Tin Can And String Sometimes Equals Internet

[TexasRangersFan]

In the last 2 1/2 years it has been my experience that getting or even having internet service can be difficult. Perhaps the word difficult is not the correct word, but its close enough. I am not complaining, I am actually very happy. Happy that they have or even know about the internet.

 

For me finding internet service providers in the larger cities such as Davao, Cebu City, Tacloban, Manila, was very easy. Getting the service hooked up, well thats another story all together. Out in the more rural areas it can be much more difficult to locate an ISP.

 

In Davao I had PLDT at my place there. It took 6 weeks to finally be able to get online. 2 weeks after filling out application form. 2 more weeks for the installer to arrive to then inform me that they did not bring the correct wires to intsall, another 2 weeks for them to finally come back and hook up the internet. All with a 1 year commitment. When I moved to Cebu and attempted to have the service transfered I was informed that I would have to pay off the 1 year contract in Davao and start a new contract after filling out the application and again waiting for 4 to 6 weeks. So PLDT lost my money at that point.

 

Next I turned to Globe. I went to the SM Mall in Cebu City to request service and pay the installation fee as well as the first month. Everything went ok, as well as could be expected here. 3 hour wait in line. Yes we have service in your area, please fill out application and pay us then we will send an installer to your place. Then as we were leaving.... OH, by the way. When the installer arrives they will check to see if we have service in your area. If they do not have service in your area please bring your passport and acr-I card into our office and fill out a refund application. Your money will be returned to you in 1 week. An ominous sighn. Long story short. after 4 weeks and many trips to Globe. NO SERVICE. Then another 3 weeks to get my money back.

 

In the meantime I turned to Smart. Again same set up, application form and deposit, with no garauntee that they actually have service in our area. However with smart they have the Smartbro Canopy. After waiting for 3 more weeks an installer finally showed up at our house. Thats when the difficulty started. It seems they could not put the pole with the canopy on top the house. Intead they had to put it over 150 meters away on top of an old shed that was about ready to fall down and I was afraid it would with the next strong wind. Then I was informed that Smart only pays for the first 30 meters of Lan. I had to pay for the remaining 120 meters and the connectors to connect all the 30 meter Lan cables. 30 meters being the longest length they had. So 3 hours later, and 1500 pesos extra on top of the 1500 pesos installation fee I had internet. Until they left that is. For the next 4 months the same installer was back out to the house about once a week. Never did get the thing to work right. Then one day a new installer arrived. This installer actaully told me way I had no internet and told me they would pay for the repairs. WOW. What is wrong I asked. Seems the first installer put the Lan cable and the connector boxes in the Rain Gutter. Every time it rained the connectors shorted out. NO more Internet. Also found out they were easily hacked into so I was providing internet to half the area, free for my neighbors with me paying of course. So they new installer replaced all the connections and Lan cables and upgraded the canopy to make it more secure in order to slow down the hackers. Not stop them, Just slow them down in accessing my account is all. Finally we had internet. Then a month later. My lease expired and I had to move. And by the way, its a 2 year commitment on the contract. To cancel one must pay the entire remaining balance of the 2 years.

 

Before moving into our new house here in Sand and Smoke in the Lungs Liloan I contacted smart to make sure I would have service. Sure enough they said Yes of course we do. With a smile. Ha Ha.

 

Finally they show up, 3 weeks after moving in. And guess what. NO SERVICE in my area. So then I had a smart bro canopy, 150 meters of Lan, 4 connection boxes, a PLDT modem, an Encore router, a smartbro internet stick, an 8 foot metal pole, more than 12 months left on a 24 month contract at 1000 pesos a month and still NO SERVICE.

 

So this is what I did. I went to SM Mall, talked to the same customer service rep, showed her the papers from the installer that I demanded from them saying they could not get a good enough signal, showed her the smertbro speed stick, asked if there were any other types of service I could get using the stick. Yes was her answer. I could get a 6 month contract with unlimited ( AKA whatever we have available ) service for the same amount and it would cancel out my canopy contract as long as I continued to pay for the stick service for 1 year. OK. Done. Then back to the house. Plug in the stick and WHAM no service inside the house. Ok. setback. So I sat for a few moments and looked at the mess on the floor of past and present assorted internet devices. Within a few minutes I had an idea. Finally those many many years and thousands upon thousands of dollars I spent in college would pay off. This is what I did.

 

My PC has no modem. I had it built without one for a reason. So I pluged one of the Lan cables to the PC then ran the cable under the front door ( we don't use that door and I am not going to drill a hole in the wall ) then I ran the cable up under the eve of the roof, from there along the side of the house to the one place where there is a somewhat clear view in the direction of the closest smart tower I then tried to  plug the Lan cable into the Router, unfortunatly the 30 meter cable was too short, so I used 1 of the Lan cable connectors and another 30 meter Lan cable and it was finally long enough to plug the Lan into the Router, I then plugged the power chord into an extension chord and plugged that into an outside light ourtlet using a light outlet socket adaptor. Then I plugged the USB plug it stick into the router. And we got a SIGNAL. Faint but a signal. Then I went to the mall, purchased a USB male to female cable. Using the USB cable I plugged that into the router and then the USB plug it stick to the other end. Now to fine tune our mess. While Alda was on a ladder she carefully taped the USB cable to the underside of the roof about 1 foot in as to avoid getting it wet in the rain. I went into the house, redid the settings on the router to prevent others from using our router as their personal free wifi, and waited. As she would turn the plug it stick oh so slightly each time I would reset the router, waiting for the signal to climb. As the signal would go up or down I would yell out to Rowena who would then yell to Alda to either stop, or move the plug it. After 2 hours we finally got a good enough signal at 56 %. So now we have internet. Except when the smoke is too thick and we loose signal, that happens about 3 times a day.

 

Sometimes a Tin Can and String Can equal Internet.

[earthdome]

Wow. That experience would turn me into one of those expats who never has anything good to say about the Philippines since fast reliable internet access is a must for me.

 

While in SFC I went with a smart phone data plan since I knew I wouldn't be there long enough for land line based services. That worked well for me. Now that I am in Baguio I went with land line DSL since I now have a nice apartment I will be happy in for a while. Then I went with a smaller competitor to PLDT for my DSL who has much better service. Bayan Telecommunications which only took 3 business days from the day I signed up to get me installed with internet service up and running.

[MikeB]

I never had those problems either and I don't think it's PLDT official policy to require subscribers to pay off their entire remaining contract and start a new one when they move. When I moved from Cebu City to the province it wasn't, they told me to remove the equipment and give it to the installation technician. When I signed up for Globe DSL it is was no big deal, just filled out paperwork and they came a few days later. They gave me the usual bs about needing more cable and I could either buy it from the company and wait or they would furnish it immediately and pay them directly. That's standard. But the worst of the bunch I've dealt with are the Skycable installers. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

I am having trouble with my Internet too.

 

The Globe Tattoo and similar SmartBro plan are both oversubscribed so I get only a trickle of Internet unless I am lucky enough that there is a 'brown out' in town.  That means no one else is on the Internet and I get ALL the bandwidth on my battery operated laptop.

 

But here is the problem I face.  Only 5 km or less from Smart and Globe towers, they both say there is no service in my area.  There is, because many others have it. But it is the kind of service where you pay some guy 30,000 pesos cash to set it up for you.  Apparently it works great but that is a lot of money to put out for something that should cost me about 1500 pesos.  Corruption is not always a wonderful thing.

[OnMyWay]

I don't think it's PLDT official policy to require subscribers to pay off their entire remaining contract and start a new one when they move

 

We have a Smartbro WiMax and that is basically what they told us, which is idiotic because it is a portable unit.  We just took it with us to Subic.

 

It works fairly well here as long as we put it in the window.  It was terrible in Laguna and when I took it down there for the weekend, it was terrible again!

[Mike S]

Yup ... ditto for us .... just packed up the telephone the modem and brought it to Bacolod ..... no fuss no muss ... had internet with in 3 days and thye had to run a line from down the street to our apartment as the apartment was brand new and everyone else here has PLDT ......  :thumbsup: 

:cheersty:

[Dave Hounddriver]

That gives me an idea.  I could just get an in town address for the WiMax and then move the equipment to where I am, 6 km (by road) from town.  Great idea.  But doesn't that Wimax need to be wired in or have a roof antennae?

[ChronoKev]

... But the worst of the bunch I've dealt with are the Skycable installers.

Interesting, must depend on where you are. I had a great experience with Skycable installation last year in Dumaguete. Went out and filled out the necessary paperwork about 9:30am. At about 2pm the same day, a small group of Skycable installers shows up at my door, gets things wired up, I test the internet connection and give thumbs up, they take my money and provide and official receipt, and are gone in under an hour! This was brand new service in an apartment that had never been hooked up before to boot.

Was actually impressed. Try getting that kind of turnaround from a cable company in the USA... You can't!

Note that since then, I have found some very specific complaints about Skycable broadband that wouldn't affect many users, but that's something I want to discuss in a new topic... :)

[earthdome]

 

... But the worst of the bunch I've dealt with are the Skycable installers.

Interesting, must depend on where you are. I had a great experience with Skycable installation last year in Dumaguete. Went out and filled out the necessary paperwork about 9:30am. At about 2pm the same day, a small group of Skycable installers shows up at my door, gets things wired up, I test the internet connection and give thumbs up, they take my money and provide and official receipt, and are gone in under an hour! This was brand new service in an apartment that had never been hooked up before to boot.

Was actually impressed. Try getting that kind of turnaround from a cable company in the USA... You can't!

Note that since then, I have found some very specific complaints about Skycable broadband that wouldn't affect many users, but that's something I want to discuss in a new topic... :)

 

I had a similar experience with Sky Cable TV. I signed up in the afternoon and the following afternoon they did the install. I did have to remind them the following day to turn on the service at their office.

[jpbago]

We are happy with Globe Tattoo. But we had a connection, an inside connection.(My lady knows the installer so she called his cell) They ran a new wire and had us running in 2 hours at 1299/month with the first 3 months at 333p including landline.