Philippines WIFI issues

[Kris Allen]

Is it just me and my luck but it seems like when I come to the Philippines I always have internet connection issues? I was there last January to February for the Sinulog, and I stayed in Cebu City, and up in Daanbatayan, Cebu and had very little connection. Now I plan on coming back very soon but again connection issues. I thought about buying a pocket WIFI but my friend has one in Manila and said she had issues with it too. Do you have satellite internet or something better than Global? 

 

[robert k]

Did you manually set your phone gateway preferences? It's a common mistake not to do so. You might try both smart and globe and see what works best in a given area. The highways near cities are usually 4G corridors. Even in the small town of Pili I have decent 4G smart service, but globe is 3G, although globe LTE works better in the big city of Naga...if you are set to the correct gateway. I have a Huawei T2 7.0 LTE tablet and I have to set it to performance and not power saving or it will default to HSPA+ fast-ish 3G even though I manually set it to LTE.

Your phone may not have the right frequency for high speed or the carrier you are trying to use doesn't offer high speed in all the areas you are trying to use it. There are coverage maps online.

I know it's probably more than you wanted to know or have to think about but the Philippines isn't plug and play. A girl may be able to text 60 words per minute on a dumb phone but she won't be able to tell you what works best or how to get it to work if she has never had a 4G/LTE phone so it's something you have to work out yourself. At least the above has been my experience.

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, robert k said:

the Philippines isn't plug and play.

So very true.  I have great results using my phone on "Data" and enabling it as my "Personal Hotspot"

I make that sound simple but in addition to what Robert mentioned, (choosing the right carrier), you also have to be sure you have the right Sim card.  I have 2 Sim cards in my phone, an older one that is only good for 3G (but all my old friends have that number so I need to keep the Sim card in), and a newer one that uses 4G and is designed to be used for "Data".  It is quite good anywhere the Smart 4G signal is good.  Problem is there are some areas where there is no Smart 4G so I need another Sim card for Globe Data.  Well actually, I have a Globe Tattoo that I can use when there is no Smart 4G and that is a good backup.

So when I sit at home with my PLDT DSL, and my Smart 4G backup, and my Globe Tattoo second backup, I can usually get online (except during catastrophes like Yolanda where I (and everyone else) was S.O.L. for weeks.

[robert k]

Dave wins the prize. Have a back-up plan. 2 devices is probably the minimum. I wonder Dave if you couldn't get call forwarding on that older sim? I never looked into it, probably a longshot.

[Dave Hounddriver]

6 minutes ago, robert k said:

I wonder Dave if you couldn't get call forwarding on that older sim?

Actually, Smart did send me a "special offer" to tell me I had 14 days to update the sim to a 4G with the same phone number.  I failed to get around to it so now I am stuck with it.  I may still be able to get them to do that but it would probably cost me money now :-)

 

[jrlee183]

Smart 4g data is the best for sure especially in Manila.  Globe is just too intermittent.  Not sure about the provinces, but ive been able to download movies at a pretty reasonable speed using a smart bro data sim card which can also be used in pocket wifi. 

[Reboot]

The Philippines is an archipelago of thousands of islands. That makes the internet even better.

[Lou49]

I use a Smart wifi card in my dual sim Samsung and it works well most of the time.I can tether my Ipad to it and have wifi in most places in and around Cebu. But there are so many people on line uploading and downloading pics on FB and playing games that the bandwidth gets crowded sometimes and it can be hard to get a good or fast connection.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Here in Iloilo most people I know use Globe. It has better coverage than Smart. Out in the province they tend to have both sim cards as the connectivity blows with the wind...  It really just depends on where you live and what options work there.   At the house we could not get a good connection on pocket wifi - Globe or Smart - but the Globe wireless modem works fairly well.  Such is life in a 3rd world country...

[Reboot]

On 4/6/2018 at 3:15 PM, Kris Allen said:

Is it just me and my luck but it seems like when I come to the Philippines I always have internet connection issues? I was there last January to February for the Sinulog, and I stayed in Cebu City, and up in Daanbatayan, Cebu and had very little connection. Now I plan on coming back very soon but again connection issues. I thought about buying a pocket WIFI but my friend has one in Manila and said she had issues with it too. Do you have satellite internet or something better than Global? 

 

Internet is such a headache in the Ph. I work while there, and the first thing on the top of my list is fiber to the unit. Of course, that means I have to spend most of my trip in parts of Manila or Cebu where that's available. My next trip is out in the Mindanao province, not exactly the best location for a reliable connection. Just rented a furnished place. But my brother in law runs a slew of internet cafes in the area, and he is going to get the unit hooked up for us before we arrive. He's really good with that stuff and has IT tricks up his sleeve to ensure connectivity. His livelihood depends on it.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Reboot