can’t afford it……we will just wait for a cheaper and afster services….. oh well!!!