PLDT Upgrade

[jimeve]

On 4/3/2020 at 6:50 PM, OnMyWay said:

Our Cignal works fine on the Fibr.  We never had a problem with the voice sync.

Sorry for the late reply. Voice sync is late with our sat/ Cignal. Tried doing the settings on the TV (Samsung)

It's really off putting. 

[OnMyWay]

8 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

OMW, I was perusing topics looking for Cignal and yours popped up.

I am considering trying it out since we have a new fiber connection at the house. It looks like it has all the channels I would be interested in at the P1,500/month level.

Are you happy overall with the system?

And did your wife sign you up or did you do that? If you signed up, how much hassle was it?

Thanks!

Our Cignal is a bundle with PLDT Fibr Internet.  I never dealt with Cignal directly.  When I signed up, PLDT here in Subic was SubicTel, a sub-division of PLDT.  In the last year, they absorbed that back into PLDT.  When Covid came, they closed our PLDT/Subic freeport office and now freeport residents have to go to the crowded PLDT office in Olongapo for something that requires an office visit.  Stupid.

I am happy with the Cignal HDTV.  I'm not sure what it would cost on it's own now but I pay p3500 a month for 50 mbps Fibr and Cignal that includes about 10-15 HD channels.  Plus p230 for the Cignal box.  That includes local calls and a cheap phone too.  That package can be had for less now but I will probably not mess with it, because.....

Many neighbors complain about PLDT and drop them, but I have had them for 5 years now and the service has been great, knock on wood.  Many recommended Converge but now everyone is complaining about Converge too.

[OnMyWay]

3 minutes ago, jimeve said:

Sorry for the late reply. Voice sync is late with our sat/ Cignal. Tried doing the settings on the TV (Samsung)

It's really off putting. 

Yes, that would be annoying.  I get annoyed when one of the movies on our Android TV box has sub-titles that are off!

Streaming is no problem with our Fibre.  We often might be streaming in 3 or 4 places in the house at the same time.

[Tommy T.]

11 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Our Cignal is a bundle with PLDT Fibr Internet.  I never dealt with Cignal directly.  When I signed up, PLDT here in Subic was SubicTel, a sub-division of PLDT.  In the last year, they absorbed that back into PLDT.  When Covid came, they closed our PLDT/Subic freeport office and now freeport residents have to go to the crowded PLDT office in Olongapo for something that requires an office visit.  Stupid.

I am happy with the Cignal HDTV.  I'm not sure what it would cost on it's own now but I pay p3500 a month for 50 mbps Fibr and Cignal that includes about 10-15 HD channels.  Plus p230 for the Cignal box.  That includes local calls and a cheap phone too.  That package can be had for less now but I will probably not mess with it, because.....

Many neighbors complain about PLDT and drop them, but I have had them for 5 years now and the service has been great, knock on wood.  Many recommended Converge but now everyone is complaining about Converge too.

Thanks for the reply.

I think ours is 1,500/month? But no Cignal...yet. It also has a cheap phone but it seems to only receive calls - I have tried to call out and no joy. I tried calling their customer help line but after 45 minutes listening to some idiotic music (?) tune repeating over and over, I gave up. I never liked their customer disservice lines...

The system is different here - ordering, I mean. The kid who installed the PLDT line is an independent contractor and did good work. He told us he could set us up with Cignal but we thought we would have cable. At the time, I also thought Cignal was strictly satellite. So I will contact him again and ask about it.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Tommy T.

[jimeve]

1 minute ago, OnMyWay said:

Yes, that would be annoying.  I get annoyed when one of the movies on our Android TV box has sub-titles that are off!

Streaming is no problem with our Fibre.  We often might be streaming in 3 or 4 places in the house at the same time.

Netflix no problem. Just got a Firestick 4 k, I might try an iptv just for sports.

[hk blues]

Just for comparison we pay 1650 for Cignal via dish - 35 HD Channels plus who knows how many SD then another 1899 for Globe 20mbps hybrid internet/phone line - so a total of 3,550 php per month.  The only downside of the dish is that when it is very heavy rain the signal can be lost.  

[Tommy T.]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Streaming is no problem with our Fibre.  We often might be streaming in 3 or 4 places in the house at the same time.

Very interesting. I just now had a conversation with the Cignal installer. He suggested that there were two problems with Cignal on fiber right now.

First he told me that the order processing was very slow now and that they also didn't have the connection modems or whatever they are called. (sorry....out of stock)

Secondly, he said that people, for whom he had done installs, complained that actual service was slow when using a single fiber cable. He suggested adding a second line....what?

He then said the best option was a satellite dish. I described the lip/sync issue Jim posted and then he got quiet. This same guy installed our fiber and did a good job at a fair price. Maybe things are different here in Davao, maybe he is not well informed, or maybe he is getting a bit greedy?

I forgot to mention another point he made. He said it might be best, in order get a connection sooner to try contacting PLDT or Cignal directly. So I may reach out tomorrow to Cignal and hear what they might have to say.

I guess I would like to hear some more experiences about it. Tomorrow, I will also ask Kuya G what sort of comments or reviews are out there from others.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Tommy T.

[OnMyWay]

14 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

I forgot to mention another point he made. He said it might be best, in order get a connection sooner to try contacting PLDT or Cignal directly. So I may reach out tomorrow to Cignal and hear what they might have to say.

 I don't think you said what you have now.  PLDT Fibr?  If so, just upgrade to include Cignal.

https://pldthome.com/fibr-upgrade

I should probably see about doing this.  It includes three mesh routers, which are supposed to be good.

You may have to wait.  Due to the online schools, they may have a shortage of equipment.   The big issue with Converge right now is they are very slow too, probably due to this reason.

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by OnMyWay

[Tommy T.]

25 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

 I don't think you said what you have now.  PLDT Fibr?  If so, just upgrade to include Cignal.

https://pldthome.com/fibr-upgrade

I should probably see about doing this.  It includes three mesh routers, which are supposed to be good.

You may have to wait.  Due to the online schools, they may have a shortage of equipment.   The big issue with Converge right now is they are very slow too, probably due to this reason.

 

I thought I mentioned it, but anyway we recently were connected up to PLDT fiber. I measured the speed and it is supposed to be 25 mb/second. It tested out to 26-27 on several successive tests. But this was in the morning and not at Facebook o'clock. I suspect it would be slower then.

Yeah... I forgot about things being slower due to increased need for equipment and more traffic for schools.

And that's what this installer said - contact PLDT to request an upgrade. Thanks for the link - I will give that a try tomorrow.

I just took a quick look at that site and it looks straightforward and even I could understand what they are selling. Looks like we just need to upgrade to the 50 mb/second to get the Cignal added, plus increase in speed. So I will see what happens when I try to upgrade.  I also learned about the included landline phone. It will only call other PLDT landline phones. But, like I posted earlier, it does receive calls at least from our Smart phone lines.

That would be so cool to not need traditional cable TV (even though we had the house wired for it already) and get faster internet speeds. 

However, I won't believe it until I see it - literally!

Edited October 11, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Shady]

5 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

I also learned about the included landline phone. It will only call other PLDT landline phones

Mine will call any phone, including international.