How is the Internet in the Philippines?
My Experience over 2 Decades in Country
Internet in the Philippines.
Over my years of living in the Philippines, one of the most discussed (mostly negative) topics among expats. It is also a largely negative discussion among Filipinos.
Now, I am moving back to the States soon, so today, I have decided to go back through the archives of the site, look at my experience with internet in the Philippines, and put together an article that will take readers through a little bit of Internet history in the country, what the present day situation is, and a bit about future plans for internet in the Philippines.
In 2013, Cable Internet Came to my Neighborhood
When I found out that the local Cable TV company was bringing Cable Internet to my neighborhood, I was ecstatic. Here is what I wrote about it at the time.
Last year (2012) SkyCable had sent a representative through our neighborhood to let everybody know that Cable Internet would be available in our neighborhood soon. At the time, they said that within a month or two, we would be able to subscribe to Cable Internet. It didn’t happen. Two months after they came to our house to announce the pending offering of Cable Internet in the Philippines, we called SkyCable to find out if it was already available, they even denied that there were any plans to offer it in our neighborhood! Uh, what?
But it happened
Well, about another 6 months later, Cable Internet was indeed available in our neighborhood. Around mid-December, we called and asked for a free trial of the service, something that they had been offering. You got to try out the service for 15 days free of charge without making any commitment until you were able to see how it worked. So, when we called and inquired, after just a few days they sent a crew out to our house to hook us up. I was so excited, could not wait!
6 Mbps was fast at that time!
We had requested their 6Mbps plan. They offered plans up to 10 or 15 Mbps, as I recall. The 6Mbps plan that we were going to try was P3,999 per month, and that included a Gold Package Cable TV subscription. We had previously been subscribing to the Silver Package for the TV, so we would be upgraded to Gold, and would have to pay nothing for the TV subscription, as that is free with the Internet package.
Hey, it doesn’t work!
Well, when the crew came out to hook up our Cable Internet, it did not work, but they told us that it would be working within 30 minutes or so, and they left. It never did work. After 24 hours, we called the hotline and explained that it still was not working, they did nothing. We called several times, and after a week or so, they sent somebody out to our house and he got it working. However, about 30 minutes after he left, it stopped working again. We went through this for almost 3 weeks, people would come, it would work for a while, and then stop working. They had to keep extending our 15 day free trial, because it just never worked! When it would work for 15 minutes or an hour, it was quite impressive, very fast, but having it work only in short spurts was certainly not impressive.
Who is this old guy?
Finally, after several weeks of this hassle, a new technician came to our house. He was an older guy, and frankly, when I saw him, I thought to myself – How is this old guy going to know what to do?
Well, I am happy to report that I was wrong. He had it working in 5 minutes, and it has worked ever since.
At first, I was super happy with the service that I was getting from SkyCable. In fact, I was ecstatic. I had been very down on the service after the problems we had getting it working, and I didn’t think I would subscribe when the trial period was finished. But, it was so good that I relented and signed up for the service.
For several more weeks, it was great. I loved the SkyCable, and I used it all the time. My previous Internet Provider was Globe Broadband DSL, at 3Mbps, and I was very happy with their service for years already. I opted to keep both the DSL and the Cable Internet in the Philippines. Having two services was good for me, as Internet is my business, and I needed to have a good connection at all times, if possible. I am glad that I kept the Globe.
But when I was a paying subscriber it was terrible
After a few weeks of being a paying subscriber with SkyCable, the Cable Internet service began declining. Let me be clear, it is not terrible, but it also is nowhere near the quality that I was getting under the free trial. If I do a Speed Test, and use SkyCable’s own server for the test, I get the full speed that I am paying for, around 6 Mbps. If I use another company’s server for checking the speed, though, I sometimes only get speeds of 2 Mbps or so. Disappointing.
I will say this, if I get up in the middle of the night (I often get up at 3am or so), I can download files at super speeds, it is wonderful. However, during normal business hours, speeds do suffer. Another problem I have had with SkyCable is that often times, the service just cannot finish loading a webpage. It will just keep trying to finish download certain files, but can never seem to complete the process. It is frustrating. Additionally, I find that on some sites, my IP address is banned when using SkyCable. This indicates to me that some of their subscribers have abused the service in the past. You see, here in the Philippines you generally don’t get a dedicated IP, you are sharing the IP address with other subscribers.
Turned out that Globe was better
Because of some of the problems, I have come to the conclusion that the Globe service is much better and more reliable. Frankly, even though I am paying a lot less for the Globe (about P2,400 per month including my landline), the service is better. Because of this, I almost always use Globe as my primary Internet connection, except during the hours of like 3am until 8am or so. When 8am arrives, though, I switch back to Globe and am happy with the service they provide.
So, would I get the SkyCable again if I had the choice to make? It’s a 50/50 decision, I can’t say for sure. The speeds are nice, but there are problems. If I were paying about half for the service, I would probably feel OK about it. But, paying basically $100 per month, it is not quite good enough to justify the price, in my opinion. We have a contract, though, for one year, so I’ll have to stick with them at least that long. It is not bad enough for me to argue to break the contract, but it’s not good enough for me to be excited about it. Hopefully, by the time the year is out, the service will have improved. We’ll see!
So, as you can see, it was a pretty rocky start. But, that was only the beginning.
Does the Internet in the Philippine Suck?
Over the years, to be honest, things got better and better. But, most people kept complaining about how bad the Internet in the Philippines is. It was a bit different than what I was experiencing.
So, I decided to put together my thoughts about Internet in the Philippines, how to get good Internet in the Philippines, and how to avoid bad internet in the Philippines.
So, does it suck?
You better believe it, some plans for Internet in the Philippines suck.
All Internet sucks in some parts of the Philippines.
But, you can most certainly get excellent Internet in the Philippines. I know, because I have good Internet. So, if I can do it, you can too, if you think about it reasonably.
Internet in the Philippines that sucks
Wireless plans
In general, the plans that use wireless technology are not good. Things like 3G and 4G plans and other wireless type Internet access is generally not good. Generally being the keyword. I know that I have 4G service on my phone, and in many areas, I get speeds of 20 to 40 Mbps, which is plenty fine for me. But, if you live in a smaller city, town, or out in the province, you can more or less bet that your internet in the Philippines will not be good.
Problem is that many people, perhaps even most people, use the wireless plans for their home internet in the Philippines. In other words, for their main Internet access at their house, they still use 3G and/or 4G mobile services. That is certainly something that you can do, but you should not expect that you are going to have lightning fast Internet in the Philippines in most cases if this is what you do.
Provincial Internet
A lot of people will email me and ask me if they can get good, fast, and reliable Internet in the Philippines, and I will email them back and tell them that they certainly can, and explain how to do it. Next email that comes from them is when they tell me that they plan to live way out in a remote provincial area. Maybe a couple hours drive from the nearest decent sized town or city.
Live in a remote area?
Problem is that if you intend to live in such a remote area, wireless connectivity is usually the only choice that you have. So, that is strike one. Strike two is that the amount of bandwidth available and the quality of the Internet infrastructure in those remote areas is either non-existent or of very poor quality.
Generally, if Internet connectivity is something that is important to you, you don’t want to live out in a remote area. If you do that, you can bet that you can bet that you are going to become bitter and you will not enjoy living in the Philippines. So, you have to decide, do you want to have good Internet in the Philippines, or do you want to live out in the middle of nowhere? You won’t get both, you must choose one or the other.
Going cheap
Another thing, you can get Internet in the Philippines that is very cheap. But, just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. If you sign up for a plan that is going to cost P399 per month, P599, P799 and such, you are going to have terrible Internet. It is that simple. I have little sympathy for people that post on Facebook about how bad the Internet is and I ask them what kind of plan they have and they tell me that they have a plan that is wireless and costs them P399 per month.
If you are going to:
- Go wireless
- Go cheap
You should expect that you are not going to have a great experience with internet in the Philippines.
How to get Internet in the Philippines that does not suck!
Where to live
If good Internet is a criterion that is very important to you, you will need to choose to live in a major city, or at least a very large town. Really, for the best Internet experiences, you need to live in Manila, Cebu, or Davao City. If you choose to live elsewhere you just can’t get the same quality of internet as you can in the 3 largest cities in the Philippines. Everything new will happen in those 3 cities first. New technologies, etc.
Also, the Internet infrastructure will be kept the most up to date, and the most reliable in those 3 cities.
Sure, you can get decent Internet in other places, but it will never be as good as in the 3 major cities in the country. When I say “decent Internet” I am talking about getting that in cities like Cagayan de Oro, and places of that kind of size. Again, if you move to tiny towns, or worse yet, to remote areas out in the jungle somewhere, just expect nothing at all, then anything you do get will exceed your expectations.
What kind of plan to get
Get a plan where your Internet comes to you on a cable or wire. Forget about the wireless stuff, in most cases, it won’t work well. It might start out good, but over time the service will become poor with wireless in most cases.
So, when I say to get something that will come to you on a piece of wire or cable, what am I talking about?
- DSL service.
- Cable service (from a Cable TV company)
- Fiber Service (mostly through PLDT FIBR)
How much to spend
Like I said earlier, these cheap plans are not going to offer you good quality service. There are a couple of reasons for this:
- You get what you pay for
- The masses of people will use these cheap services and thus eat up all of the available bandwidth
In my case, I have two Internet plans. Why do I have two? Well, I have my main service, and then I have a backup plan with a different provider in case there are technical issues that are causing slower or non-existent Internet with the first provider. My main provider charges me P1999 per month for unlimited bandwidth at 16 Mbps. My backup plan, through a different company, provides me 100 GB per month at 10 Mbps. The price for the backup plan is P1299 per month.
So, in all, I spend P3300 per month, about US$66/mo. I know that for many that is a lot of money to spend for the Internet, but my business is on the Internet, and if I don’t have access it is hard for me to make an income. I don’t mind at all paying that price for reliable and redundant service.
I would say that in general, if you can spend around P2000/mo (US$40), you can get decent Internet, provided that you are located in a larger city.
Data Caps
Most, not all, Internet plans in the Philippines have caps on how much data, bandwidth, you can use each month. Some caps are actually by day instead of the month.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, my main Internet plan has no data cap. I can use unlimited amounts of bandwidth. My backup plan, though, has a data cap of 100 GB per month.
Know your cap
Many people will write to me and complain about how poor their Internet service is. They will tell me that it used to be very fast, but after 2 weeks it became very slow. I will write back and ask them how much data they are allowed each month. Many will reply that they don’t know how much is allowed. Others will know how much is allowed on their plan but have no idea of how much of the cap has been consumed.
Generally, if you have a plan at, say, 10 Mbps with a data cap of 50 GB per month, you will get good speeds as long as you have consumed less than the capped amount. Once you go over the cap, though, your speed will be reduced vastly. They will still let you use the Internet on the plan, but you might get just 100 Kbps or something like that (perhaps even slower). So, keep up with how much data you are using.
Data Boost
Many of the Internet providers now offer “data boost” services. For example, the backup plan that offers me 100 GB per month will warn me if I reach 80 GB. I will get a a message that I am nearing my maximum data limit, and I get an offer that I can buy additional data at a very cheap price. For example, I can buy an extra 50 GB of data (good for 30 days) for an extra P99 (less than $2), or larger amounts as well. I can get an extra 500 GB of data (again, good for 30 days) for P499, I believe. If you take advantage of this data boost service, your Internet speeds will not be decreased when you reach your plan’s data cap.
The key is, though, you must know how much data your plan allows and how much you have consumed. If I get the 80% warning when I have just a day or two remaining on the month of service, there is no need to buy more, because I will go back to my 100 GB limit once my new month starts. But, if I get the 80% warning when there are still 15 days left in the month, you can bet that I am going to “top off” my account limit!
Yes, you can
So, yes there is plenty of Internet in the Philippines that sucks. There is also good Internet in the Philippines. The choice is yours as to whether you want to get bad Internet or good. If you want good Internet, pay for it. Live in a larger city. If you don’t care too much about Internet speed, you can live where you want and choose a cheap plan. The choice is yours.
Best provider of Internet in the Philippines
Wanna know the best Internet Provider in the Philippines? It’s a secret that I don’t share widely. After all, if I shared it with everybody the system would get all clogged and it would not be all that great anymore! So, I keep it a tightly held secret, but somebody asked me how to get the best Internet here in the Philippines, so I really have no choice but to share my secret!
Truth is, there is no “best” Internet provider for the Philippines. Different Internet providers are better than others, but it all depends on where you are. In the podcast today, though, I provide you with information on how to find out what the best Internet is for the area where you will move, and how to choose the best place to move based on where the best Internet can be had in the area that is of interest to you!
I have been living here in the Philippines for many years now, and as a person who uses the Internet to conduct business and earn a living, having good Internet is very important to me. Because of the importance that the Internet plays in my life, I have learned the good and the bad about having usable Internet in the Philippines. Today, I share a bit of what I have learned so that you can also have a good Internet Service when you live in the Philippines.
Many expats complain about the poor Internet in the Philippines. However, you don’t have to have poor Internet service! I have Internet Service that is even better than most people can get in the United States, and I have it at a very low price too! Today, I will show you how you can enjoy good Internet instead of just complaining about the poor Internet in the Philippines, so tune in to the Podcast and find out!
[powerpress]
How we make sure we get good internet in the Philippines
In 2018, Feyma and I moved from Juna Subdivision in Davao City to Skyline Village, also in Davao. We followed our normal process to make sure we were able to get the best internet in the Philippines.
Getting good internet in the Philippines seems to be the number one topic that I get asked about, or perhaps I should say warned about. “Make sure you get good Internet.” I hear it daily.
No worries. I always get good Internet in the Philippines. In fact, before we will make a commitment to any house or location, we always check what is available Internet wise first read we make sure that good-quality Internet is available. My business is on the Internet, so I cannot have bad Internet in the Philippines. It is our number one consideration.
At our old location, in Juna subdivision. We had two Internet providers. I always go for redundancy, because being in the business, I need to have Internet all the time, if at all possible. Having redundant connections generally assures that. Sure, there are times, rarely, when both connections are out, but it is very infrequent. Our main Internet connection in Juna was provided by SkyBroadband, a cable connection to the internet in the Philippines. That account was 15 Mbps, and quite reliable. At one point we had a 50 Mbps connection with Sky, but it was not so reliable. When we rolled back to 15 Mbps, we were quite happy with that. Our second provider was Globe telecom, through which we had a DSL connection, 10 Mbps. We almost always got around nine Mbps through Globe, which we considered satisfactory for a backup connection.
At our new location, we already have SkyBroadband hooked up. The same 15 Mbps connection that we had in Juna. It works great, and we are very happy with it. We will, again, have redundancy, with two Internet providers. Our second connection will be through PLDT, a fiber connection, with 50 Mbps. We have already applied, and the connection should be installed in a week or two from the time you read this. I’m really looking forward to that and hoping it is going to be as great as it sounds. I have many friends using PLDT fiber, and they all have good reports. On both connections, we have unlimited bandwidth, no data caps at all.
So, things are looking good for the Internet. It should be even better than we had in our old house, which we were very happy with. I only see things improving, and that will make me even happier.
When I have been at the new house, I tried out my phone, using 4G, and was able to easily get a connection at 12 Mbps, which I’m quite happy with as well.
So, everything is looking good, with our Internet at the new location. In the coming days and weeks, I will be giving you a full report on our new place.
Things turned out well
As things progressed and we completed our move, things turned out really well. We were able to get PLDT FIBR at 100 Mbps, and as a backup, we also got SkyCalbe 16 Mbps service. At our new location, our Internet in the Philippines was great! Both PLDT and SkyCable offered very reliable service at the speeds they promised. No complaints.
But, sometimes outages or slowdowns happen.
Should I blame PLDT?
PLDT FIBR
Fiber Optic Internet in the Philippines Service
I got PLDT FIBR Internet when we moved to Skyline. My Internet speed on the plan is 100 Mbps, with unlimited data.
The service has been very reliable in my book. From time to time the speed slows way down (as low as 1 Mbps), but that is rare. When it happens< really don’t worry about it, because it always gets back to normal within a short time. Usually, the maximum duration of this type of slowdown has been a couple of hours.
These kinds of slowdowns only happen a couple of times per month, so I don’t have a huge problem with it.
Backup Internet in the Philippines
One of the reasons that slowdowns don’t really bother me much is because I always keep redundant internet connections. Since Internet is my business, it is how I earn a living, having more than one Internet connection is important to me.
For my second Internet connection, I have a 16 Mbps SkyCable. This is a Cable Modem connection.
I have been using SkyCable for about 5 years or so, I guess. There have been bumps in the road with SkyCable. It can’t compare with PLDT FIBR in speed or reliability, but it is still pretty good. For a backup, it is fine.
The last 2 to 3 weeks
In the past 2 to 3 weeks, though, there have been two major problems with PLDT FIBR.
First, a few weeks back, on a Thursday, my Internet speed went down to 1 Mbps. I really did not worry about it, because as I said when this has happened with PLDT FIBR in the past, the speed was back to normal within a couple of hours. I switched to SkyCable and forgot that I was not using PLDT FIBR anymore. It was not until the next day that I remembered, and I switched back to the 100 Mbps connection, expecting full speed again.
Nope!
The speed was still 1 Mbps. I still did not get too upset and didn’t do anything. That was a mistake.
I called the PLDT Hotline on Saturday
On Saturday, it was still a poor connection so I called the PLDT FIBR hotline to inquire about the problem. I should have called on Friday.
The PLDT repairmen work on Saturdays, but I don’t think they work on Sundays. So, since I called on Saturday, they did not come until Monday. I do consider that good service, though. If I had called the PLDT FIBR repair people on Friday, as I should have, they probably would have been at my house on Saturday, I am sure.
Bad News
When the technician came to our house, everything looked good. Good news? No, that was bad, because, with everything good at location, they had to track down the problem elsewhere. They found that the reason that PLDT FIBR was not working was that a truck hit and broke our fiber optic cable up the road! That is why our Internet had been so slow and eventually stopped working altogether!
The Fiber Optic cable was replaced and everything was good! I was happy!
New Event this week
This week, it happened again! Not a broken PLDT FIBR cable, but the same results. Almost non-existent Internet. This time, though, PLDT FIBR and other PLDT services like DSL were out all over this part of Mindanao.
As it turned out, a road construction company was digging and cut a Fiber Optic cable! Service was out for 2 days this time.
Yesterday afternoon, the Cable had been repaired and speed was back to normal, 100 Mbps. To say the least, I was once again happy with my PLDT FIBR performance!
Am I mad at PLDT?
No, I am not. I don’t like it that service has had problems over the past few weeks, not happy at all. However, in both cases, it was no PLDT’s fault.
The first case, a truck that was oversized hit the cable running over the road (underground cables are virtually unheard of in the Philippines except in a few selected areas).
The second case, a different company not related to PLDT caused the problem.
I consider these isolated incidents I don’t consider it to be a reason to be upset with PLDT.
PLDT FIBR is the best internet I’ve ever had in my life, including in the United States. So, I will be patient when these kinds of incidents happen. And… I’ll hope they don’t happen again!
Some outages are not their fault
A few days ago, we were having horrible Internet with some disconnects and our cable TV wasn’t working. It turned out to be a problem on our end and not Skycable. Specifically, the cable for our TV was cut, literally.
In our street, there are poles that carry electricity and are also used by ISPs and cable companies for Internet and cable TV. There’s a lot of cables overhead and sometimes it seems like a rat’s nest. One of the cables was for our cable TV, which was sitting fairly low, that’s how the cable company left it and we haven’t had any problems since getting it so we didn’t think it would be a problem. Well, we were wrong because it now rests broken off on one end. We think a big truck passed through and didn’t see it, which is possible since a lot of big trucks pass through every day.
A few years ago, our street had a bunch of speed humps, in some places, there were 2 within 10 feet of each other. It was a pain in the butt for cars to go through our street because of them. Most people wouldn’t bother going through our street, trucks especially wouldn’t come through. Eventually, the city decided to remove all the speed humps. We thought it was a good change because even for us, speed humps were a bit of a pain. After a while though, we realized that speed humps were important for, well, managing the speed of cars. Now, cars go through our street at really fast speeds and it’s a miracle that no one’s been hurt yet. Trucks also come through a lot because our street is a shortcut between 2 major roads. There was actually 1 case, not on our street, but fairly close, where a car was going really fast trying to see how fast his car could go. Luckily there were some TMC people close by who chased him, I hope he got a big ticket or something.
It sucks because I’m sure there are kids who want to go out and play, but because of speeding cars, it’s not safe. There are also 2 schools close to our house, so there will be kids and teens walking around. If they just put in a few speed humps here and there in order to , you know, manage the speed, then it would make it so much better.
While writing this article, we had a short disconnect. That’s a bit weird because our TV cable was cut, but our Internet is still connected. They are using different cables but I would think that if 1 broke, the other would too. I’m glad it’s still connected of course. Skycable said that it could take up to 5 days to come and fix it, which sucks, but whatever.
Well, here’s to hoping they’ll replace some of the speed humps. Just enough to be effective yet not be a pain. Also hoping Skycable will fix it soon, cause having flaky Internet isn’t fun.
Future plans for Internet in the Philippines
Over the past few years, a plan by Globe has been in the works. Is it for real, or just pie in the sky?
Globe and its partners in different countries are constructing a link between South East Asia and the States. It sounds like they really made sure everything goes right, avoiding earthquake-prone areas. They claim 100 Gbps, which is amazingly fast. We’re currently on 50 Mbps and it’s a huge upgrade from our old 5 Mbps connection. Comparing those, you can kinda see how significant an increase it is. Of course, whether or not consumers get that speed remains to be seen. I mean, right now, most computers now use 1 Gbps wired connectors so it’ll be a waste to get 100 Gbps.
Anyway, this would definitely be a step in the right direction for Internet here. It’s always PLDT at the top with Globe in second place, at least that’s how I see it. If Globe is trying to take the crown, then PLDT will of course retaliate. It will hopefully revamp the stagnant market. Pretty much all my friends use PLDT, I’m the only one who doesn’t. They’ve had good experiences with PLDT when it works, but when it doesn’t, oh man is it a problem. We used to have Globe, but they had their own problems. They were fairly reliable, but they had a cap of 10 GB per day. For us, that just wasn’t enough, so now we’re with Skycable, who have no caps. Actually, we had it better than a lot of Globe subscribers, cause they changed their policy to where you get, if I remember right, 15 GB per month on their highest plan. What if you exceed that cap? Hello, dial-up speeds (basically).
That’s really my big problem with Globe, they have unreasonable caps when their competitors don’t. I mean, you pay for 15 Mbps, but after a couple of days, that drops to a few hundred Kbps. Really unacceptable. I’m not sure if they plan on changing their plans with this new system, but if they don’t, it would be a huge waste. It’s 2016, we shouldn’t be held back by caps on our Internet anymore. The thing is though, a lot of people don’t care about the cap, they see the huge download speed and immediately think that’s good, and I think that’s why Globe still has caps. They figure that if they show a big number for download speed, people won’t notice the tiny number for usage.
Overall, I’m glad someone is finally doing something, but I’m kinda weary because it’s Globe. If they change up their plans and make them better, then I would be very happy. Hopefully, this move by Globe will prompt a response from PLDT and other ISPs. This will also hopefully make Fiber more widespread instead of the very limited areas you can get it right now.
My own personal Internet Future
As I have announced on this website, and also mentioned at the beginning of this article, after 2 decades in the Philippines, Feyma and I have decided to move back to the United States.
Over my nearly 2 decades here, I have seen the Internet in the Philippines mature greatly. I have gone from having a dial-up Internet to having reliable 100 Mbps fiber through PLDT. I am very happy with the Internet that I have here. If I can get the speed and reliability in the United States that I have here in the Philippines, I will be a happy man. I know a lot of friends in the USA who have Internet that is way worse than what I have in the Philippines.
Yep, Internet in the Philippines has improved a lot, right before my eyes.
Thanks for your helpful site! I've been sending money left and right to my family and it just seems not enough everytime, and your replies to the blog helps me understand about the current Philippines … and that is … I am sending too…. much.
Thanks again.
Hi Lii B – Always keep in mind that the average Filipino family lives on only around $100 per month or so. So, indeed, you should not need to send a huge amount of money to support them.
Not all internet cafes are the same Bob, mines shut at the moment because we are having to build up to accomodate the business but what we have is like an open plan office type of environment for business users with your own pc/fax/printer/scanner telephone/etc …… then a seperate area upstairs for chat and games. Cost …. for the business centre 30 pesos an hour + phone fax and printing costs … cheap considering that you can run your business from our premises. Chat and games are just 10 ps an hour right now …. we'll be open again in about 3 months following the re-furb look us up at Loloks Internet and International Business Centre Veloso Street, Obrero, 8000 Davao City …… we also supply mailboxes etc ….. We're not all the same 🙂
Hi Alf – i agree that not all are the same. I used to own a chain of Internet Cafes myself, and I know they were different.
Good luck with your enterprise!
Exactly right Bob. BTW, I agree with your logic here 100% concerning the ethics of this. Since you have no intent to defraud or perform any illegal activities, and are only facilitating your legitimate business transactions, no laws or ethics have been violated. Anyone going this route, though, should carefully read the TOS of their web service provider to make sure they explicitly allow it. Many do not and will disable the proxy server and/or suspend your account when they find it. Some people do use these for unethical purposes. In your case Bob, it sounds like you have found one that do support this service. Co-location services will often allow you to run a proxy server (or anything else you want, you are basically renting your own server to do with as you wish), though it has been some years since I used one.
BTW, great blog you have here Bob!
Cheers,
Richard
Hi richard – Thanks for the comment, and I'm glad to know that you are enjoying my site!
Yes, you and I are in complete agreement on this. My Hosting company does allow this, since I am leasing my own dedicated server. Another thing that is important is to make sure you do not let the password out to others, because soon you will have a flood of traffic using your proxy server. When that happens, you will end up getting a huge bill for bandwidth use. This is very important!
Bob you rarticle came at teh perfect time…I was working on an issue and have found a solution thanks ….timing is everything!
Hi Brian – Happy to be of assistance! 😀
Bob,
I believe it's still possible to identify the user IP address behind the Proxy address, so the Proxy solution may not be 100% effective.
Hi Laurence – On some proxies you can identify that a proxy is being used, and the IP address of the person using the proxy server. But, if you use the proper software to set up the proxy server, it is impossible to detect that.
Bob , i was thinking ,
can i get a proxy , by using my
daughters internet and banking ?
Hi Anton – I am not sure that I understand your question. Do you mean that you will log onto your banking through your daughter's internet connection somewhere outside the Philippines? If so, yes, you can do that, as long as you are logged onto the internet from outside the Philippines you have no worries.
Interesting indeed, Bob. I just knew you were going to talk about proxy servers … and I also know the hazards of using free public or even subscription proxies. But dummy that I am, I never thought of the most obvious … run my own. That's how come I'm good looking but you're rich i guess … it takes smarts to make money 😆
This idea is worth a million, Bob, thanks ever so much.
Hello BOb – how are you & the family..
Great post. am learning new things (again)..
Hi Dave Starr – I'm glad that I put a little idea in your head with this post! It's quite easy to set up a proxy server of your own. Best is also that it's secure!
Hi marygrace – We are doing great! Hope you are too! Feyma and I were just talking about you yesterday, and saying that we had not seen you post a comment for a while!
Hi Bob. Was wondering if you could recommend any companies that are reasonable priced. I did try the company that hosts my web sites and they didn't offer proxy servers. perhaps you have a list you could share with us. would save lots of time and hassle. Thanks
corey
Hi Corey – I don't recommend using a paid proxy service, as I said in my column, there are security issues. What I recommend is getting your own hosting account with some Web Hosting company, then setting up your own personal proxy server. I use a company called "ServInt.net" for this, although they are a high end company that does VPS and Dedicated Servers, which you don't need, unless you want to host a lot of sites. Any hosting account that will allow you to install your own software (the Proxy Software) should do the trick for you. If you don't mind spending more money, ServInt does get my highest recommendation! They have always provided me with excellent service.
Hell Bob – send my regards to Feyma, got busy for awhile, school started already (Beatrice is having fun..)..but its already a part of my daily routine to visit LiP webmag. so eventhough am not posting any comment, am still following LiP ")
Hi marygrace – will do! Please wish good luck to Beatrice with school!
Sadly it’s a common occurence, judging by my own expereince. One thing which you should explore, Bob, and whichI intendto explore too, is server software that intelligently ‘shares’ the two connections. In other words instead of oneconnection being separate from anohter, when both are working your data will use either one, automatically failing over if one dies. This sounds intuitive, but isn’t as common as you might think. Part of telecom exspense management not to keep a service in reserve for failiures, but to use both.
I’d also think hard about media diversity. Two DSL’s on the same phone line don’t seem as robust as aphone line DSL coupled with a wireless DSL … moves the common points of failure outside yourlocal neighborhood.
Regardless. best of luck andgood to see you back.
Hi Bob,
I'm writing this while I'm still here in the Philippines, but quite sad this is my last vacation day till I go back to Singapore this evening.
Oh no… so you're posting articles here would be delayed (anyway, Internet Cafes come in handy or coffee shops with WiFi). But it's a good idea that you applied for a second one (as a backup at times like these).
I do smell something fishy about that upgrade without notifying you, Bob, by PLDT.
Good luck posting again, Bob!
sounds like a conspiracy to me Bob…..ya might have to slip someone a few Washingtons soon !!!
Our PLDT DSL is also going crazy, we usually loose cvonnection at like 1am or something but it comes back in a few hours.
My brothers ay it's got something to do with the bridge or something or whatever.
Bob you may recall my stories about my internet provider here BAYATNTEL, I think the level of customer service and the level of reliability is the same. I have spent hours on the phone being told a thousand different stories and false promises. Welcome to the electronic age.
Hi bob,Is there DSL in Samal or is it dial up.This is really important to me as i will pay bills in the US on line.Thanks Jim.
Bob
Some friends of ours that live in Cebu had there DSL and phone quit working so they went to the office of the phone company. When the secretary at the phone office called the number that was not working for our friends another person answered the phone. It is bad when someone decides they need the phone service more than you but do they expect other people to keep paying for the service?? 😕
PS I am addicted to your blog so please find a way to keep the new posts coming. 😉
Maybe it will be done in 3 days” he said. 3 Days? They decided to upgrade us, and didn’t even tell us, and now we will be offline for 3 days? There is something about that which is not quite right.
Bob "Only in the Philippines"
Im using smart bro i call it dumb bro its usless!!!!
i was spoilt in the UK with a 2meg line now you can get 8 meg line
I got smart bro bec not sure how long i will stay in one place.
update on bank account 3 visits so far and no account im hoping on the fourth visit (and 2 weeks)i can secure an account. In the UK takes 5 mins online.
at the end of the day its a 3rd world country so i have to expect this will happen….but saying that cities should be improving!
stories like these are reasons why i sometimes hesitate moving back. the net is the backbone of my work.
hi bob, IT Technology is my field of work for the past 19 years, i also moderate a forum which deals with the dsl service in the philippines, how to troubleshoot the problem and fixing it without calling your provider.
I have 4 internet cafe's in the philippines and all of them uses the PLDT DSL service, none of them experience a problem, there are few things that you should know about the DSL service in the philippines.
1. There are 2 types of account you can subscribe to, the end-user account and the business account, the difference is, the business account is usually with a high level of availability and speed, the end-user account is not.
technically speaking, the DSL technology is based on a contention ratio service, what it means is the speed you are subscribed to is shared among other DSL users in the same area or with other dsl users across the town/country.
when you subscribe as an end-user with a speed of say, 2mbps, normaly the contention ratio is something like 15:1 or maybe more, in other words, there are 15 other dsl users sharing the 2mbps speed. of course, depending on the provider, the contention ratio is sometimes higher or maybe lower.
The business type account is usually with a lower contention ratio, something like 5:1 or 3:1, in other words, there are only 3~5 DSL users sharing the 2mbps bandwidth. and the cost is higher than that of end-user
another technical term that you should know is the CIR (Committed Information Rate) this is a kind of service the provider can offer you, basically what it does is, the provider will give you a certain speed which is dedicated to you and can usually cost extra money. normally the CIR is only offered to a business account. for example, you subscribed to a 2mbps with 3:1 contention ration and a CIR of 256kbps, what it means is the maximum rate you will get is 2mbps and the guranteed speed is 256kbps, when the other 2 dsl users goes online and they use the bandwidth so much, the CIR will kick in, regardless of how the other 2 dsl users consume the bandwidth, you will still get the 256kbps.
the end-user account or residential account (most commonly known in P.I.) cannot guarantee you the speed or availability, typically those who have a residential account will experience a slow connection or no connection at all and that is due to some of the users in the group might be exhausting the bandwidth and nothing left for you.
let's look at the price, a 2mbps resedential account will cost 999 a month and a business account with the same speed costs 6,000 a month.
if your business is entirely depending on the internet connection, you should get the business account as it will give you reliability and availability.
Conspiracy to you Bob??? mmmh – i am speechless. 3 days upgrading??? mmmh – I can't believe… You know, i started my internet connection last year in July while writing for your blog. I asked my friend about "your problems as posted in your blog". He told me, he can't understand. And btw, regarding PLDT I have never experienced such things yet. And, maybe someone will explain again that we are in a Thirdclass country. Guys, that's not the problem. Anyway, my friend, good luck. I am sure everything will be okay… 😉
Hi everybody – I have good news. I got Smart Bro hooked up today, as a backup connection. Right now, though, I still have no PLDT, so the Smart Bro is my connection of choice right now. At least I have Internet. It's a bit slower, and also for some reason it won't allow me to send e-mail through my SMPT server (although it allows sending of web based e-mail).
Hi Jio – Posting of columns should be as normal. I went to a coffee shop with wifi access yesterday (Sunday) and posted 4 articles that will show up in successive days through Thursday.
Hi Dave Starr – PLDT has been fairly reliable for me for 6 years now, and particularly in the past 2 years or so. However, this past month something has changed! I can't say why, but it has gotten terrible, as far as being cut off by PLDT. The quality of the connection is good, if PLDT just let's me use it! I don't intend to combine the connections, although in many respects it is a good way to go. I do have Smart Bro now, but I have a certain application running on one machine that I will dedicate the Smart Bro to. It's a bandwidth intensive app that I will like getting off my regular connection.
Hi Brian – I've slipped a few pesos over the years to help get my DSL going, and it's worked every time!
Hi Cheryll Ann – I've been hearing from a number of people that they are experiencing problems with PLDT lately!
Hi John Grant – I have never experienced much slowness and such as you have with Bayantel, but lately I am having some kind of account problem it seems. I don't know what is going on, I hope I get reconnected soon!
Hi Larry – Don't worry I will do all I can to keep the columns coming through the "crisis."
Hi graham – I just talked to PLDT on the telephone. They said three days last friday. Now they say 2 to 3 weeks to fix the problem (and I didn't even have a problem!). They said something about needing to change the wires coming to my house. I don't get it!
Hi macky – I fully understand your feelings, because I am in the same boat as you. Without the Internet, I can't earn money. Thank God that I got the Smart Bro hooked up today!
Hi dans – Thanks for your input.
Hi Klaus – Somebody at PLDT just told me that they are going to replace the wiring in my neighborhood and it might take a few weeks! My goodness… it would have been nice if they had notified me before they just cut me off! What poor service. You are right, though, MikeV will probably come along and say that it's my fault because this is a 3rd World Country. 😆
hi bob,
with your #11 post, you won't be able to use the SMTP service or any protocol that uses a direct TCP connection, SMART BROken is using a private ip address which is not visible on the internet, you are NATted only.
Hi dans – thanks for the follow up. I did find that you can send smtp mail, though, if you use an SSL connection. This is a little inconvenient, but at least there is a work around.
yeah, usually SSL will work because smart cannot block it since it is also being use by the web's http, the thing is, if your email provider supports SSL then it's o.k otherwise you are out of luck.
Hi dans – the good thing on that is that I have my own dedicated server in the States… so I am my own e-mail provider! 😆
the other thing i hate about the internet provider in the philippines,, is their "Lock-in" period, i use to have the digitel for my internet cafe and i was not satisfied with their service, i need to pay their "pre-termination fee" which is a total of your "un-used month", i just use their service for about 4 months, then i have to pay in full for the remain 8 months.
you see how these big telcos screwing their own people?
Hi dans – Yep, that is very true! 🙁
Hi Jim – As of now, there is no internet (DSL or Dial Up) available on Samal. I believe it will be coming in the relatively near future, though.
hi bob… my internet provider is globelines broadband and i have the same problem here.. .. i have to call there customer service line a many times before i get my internet line back on…
Hi Bob.
Since the internet (DSL or Dial up) is not that stable, how about sattelit.
Hi Athena – I was planning to look into Globe and get an account… maybe it's not much different from PLDT, though. Thanks for the tip.
Hi Preben – In the days before DSL was available in the Philippines, I had a satellite account. it was very unreliable. I do think that the Internet access here is not bad, though. I have just been having some unfortunate problems lately. Hopefully that will go away!
G'day Bob..same case happend to our internet for 2 months…glitched and unconnected for a couple of days..My hubby doing his business at home most of the time..And we really got so mad with their service (Globe).. 😡
The customer's sevice script..we know by heart..upgraded..coordinate..facilitate…etc…And whenever we telling them to what could be the reason of the problem..they using it as an excuse..Aside from their telling me one thing and saying differently with my hubby..talking with their customer service and their technical support group their telling two diferrent things, exactly the same case you encounter too…They really don't know what's going on..so much for coordinating i guess. 😆 …but we able to settle a rebate for the damage that it cost us…And it's only this month we received it.. 🙄
As for the meantime..it is average..Hoping it will turn 100% better…Having a back up is a good idea..I might advice my hubby about it…Thanks.. 🙂
Hi jocelyn green – for anybody who uses the net to make their living, I believe that having a backup connection is a good idea. It's cheap, after all. 😆
Bob said…Hi Jim – As of now, there is no internet (DSL or Dial Up) available on Samal. I believe it will be coming in the relatively near future, though.
————————
Someone said there is a couple of internet cafes in babak so i think they have PLDT internet there?
Hi graham – there is actually only one internet cafe in Babak, but it uses satellite. PLDT internet is not available on Samal. I have good news, though…. I just found out today that Smart Bro is now available on Samal!
Good Day Everyone
Interesting Bob that wireless broadband is not going to be one of your considerations. In Placer, Jo's family has wireless and we found it to be faster and more reliable than online broadband in Cebu. So much so that it is not even close. The only interruptions was when we had a brown out. Admittedly we were only there for 3 weeks, but it was really the hands down winner.
Hi Wayne A. Derby – I think you mis-read what I said. Indeed, I did get Smart Bro (which is a wireless broadband system) to replace my wired DSL. In fact, I got two different accounts! So, I am back up and running with Wireless Broadband now, and really enjoying it. 😆
hi boss,
Maayong adlaw 😀
PLDT really never change..there was never a year that they don't give their customers a headache…but I'm happy to know that you have a back up (Smart Bro) internet connection now. By the way, how about the skycable internet connection? Did it went through? Or they're still constructing?…as what they said
— miss the whole fam, especially mom feym..say hi to her.
Hi Gladys – Kumusta ka? Maayo kaayo ang akong adlaw! Ikaw pud?
You know what? Yesterday, I decided that I was so tired of PLDT that I actually just decided to cancel my account with them altogether. So, now I have 2 Smart Bro accounts only. I don't know, maybe I'll get some other kind of account as a backup, but it won't be PLDT.
On the Cable Internet, there is now ZPdee Cable Internet in Davao from Sky Cable, but unfortunately they do not have it available in my neighborhood.
We miss you too, Gladys, and I hope that you and Carlo are doing well! 😆
Feyma,
I remember when I first started looking online and eventually met Elena. At first there were so many ladies that emailed me. Some would ask to go to yahoo to chat. That was easier, some had home computers, at a friends house or at a cafe. Some had webcams and even headsets to talk.
Then I would get requests for money. Many reasons but most was hunger, rent money or my child or famly member was sick.
There were also girls that told me the cafe had private rooms and I I sent money, they would get the room and be naked on cam. I ended those chats reight away.
We have all heard the stories how someone was scammed.
That is why I started the series "moving to and living in the Philippines" and on my second article I wrote thinks to think about. http://americanindavao.com/blog/2009/02/moving-to…
I said it is not the rule, but things happen. Recently I heard again of a girl whos mother gave her the money to go to a cafe and find a foreigner husband to support the family.
Filipinos and Foreigners have to learn to be careful, clear head and caution online.
Hi Danny – that is rough terrain down there in that area. The problem is that the Philippines is very hesitant to allow US Troops to enter any kind of battle here. It is actually unconstitutional to do so.
I went with the Philippine saying that a true Filipino woman 'will not ask for money" ..and it is true ..my Jess never ask for money at anytime when we were chatting …a fellow chatter she knew was chatting 6 men and meeting them at different times of the year and she was married to 2 men in different countries .. This is a big money maker for them and a very bad deal for the poor guy they are chatting with .. No cam no chat …pretty scary out there on the internet now days … Phil
Very True story you just put up Feyma..A few years ago I chatted ( before I learned better ) about oh! 15 ladies from the Philipines and over the course of about 1 year..only 1 out of the 15 did not ask me for money and some of the stories them ladies ( or gosh maybe some were men ! )come up with!!
I only sent money to 1 and she bought a bed and some food for her 3 kids and it was my idea because I felt sorry for them and she was a single mother and had 3 kids and no husband,And she thanked me and I could tell that she appreciated what was done for her and her 3 kids…So I considered it money well spent in my mind and was happy to help this lady out a little.
I no like Bob as said more than once……You could never help them all…there is just to many poor and down and out and so forth..but! I belive there still are some or a lot of good people in the Philipines that are poor and have not much and appriciate what they have and if helped they are thankfull.
But! I can say..as you said in your story that what you said is true and I no first hand..so..all I can say to those that do not know…be carefull and if some body asks you for money then hit the delete button…..Thanks for a nice Artical Feyma….Dan
Hi james – i suppose that is true.
you know there are people who dont think why in the world would you send $$$ to some one you dont know why because she talks sexy looks sexy? your alone are that stupid for real take care of your ( family ) your self you give up money to see a little skin daaaaa if you are that hard up go to the store my your self a magazine do what every do things to make your self better there is a woman for every man there is gentelmen get real want to give money away give it to charity
Hi Feyma!
I have heard the story you speak of many times. Marie and I met through a friend of my brother who is in Korea and married to Marie's cousin. When we decided to use messenger instead of E-mail we both had to recieve lessons. We laugh because even though we are both in our forties we were innocent to the ways of internet communication. Marie went to the house of an lady she knew for instruction and was quite shocked and apalled at what popped up on the screen. She said that she screamed and covered her eyes at what some pervert was exposing on his cam. The lady laughed and said that she had many online boyfriends that did that. We both agreed that maybe this lady was using this as an income source. Marie once asked me why I never chatted with young girls online? I told her my daughter is 18 and I could not imagine talking to someone the same age as her. In my mind I would be a pediphile for that! Second, I thought that chatting was a waste of time until I met her. I gained a lot of time when she came here last year because I never chat anymore. A man I know is talking to a lady from Ghana that just popped up on messenger. She has already asked for money for a visa after one week. I told him that she is a scammer but he would not listen so he will find out.
For many years I have wondered why people from other parts of the world seem to come out of nowhere into localized chats here in the USA, want to be instant friends and then before you know it they are asking for money.
One winter night a few years ago just such a thing happened while I was in a local statewide chat in a neighboring state to where I live to check out some of the road and driving conditions from recent snow. All of a sudden someone fro Philippines comes into this localized chat and tries to make friends with the chatters. This person even put up his real name, address and telephone number right on the main chat screen. With that information it gave me enough information to back track this person and find out what kind of place these " internet beggars " originate from. I already knew most of them are scammers in the first place but this was the first time I had some information to go on. This particular individual gave hsi name, street addy, phone number and the city as " 9200 Iligan City, Philippines "
Websearching 9200 Iligan City, Philippines brought quick results and I found a match to the information the internet beggar gave out in the local chat here. Further investigation revealed that this was a genuine individual with not the best reputation in that city although it is a real person. I later even learned that this person scammed money from local organizations right in his home town of Iligan City.
As I found more websites descriptive of Iligan City, including Mindanao.com I became more intrigued about Iligan City and began to learn more about it. Several picture oriented forums supplied a continuous stream of pictures of the place. After two years of learning as much about the place as I could I wanted to go there to see it for myself as I found things there that interested me.
Along the way by means of interactive websites such as this one and also legitimate individuals on internet chats ( yes there really are some " real people " out there in chat land ) I did become friends with some of the people there. These chats reinforced my desire to visit and just about one year ago, after spending more than two years researching Iligan City, I actually went there ! Until that time it was a place in my PC and a place in my imagination that would soon come to life right in front of me.
I had a wonderful time visiting Iligan City and it gave me a better understanding of Internet Cafe's and why it can encourage certain individuals to become " internet beggars ". Not everyone in the internet cafe's are internet beggars. There are internet cafe's on every block of the city and those that I sampled and made use of myself seemed to be well supervised and a place for primarily younger people to congregate and enjoy themselves. Many people in the Philippines just can not afford to have a PC and an internet service in their homes, which is what inspired the Internet Cafe to become such a popular place particularly with the younger people. As with many popular commercial recreation types of businesses that can become highly competitive, many cities have Internet Cafe Owner Associations which can be considered to be professional organizations. One thing I was pleased to see in many of the Internet Cafe's I visited were prominently posted signs stating " No Pornography " although I have often wondered it a few less scrupulous cafes may have back room " private " webcam set-ups, you can use your own imagination as to what for.
My visit to Iligan City gave me a much better prespective as to why some people resort to begging on the internet for money. My advice would be to never ever send money to any of them as this will only encourage them to continue doing this. Many of the internet beggars do not care or realize that they are giving their part of the world a bad reputation. Don't give in to their tear jerking hard luck story, then might be earning more money on the intenet than you do in your paycheck !
Now, what ever happened to the internet beggar / con artist that first brought my attention to Illigan City ? That person eventually ran out of scams I guess and left the city and was last known to be some place in Europe involved in some form of the " Entertainment " business. LOL
That individual never got a dime out of me but instead, after learning about Iligan City and visiting there I was able to do some good things for some of the good people there. I sent several donations to the Iligan City calamity fund in times of need. I set up a scholarship at one of the Universities there and I have been well acknowledged for these things.
Many people have asked me how I ever found Iligan City and why did I want to go there, now you know why. I have since returned to Iligan City for additional visits and I plan to visit there again as I have made some genuine friendships. If we try to ignore the internet beggars and con artists sooner or later they may get the hint and give up. It is too bad that they tarnish the image of their town or city in the process.
This link will demonstrate something you can do for deserving people instead of feeding the internet beggars who probably rake in more money each week than you make at your job:
Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology website
News Section :
http://www.msuiit.edu.ph/news/news-detail.php?id=…
Hi Bob,
Bob, I think if the MILF were to start bombing(God forbid) Manila, and threatening the people that live there, they would decide very quickly to make it constitutional, and accept our help or any other NATO nations help. Not just us, the UK, Dutch, and Germans among other countries are very good at battling terrorist these days.
I believe the US 10th Mountain Division is trained in this type of fighting….especially for fighting in Afghanistan, but also trained for tropical areas as well, just not use to playing hide and seek too much.
I know is not an easy task, I just read an old article the other day, about one of the last Japanese hold outs from World War II. On the island of Lubang, just west of Manila Bay, the last Japanese was captured in 1972, even though the local population knew they were there, I don't think there was ever a large search for them, militarily. It was tough to get one man out of the jungles, would be hard to get over a 200 out of the hills. Just depends on the size of the force, and how determined they are.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/sol…
(I don't usually put links to websites in here, but I thought this was very interesting.)
Take care now,
Danny
Hi chasdv – I don't think Davao has it. If they do I'm not sure where they would used it.
We have some flashlights and big candles and we used aluminum and crystals as coasters.
Take care and nice seeing you here again.
To reiterate this statement about US forces in Mindianao…I am in the US forces and I will tell you for a fact that we are not allowed to engage in combat there. There have even been times that our forces have been located in a base that was getting mortared. Even then, we were not allowed to ”GET ER DONE” as James put it. We are merely there to train the Filipino Army and to provide aid to the area….That is all!! You can believe me if you want, I know there are many who think the US is heavily engaged in the area and will not believe anyone who says otherwise. I have seen it so much in the posters all over down there spreading these lies.
Bob – Your quick response is highly appreciated.
I've gone through the link provided by you and it does have good information. It's helpful.
It is too much to ask but I wanted to clarify few more things with you –
1) What are the usual questions asked from hearing?
2) Until the time I get TRV, can I work in the Philippines? Can I get Temporary Work Permit for work?
3) I've paid ~7k while submitting my TRV application to the Immigration office in Intramurous (where one of the employees told me that total expense could be 100k, which is not sure?). Will there be any other expenses I will need to cover, while issue of the visa, during hearing etc?
4) What we should be prepared of for the Hearing next week?
5) Approximately how long does it take to have TRV after the hearing date?
6) What are causes of denied TRV?
Apology for too many questions.
It would be very helpful if you could provide more details on my above questions.
Thanks in advance.
This is very true Fema, and i feel so sad about this and makes me sick thinking about this…why cant one be honest and good to thier intentions??? I belive that even in poverty we should not make this as an excuse to fool someone wether he is a filipino or american or whatever his nationality is. Lets not make this chatting a bussiness.. we should be honest to ourselves…why not just convey the truth and perhaps just ask financial assisitance if u need one.Rather than pretend to be someone, This sometimes misleads some chatters who are looking for soulmates in the internet.
Hi Feyma,
We have a saying in English that goes "A fool and his money are soon parted." I have been contacted a few times from the Philippines, mainly on Skype, as I do not bother with Chat Rooms. All of the contacts were female and all have become good friends, whom I have visited while in the Philippines. Not one of them have ever asked me for money. I guess you get what you search for!
Kamusta ka Feyma,
Yes, this is a big business Feyma, and not new at all. When I started chatting with filipina's, I couldn't count the number of times I was asked for money. There were 4 ladies that never asked for money, one of course is my Rose, who I will be coming to Philippines to marry, and three other ladies that have become very good friends and still are. They have never asked for money, and they say they never will, in fact all of them say the same thing "a good filipina will never ask for money" and its true. One of the ladies lives in Illigan City and is single mother with twin boys, and is raising them herself, and only makes a few piso's a day. But she is a proud young lady, with strong religious beliefs, and will never stoop down to begging for money from strangers. She would rather go out and work hard for her money.
So to all of you guys out there..NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANYONE YOU DON"T KNOW!!
salamat kaayo,
Danny
Hi Michael – I tried to kind of imply some things. There are certain things that are not wise to say for a foreigner living in a foreign country. The threat of deportation is always something that must be kept in mind. I can't really say everything explicitly, I hope you understand.
Agreed about the government not wanting to end the fighting because that would end aid. I remember when I was deployed there and there was a weapons cash taking, All the serial numbers were recorded and turned over to the Philippine Marines. Low and behold 3 months later the same weapons were seized from a armed group of militants who surrendered.
Ever notice how they seem to have the same weapons as the PI military and they new??? or Even more well equipped, Those are US military m16 A-2's with 203 grenade launchers in Bobs pics, Not AK-47's folks. If the Generals would stop selling them arms then the conflict would end. Seriously how can you not defeat, disarm and cut off supplies to a group on a island? This frustrated many of us who were there.
Don't be surprise to see some of those new crew served weapons that the military has ordered in the hand of militant. It's just how the game is played there.
Hi feyma,
this is so true. I just dont understand why a person will send money to another they have never met. As u said, it is a scam and if a husband participate in such a thing, then he's a pimp and lazy, to allow this to happen, he shouldnt have a family at all. does he think that he will still have a hold on his wife after she gets here in the states and experience a nice life here? then he's sadly mistaken, coz she's gonna forget him and move on.
For foreigners wishing to meet a true lady, as soon as they asked for money, forget them and find another.
Hi Feyma
Yes everything you say is true,several expat sites I belong to say 80% plus on these dating sites are scammers, having experiance on one for the past 9 months this percentage adda up to what I have found.
Since being here in Cebu City and having a coffee and chat with 8 that never asked for money 3 of those have since tried to make an exraction, one of these I really liked her personality and have cut a deal with her, for free use of my laptop here for 5 hours in the morning Mon-Fri, she is teaching me how to use Yahoo Messenger (which I recently installed) and I am allowed to watch her take her foreigner's for a ride on YM, even I was shocked when I saw guys paying her to watch them masterbate on webcam, the rest just ask her to get her gear off at US$25 a strip and US$50 for a show.This is a full blown Industry in the Philippines and must bring in millions of Dollars,Pounds and Euros.
My conclusion after several weeks of this if the foreigners are stupid enough to send money to some girl they have never met,hopefully they will eventually wake up, very clever and easy money making business for the girl.
Except for the odd coffee and a couple of meals for my little scammer it has been a cheap exercise, I have found the experiance quite educational, and have not had so many laughs in a long time.
She tells me she has a very healthy bank account and I believe her after what I have seen.
Hi Feyma,
Interesting stories and widespread all over the world.I think the temptation of easy money attracts.
Its made easier as women pay nothing to join these dating sites but men have to pay.
However some of the foreigners are just as bad with their scams and promises.
Had a good laugh about the husband who pretends to be a woman,does he dress up in his wife's clothes? (LOL).
I think the guy who met the women in Manila,who will not take him to her province,definately has something to hide,her husband maybe.
I know from my experiences a few years ago, chatting all over the world, the majority are scammers or beggars of some sort.Is it right coz of poverty,its not for me to judge.As many of the other commentors have said,proceed with caution,and do not send money to people you do not know.Also be realistic,when an 18yr old tells a 60 yr old guy, she met over the internet,she loves him after 2 weeks chat, having never met in person,just get real.
There's a sucker born every minute.
regards Chas.
Hi Michael – good observation. 😉
i think guys who send woman money are sad and a bunch of losers and they deserve what they get! best way to find a filipina is thru friends if you know any filipinos in america or know there husbands they always have a friend or a relative who they know thats single ! best thing to do is go there and stay for a couple months and learn about the culture and people and just observe your fellow filipinas that you talk to and come in contact with! go to a big shopping mall and sitdown on a bench and walk around you will find plenty of woman who will approach you and talk to you! go to mass on sunday or any day for that matter you will meet plenty of woman at least you know they have some morality and scruples!
when i was in the philippines and after i met the woman who later became my wife ,she went to mass everyday ,and her family is religious also that made a big difference in my decision on who i wanted to be my wife! now i am not overly religious but i do go to church on sunday i knew i needed a woman who was raised with values to be the mother of my children. i really had to be sure of who i was to marry and make sure she wasnt a puta !
Gosh !! I was one of the luck ones !!!
I started chatting with Pamela in Feb. She was the first and last filipina I chatted with online. I went to visit her 3 months later after learning that she had to take two jeepneys and a twenty min. ride to town every day just to chat with me. Pamela was always there on line and on time every day. Never asked me for anything.
When I visited the end of May. I took the ride to the cafe just to see what she had to go through every day for me. She would pick up her 5yr. from school run home and leave with him the cousins to play and then hurry as fast as she could to be with me. After meeting her and the two kids on my visit for a month I decided this was the lady for me and we got engaged.
When I arrived home I started sending money to support my new family to be. Pamela never asked me for anything more than I sent. When I returned for the K-1 interview she handed me a shoe box. When I opened it it had every receipt for everything she had spent with the money I had sent. I could not believe it… every receipt !!!. I knew then I was a very luck man and the I had met a very honest caring loving lady.
From the first meet to her coming home with me after the K-1 interview (1yr) she only missed chatting with me two times… When she had a fever for two days and when her father passed two days. 4 in total.
We just celebrated our first anniversary and we are so very happy that we found each other.
Hi Feyma,
Some interesting stories here,some of us are lucky, some are not.
Last figure i saw was that less than 5% of chatters worldwide actually find a successful relationship through the net.
I feel that those westerners embarking on finding a partner on the net should adopt a streetwise approach,look for obvious signs,coz they are there,dont believe sob stories from people you hardly know and have never met.Many scammers will ask for money on 1st chat,some after 2 or 3 chats,as they do not want to waste time with non givers,as soon as they ask hit delete.Genuine filipina's are to conservative to ask strangers for money.
Be realistic, take your time getting to know someone,and just remember the words of an old song "Fools rush in,where wise men fear to tread".
regards Chas.
Hi Michael – I would personally be surprised if foreign forces have really seen action here.
Feyma Hello,
What a great topic. When I first searched on line for wife it was only here and within 50 miles of where I live. It was not long before I was contacted by lady 28years old that said she really liked my profile and lived 20 miles away. Match.com was to slow and we should talk on on email. Yahoo email address I was dumb and said ok. Well turns out she was from Russia. I knew then was scam so bored I decided to play. First why would someone 28 want 57 year old man. Actually found her picture and the letter she sent to me on scam site. Turns out pictures that she sent to me were new. I Met online the ones that ran the site and there asked if I would expose all photos. To make this part short I played until I got 28 photos. Then stated new thread and posted. Result was 3 Russian men in jail. All pictures were stolen. Lady and her husband emailed me and thanked. Stolen photos from Friendsters.
Now when I decided I wanted wife from the Philippines like my brother I joined dia. First night my photo appeared I had 14 ladies that told me they wanted to be in love now. Somehow I got lucky and the one I thought was scamming was Josey. Heck she was not and now we are going to marry very soon and I get to live there. Oh I have been scammed there but it was ok I knew it at time $50.00 is ok. Russian's scam men for thousand. Poor country like Philippine's and believe everyone else is rich, do not think $50.00 will hurt and do not most time. What they hurt is heart. Josey never asked for money. That is why I believed her.
Hi Phil n Jess
I didn't have to chat with tribe leader, But I did have to talk with just about all 14 in house. hehe Actually that's what made me feel good. Still talk with her aunts a lot. And my 6 year old daughter to be almost as much as Josey. I also am still on weekly emails from Russian Investigator at least by weekly. He fixed my pc when the Russian mafia crashed it. I don't know what he did but he just told me to hit some keys and sit back. Love them tools as he called them. Year and half and pc works great.
Hi Phil – There should be no problems with Abu Sayyaf up where your family is (near Ginoog, right?). Maybe some NPA up there, though.
WOW i have been following this on Yahoo Ph. and is this not current ?
"Philstar.com – Sunday, March 29ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The government has agreed to withdraw troops from a jungle area in Indanan, Sulu in a bid to save three kidnapped Red Cross workers threatened with beheading."
Feyma, I am very glad to have found your exposé, especially written in your "firsthand behind the scenes" viewpoint. It's a relief that I'm not imagining it, having never visited the Philippines.
I'm a single guy living in California. When I decided to try online dating, it seemed way too easy to start a chat with a beautiful Filipina. Not that I'm chopped liver. I think I'm a fair catch. But it was totally flattering.
I find the most common "abuse" (if you can call it that) is just pretty girls posting pretty photos and chatting with men. And misleading them. They soon ask for money for "a problem" that comes up. Just a few hundred dollars, too. Never pesos. They don't really show much skin either. Not saucy or sexy or x-rated. They start off slow and act like they're picky. But never do they ask questions.
They catch honest, caring guys, who do all the drooling and asking.
I think it's like the roadside panhandlers here in the big cities. The more that people give them handouts, from pity or charity or whatever, the more they come back for more. It's just business. They gain a freelance sort of independence. Freedom with some income is absolutely intoxicating.
But how does it all start?
Do you think a good portion of the girls may actually want a "better life" living in America? Do you think they start online chatting with true intentions, then after getting frustrated, they end up asking for gifts? And then it turns them? And then it turns into a "part time business?"
And then it gets supported by others? Where do you draw the line?
I really don't understand why people get righteously indignant about this or call it 'scamming'.
The Filipinas/Filipinos who ask for money are meeting a market demand; the work they do may well be socially useful because they release sexual frustration in ways that do little harm to either the customer or the supplier.
If foreigners are disposed to fall for a lot of romantic nonsense and send support to someone in RP in the belief they are helping a lover they are still doing a good thing regardless of their motives. Charity can be a generous impulse even if it's complicated by other motives.
The only scam I've experienced here was run by a school principal who siphoned off a good proportion of the money sent to help her school and used it for her personal benefit. Using the internet to ask for gifts is innocent in comparison.
Hi Garrett – I didn't really think you were implying it was me, but I like to clarify that kind of thing so that readers don't get the wrong idea.
message for andy wooldridge….nice photo of the two of you..where is your companion from in the philippines?
Do you know the old adage in tagalog "walang manloloko kapag walang nagpapaloko"
thanks, bob. as you know, i'm in the process of planning my triumphant return & wondering which net service to use.
i was leaning towards PLDT, but this makes way more sense for my laptop, ipod touch & other wireless devices that i will be bringing with me.
Hi Bob,
I wanted to ask if how did you set-up your vonage with your smart bro share it? I really need the info thanks! 🙂
hi bob,
My primary business here in the middle east I provide a wireless internet connectivity to western housing compounds and military hospital for both roaming and fixed wireless, I've been into this business since 1997 that was the time the wireless was first introduced and there was no "wifi standardization" yet, basically, I am into providing internet using different methods either a dialup, wireless, vsat etc..etc..
The problem with the philippine internet is not the actual internet infrastructure, philippines has an advanced sea cable, terrestial, fiber-ops across the S.E. asia region, the main problem with the dsl connections are in two folds, first, the existing copperwire which was laid 20 years ago are no longer suited to handle high speed bandwidth due to deterioration and the old copper wires are not rated or for such service, most cables installed 20 years ago are rated for voice quality only and not for data.
secondly, the problem is with the "business" side of it, most providers in the philippines always uses the term "Up to" it can means you can reach a speed of "up to" blah blah speed, it can be from 0kbps to 2mbps or whatever speed they advertised,
There's a technical term called a "Contention Ratio" and "Dedicated Bandwidth or CIR", contention ratio means that there are 2 or more users in a single speed, in other words, if the advertised speed is "up to 2mbps" that would mean it is a contented bandwidth, there could be 20 or more users sharing that speed from the provider's circuit, I have many friends who worked for PLDT and they are telling me that there are at least a 50:1 ratio in a single 2mbps speed, contention ratio in a dsl service are very common among the provider even in the states, HOWEVER, most ratio from a good provider limit it to 2:1 or 3:1 or with a maximum of 5:1 in order to provide the client with a decent speed, in the philippines the problem is that most isp "over share" the ratio to 50:1 which can render the speed unacceptable or very slow.
If the advertised speed is up to 2mbps for 999 pesos per month, don't expect you will get the advertised speed, internet bandwidth is very expensive even in the states and around the world, there is no such thing as 999 pesos for a dedicated 2mbps speed, it is so expensive that in some western countries some providers limit the user download to a certain amount such as 5gb per month for $20
unless the provider advertised a "dedicated speed or CIR (Committed Information Rate) then you can be sure that you can get the speed you payed for.
for those who plan to subscribe to any provider in the philippines, you better ask the ISP agent or sale rep about the REAL speed or whether it is a CIR or Contented Bandwidth, most of them can answer your question and they would probably offer you another subscription plan with a certain CIR. Some provider such as DigiHELL can offer you a 2mbps with 512kbps CIR, what it means is, you can get a maximum 2mbps if the users in your group are offline and you are the only user online, but when everyone goes online you are guaranteed to get 512kbps for 6 thousand pesos a month (I am not promoting digiHELL here, it so happen I know they are offering it)
anyway, be carefull with the ISP's advertisement as most of them are misleading.
Hi Steffanie Lyn – On the ShareIt router there is a place to plug in a Cat5 Network cable. Just plug your Vonage ATA there, and you should be in business.
Good information Bob. I took your advice before and signed up for a Vonage phone. I hope to also get a smartbro connection too. Okay you figured me out ….. I want to be just like Bob! Your experiences are very helpful to us newbies. Thanks Bob!
Hi bob,
Enjoy your high speed internet while there are few users subscribed to it, give it a month or so and you will see it will start to slow down, some 3.5g HSPDA are limited to 21mbps and some are limited to 7.2mbps or 3.6mbps.
Hi Bob,
I was delighted with your article. This is really good news for me if I decide to move to Davao in the future. Topnotch internet connectivity is very important to me.
As usual you are a great resource for the latest information of interest to future ex-pats!
Hi Bob – Our Vonage calls showed no noticeable problems from this end. I'm wondering if PLDT would do a "no-fee" (outside of the PHP2,500, of course) upgrade of service?
Additionally, can you tell me if the wireless router includes a wired port or two for a computer? Don't want to rush into things just to discover I need to make the fleet WiFi compatable! 😉
Hi Bob – since I didn't get a chance to talk to you after my lesson, I'll just let you know here that it was an improvement over the previous service. In particular the sound was better. Not perfect, but improved. I don't believe we had a disconnect, which in itself is welcome.
Would still like to give the other method a shot if we can work it out sometime.
Really good news to see the service improving there!
Kamusta ka Bob,
Congrats on the new speed Bob, sounds great, and makes your job a little easier and "faster" now.
Wow, the dial up was slower than in the USA, when you first moved there? I can remember my days on AOL using dial up, and can't imagine it being slower than that. Anyways, is good news for you and what awaits me in the Philippines.
Salamat kaayo,
Danny 🙂
I still have to go to town Bob. no internet at my place ..no wireless yet eather ..so here I sit at a cafe doing my typing with every one else ..Phil n Jess
there seems to be a conflict on the smart bro share it webpage (http://www.yugatech.com/blog/telecoms/smartbro-share-it-now-unlimited-at-php999/). It says unlimited but then is says up to 90 hrs use then they charge 0.35 pesos per minute. which one have you experienced?
Hi Bob is that a wired connection or a wireless modem ? we have a wireless modem connection which is supposed to be "up to" 512kbs but I rarely see that but i think most of the problem is due to atmospheric conditions and air wave interference i think if we had a wired connection which Globe also offers for the same price of 995 per month but with the wired it "up to" 1MB which is the route we are planning to go. Great subject tho, I am the spoiled American with high bandwidth broadband connection experience, but all i can say is … it's getting better !
wat is a vonage phone?
anyone interested in creating a fantasy football league? email me if you like to create one. [email protected]
Sounds like you are closer to " The Fast Lane " now Bob and if anyone deserves it you certainly do. I made use of Internet Cafes quite a bit during my visits there in Iligan and CDO to keep in touch with people and found the speed " satisfactory " and reliability good, for what I was using it for. I believe all of them were on a DSL circuit.
Recent trend here in the USA is ISP's putting " usage Limits " on individual subscribers I believe to go after " usage abusers " who load down the system downloading too many Movies or attempting to operate servers out of their house ( I think on some systems that violates terms of service on residential subscriptions ). I just about paniced when my ISP sent out notices about usage limits which in my case is 250 gig per month. Comcasst Cable assuerd me after describing how I use the internet that most likely I would never even approach that limit. They explained that to disconnect abusers from their service they had to come up with a written policy specifying a certain limit. Other ISP's however have usage limits a lot lower than mine.
My area is now experiencing an " invasion " of Verizon( Telephone Company ) trucks installing an all fiber optic system right to the house and in a few months I guess the 50 yr old copper will be removed although I don't know if I will change from what I have now which cost me $40 a month.
Those " up to " speeds have always been mentioned here too with no specific speed being guaranteed.
Good luck with your faster service there Bob and enjoy listening to radio webstreams. I have listened to some radio from Cagayan De Oro on the internet from here.
Currently we are using the SmartBro Prepaid modem… I.E. load it with so many pesos and you get a certain number of minutes (30mins/P10). It's one of those things that "seemed like a good idea at the time" and I imagine with me out of the country Venice has saved money over PLDT. Anyhow the connection speed with the SmartBro Prepaid is horrible, barely better than dialup so naturally I am leery about buying into a Smart Postpaid internet plan. However I will add it into the mix, because PLDT was definately overshared in El Rio and I don't know how good it will be in Diho.
I think what Dans mentioned is common all over the world, where you buy a certain bandwidth, but end up with less. Although I do "miss" the tunes of my 56k modem connecting to the ISP, the bills could get quite high if you were a regular user. I have a 20/2 Mbit line (downstream/upstream) in Denmark, without limits on use for about 400 DKK (~4000 pesos) per month, with a laptop constantly running as a server (apache/mysql, ventrilo, etc. – also connected to my television, for use as mediacenter) and it all runs smoothly =)
I used to buy the pirated movies/music/software in the philippines and thailand … and although some of it was low quality once in a while, so was the price. I do wonder if those booths will still exist in ~10 years from now though, when many more are connected with high speeds to the internet and can download that stuff themselves?
Dating myself, but I can remember how proud I was jumping from 300 baud to 1500 baud here in the US. Can you imagine how long it would take a current-day webpage to load at those speeds? Great article. I'm so pleased to see that the Philippines is offering services that allow reasonable use of the internet.
Sounds like you have it better in the Philippines than I do here in UT. I live a bit out in the country and slow isn't the word. I'm used to it, but when my daughter comes to my house and uses my computer, I hear nothing but complaints. Just depends on what we get used to. LOL
good for you bob 🙂 i'm a smart bro user, and this (share it) i must try because there are about 3 members of our household sharing our current broadband connection. is it true that you can use the sim on your phone as well?
Mine works better than it did in the U.S. and is a whole lot cheaper. Never have problems with it. Have smart Bro. here in Bulacan. BOB
After 7 years with no internet, a kid from Smart knocks on my gate and offers it to me. Three days later a truck shows up from Smart and guys get out and carring some fancy meter, stand at the top of my roof and tell me no signal. SOL was the resoonce I received. Since I have satelite TV I was confused (natural state for me).
That night my Son-in-Law drops by and I explain my day to him (he's a good kid)He then took my Nokia 3G Cell phone (I'm on a Globe Monthly Plan) and a tiny CD and had me on the internet in five minutes. So for those who live in places like mine,there is an answer. I did ask him how long he knew about that! Head scratch again.
Hi Bob,
My sister sent me the vonage package and I was able to set it up with my PLDT. However, my sister told me that if I call her using Vonage, she will incurr extra charges. Is that true? Or if I continue to use Vonage here in the Philippines, she'll just pay her monthly due without additional charges?
Thanks in advance for your response.
I understood that Globe has a similar plan – 995 or something. The router comes free I heard. Do you know anything about this? I am looking into getting it for my wife's family in Manila.
I knew I should have visited this site sooner. PLDT also kept cutting us off, GRRRRRRRRRR! We just switched to Globe, maybe I should also get that Smart thing…
I have been so busy ughh. I gotta catch up on this site, LOL!
Hi Bob,
Can you tell me what you needed to do to get the Smartbro Share It? Did you just go to a store and buy the router and SIM card and set it up yourself? Or did you have to sign up with Smart, wait a few days, etc.
I'm a little concerned because my sister has PLDT DSL in their house and she just told me that it is down (again)! I can't have this happening while I am there. I need reliable broadband service for my work. I may have to get this Smart Share It.
I have tried the SmartBro USB Modem but found it too slow.
Thanks!
HI Tina – Well… it may not work out for you, since you will be here a short time only. You go to the PLDT office (PLDT owns Smart) and sign up. There is a 12 month commitment, so you must sign up for one year of service. You will pay P2,500 for the router, and P999 first month service. Then, it can take 1 or 2 days for them to activate the SIM. You just take the router home, and plug it in… it just works! No real setup required. I don't know if the 12 month commitment will be a problem for you. Also, since you are not a resident, you may not be allowed to sign up. But, certainly somebody in your family could do it.
hi all, have you try it for online gaming? like games which eat a lot of bandwidths? my smartbro canopy will end next month, i want to try "share it"
hi,
i honestly have no ill feelings for these women who scam foreigners to send their money– together with piracy, i think these are new trends by which poor countries can get a share of the wealth of the north atlantic. i hope filipinos become even better in scamming the west for their unfair amount of money.
everyone seems to forget that poor countries are poor now because of a long history of the west taking advantage of the naive natives of the now poor countries. i was born into a poor country!! fuck! should i just say, well, sorry, that's life– no i think we should take the lesson from history and realize that countries become rich by taking advantage of others– and when these countries become rich- their descendants do not have an ounce of guilt on them because "it's not their fault" they were born in a rich country.
i say, if these people are naive enough to give away their money- filipinas (and their husbands) should take them- the way they took away all our opportunities to live as they live.
i don't want to be poor and i don't deserve to be poor– the rest of the world that is rich- they don't have the right to be rich on my account as a consequence of a long history of institutionalizing poverty and creating the term "third world".
filipinos- band together and use your brains to get our share of the pie in the world- we don't deserve to be poor. let's take our right by the "tip of our swords" the way these gooks took our chance to live in a better world hundreds of years ago.
— i am just thinking aloud.
OK whewww ..Yea you right Bob , just rebels here and they are friendly with Jess's uncle so no problems .. 🙂 Phil n Jess
i totally agree–
if people send gifts/money to beautiful filipinas why would that be new– men give gifts/money to women all over the world.
i think it's great that filipinos from the barrios learn how to get money by deceiving people who has money– it's about time, poor countries start scamming rich countries.
poor countries are poor because rich countries scam them in a much higher level– in this note, i don't think we should pay our foreign debts, which has ridiculous interest rates. my god. banks in the world only has virtual money– why do people until now believe that value can be transferred to paper and metal– this is only by agreement– and the agreement should be void when countries become extremely poor. this is the sad reality of civilization– everyone believes that the most valuable thing is money.
I have been asked money in the internet, and i have sent a few times. Early this year a girl i had chatted only 2 times ask me for money to buy food, i thought that was a bit early? The girl was a beauty, almost too good to be true, i had seen her in webcam and knew it was really here so no fake pictures there. I sent her just above 2000 Pesos. Didn't take more than 5-6 days before she ask again, and she was already referring to the two of us as "we" in a way that indicated we were a couple, that was also WAY too early to be a good sign. Later we did become a couple over the internet, continued to send her money, at least 3 times a month the first time, even amounts up to 8000. How stupid i am, right?
Then less than two months later i arrived in Philippines, after going to the province to look after my house and fix things for a week or so i drove to Manila, i met the girl, and i can promise she had NOT been faking anything. She is the best girl i ever met, we are still together and i hope it will stay that way till the 12th of never. If i had been just a little bit more suspicious i would most likely have missed out on this great girl.
Its good to be careful in chat but it's not wise to always think the worst. We know there are millions of poor people in Philippines, isn't it only natural that they ask their chatmates from rich countries for a little money now and then?
What if i didn't send anything to chatmates this year, i would have had lets say 60-80 thousand pesos more for myself, what would it have given me if i had spent them for material goods for my self, would that increase my life quality in any way? Don't we already surround ourselves with enough crap made in China and pretend we are happy and well off, while others don't know where their next meal will come from? Money is not God, if God was here i bet he wouldn't have any money.
Hi Bob,
just wanted to ask if you know the APN username and password for the smart bro share it plan?
I would like to bring it to office every so often and pop it in my iphone. (since I’m never at home during afternoons)
Hope you can help me on this
Thanks!
I am sorry, Sherwin, I don’t know.
My Globe Wifi is so bad Bob I’m refusing to pay. I also have a very reliable abeit slow PLDT ADSL.
Hi Scott – I think you are probably spot on when you say they are 10 years behind. Overall, I think the service is OK, but I do hope for improvement. As the other Scott said a while ago, they will probably improve about the time I am due for renewal! 😯
I don’t know where their office is – all I know is that I see the van in my subdivision. I do not know whether they are able to offer Internet yet.
Hi Ella, I don’t think they have office in Tagum right now, maybe you can reach the number on their fb page here https://www.facebook.com/WiseCableTagum/info?tab=overview
Pastor Jack, with what you wrote it is quite astonishing to me that you are a pastor and here in the Philippines on a mission. Having that kind of attitude is only going to make your life in the Philippines more difficult and unpleasant. Good luck to you, I think you will need it.
Hi Keno – No, I can’t recommend their service. It is overpriced, and also pretty unreliable. Sorry to say that, but I am only giving the truth based on my experience.
What I would recommend at this time is Smart LTE. Read this article and find out all about it.
No, I don’t, but have been thinking about doing so.
Hi Bob – I think that is why most service providers get away with providing such a bad so-called broadband service in Davao. Nobody seems to want to demand a proper service. I know we are at the bottom of the Philippines but that is no reason for a low level of service.
Bob;
So how is the Sky “Gold” TV Plan?
Hi Paul – Truth is, I don’t watch too many TV channels, so it is not a huge difference to me. You know, there is something I did not write about in the article, and it has to do with the TV part. We had the silver plan before, and were upgraded to Gold. When we were upgraded, there were some channels that they cut off! I could not believe that I would get fewer channels on Gold than on Silver! We called them, and had to call many times to get some of our favorite channels reinstated! Amazing, huh?
That sounds, John, like a pretty logical assumption. I mean, if the digital TV is not working, it is doubtful that the internet would work! They are both digital after all. You probably made a wise choice.
Bob: I was going to try it, but during rainy seaon we have problems with digital cable …. Outages for two days sometime.
My guess is that Internet would also be down when that hapoens
Bob, we are now having problems with skycable. we have pldt before.. just move to juna a little farther from calamansi…
Bob,
If they market you correctly, they’ll increase your speed at the end of your yearly plan long enough for you to sign another year agreement.
Me, paranoid? Ok, maybe a little. 🙂
You are inside my head, Scott! This is what I was already thinking, of course. They won’t trick me, though! 😆
I have Sky Cable here in Tagum City. They only offer the Silver Plan here. They have a lot of problems!!!!!! 🙁
Hi Gary – I don’t think they offer internet, though, in Tagum, right? As for cable TV, they are pretty much a nationwide provider. I don’t really have many problems on the TV end, though.
No cable internet here in Tagum City. I didn’t get it back in the States. Works OK until a lot of people get online. Then the speed drops, the more people the slower the speed.
Hi Harold – Yes, perhaps you did not read any other articles on my site. I have been using Globe DSL for about 5 years now. It is excellent.
Hi Keno – On the article that I lined to in my original reply to you, that gives all the information on how I set it all up. Give that a read, and I am certain you can get LTE working and have great speeds too!
Hello UE – Sorry to hear about your experiences. Here in Davao, speed has never been a problem on Skycable, I have always gotten the full speed that I am paying for. There are other issues that are not as good, though, as I have spelled out in the article.
I am happy for you.
Be warned that, during December, Globe implemented Carrier Grade NAT (CGN).
All of a sudden, the service became very erratic and slow – such as a 30 second delay in receicing the result of a Google search.
CGN connects many subscribers through a single gateway, all using the same public IP address – as though you had several hundred computers connected to the modem/router in your house. The problems arise because NAT ‘translates’ the address all your data traffic, using alternative ports to separate your traffic from all the other subscribers connected to the same gateway. You can see this is in effect because the address assigned to your router is 10.x.x.x (Globe have ignored the standards which assign specific addresses for use in CGN implementations). Now, there are only 65 thousound port numbers available – if all are in use, your data has to wait for a port to become available. Sometimes, I was seeing ping tests with 90%+ lost packets. Apart from the horrendous delays, other problems can become apparent – for instance, search engines telling you to retry later because you’ve already made too many searches – in fact, the searches have been made by other users connected to the same gateway. Also, public filter engines, such as OpenDNS can block your access to particular sites, because another user connected to the same gateway has applied the filter.
I have had to request a static IP from Globe, at an additional cost of over 700 pesos/month, in order to overcome all of these problems.
I now have an excellent connection (most of the time – Globe still seem to suffer frequent infrastructure failures, for instance, it was down for around three hours lst Sunday evening), but at a cost of almost 2,400 pesos/month for a 5Mb connection.
Still, it’s better than the only option I could find when I first came to Tagum – 4,500 pesos/month for a 640kb connection!
The worst aspect of the Globe service is the quality of customer service – faults have to be reported by phone (using mobile, if your landline is down), and the reps appear to have absolutely no technical knowledge (what is the point of them asking you to reboot tour modem/router if the phone line is down – no dial tone?).
Globe WiFi? Are you talking about their wireless tattoo service? I have never been impresses with that either, Leon Andrews. The DSL service that I get from them is excellent, though.
Hi Fred – So far, I have been using their service for a couple of months and they have never “turned it off” as you say they do many times a week. I don’t consider them a joke, the service is not up to what I would like, but it is still fairly good.
Hi Coi, that is close to where we live, then. I find the SkyCable to be sub-par. I highly recommend Globe DSL service, though.
hi bob,
then you are lucky, maybe they do that intentionally to me only because i blog on my experience which would be even an even worse behavior. before i had pldt which was cheaper for about the same speed and it only went down twice a year for a couple of hours. pldt is a japanese company maybe that is why, this skybullcrapcompany just cannot get it right
Yes Bo0b, Globe Tattoo. Slower than dial up.
PLDT is a Philippine company.
I don’t think SkyCable is out to get your Fred, probably you just need to lighten up and enjoy life a bit more. BTW, PLDT is not a Japanese company. They are Philippine owned, and also trade on the NYSE too.
Yeah, I would not recommend that, Leon. I had a post paid account for the same type service with Smart, and it was also terrible. Go for something that is hard wired, and I suspect you will be a lot happier, Leon.
like planet earth is a disc…
Hello Bob, yes that comment is for Gary btw. Are you still living in Deca Homes? I used smart LTE here but they have unstable connection and its very slow. I want to use skybroadband but they didn’t reach my area yet.
Yes, it can stream video without problems most of the time.
I have had good luck with Globe DSL.
Hi Diego – The level of service on the cable internet comes and goes. When it works, the speed is great, but there are plenty of outages. At this time, I would not recommend it, but it is getting better.
Exactly, Mike!
anks Bob, I do also have ADSL from PLDT & it’s only .726MBS it runs rings rings around the Globe Tattoo here at my place. I will say that when I’m in Butuan, Surrigao. CDO & Gensan the Globe runs at a fair pace. They just need to stop selling bandwidth on an already over crowded system. The more Smart Phones that come on to the market is causing bandwidth problems as weel for all carriers.
Are you OK, Fred? 😯
Hi Rich – Ha ha.. I was almost ready to add a comment about that “it changes you” in the logo when I wrote the article, but I elected not to. Maybe the Cable TV turns you into a couch potato! ha ha
Really, they have had cable internet in Davao for at least 10 years, just not in my neighborhood, so it would seem that they have had plenty of time to work out the kinks… I hope they can do it soon! 😉
Sky Cable here in Tagum is analogue only, so no Internet is possible. I use Cignal satellite for TV and Globe adsl. Cignal is good, and the only option for HD here.
The Globe service is fairly good, but they have a couple of dodgy gateways at their data centre. If you get connected to one of these you have to drop the PPoE login and try again. However, the response to technical problems is abysmal – when the local loop gets taken out (ie no dial tone) the representative will insist that you go through a fault finding script over the phone with them power-cycling your modem/router etc. – pretty pointless if the line is down!
However, I have just seen some guys installing Wise Cable in my subdidvision, but can find no information on the net – don’t know whether it is analogue or digital and whether it offers Internet.
If you looked at a map you would see that Mindanao is that very large island at the bottom of the Philippines archipelago.
I think the reason why you were having problems after weeks when it comes to speed its because they are still having technical difficulties with regards to their bandwidth limits and caps since they were newly operating in your region,they might still be on trial and error stage .Maybe, their system without them(technical persons) knowing has not yet excluded your plan to what their system applies to consumable plans like it would automatically reduced your internet speed to 1.5mbps when they have reached their cap limit.It is better to always contact them to understand what’s the real problem and what exactly is the trouble.After some repairs,you said that it was fast but after weeks, you’ve noticed that you’re not getting the same speed that you are paying for.If the connections were still stable and no time outs or disconnection ,there is a high possibility that its not that you’re bandwidth has been limited
.
I had PLDT before, but it was not good. Glad to hear that you are having a different experience.
Interesting Logo kicker line (SkY Cabe or Sky TV) “It Changes You” ???
What the hell does that really mean? “It Changes You” , like does IT make you sterile, … perhaps make you a better person, makes you stop and think … I don’t get it. Glad I don’t need to work as a logo designer / Graphic Artist any more… I would starve to death there in the Philippines. lol,
Good article any way Bob. Good Luck with the new Challenges. Maybe by the time I get there, all the problems will be ironed out.
That’s what I thought about cable internet in Tagum. I wonder when they will be available there.
I suggest you to use Home Broadband DSL from Globe, they have a very consistent internet connection in Tagum.
Cool! Nice to hear that. I’m kinda curious how you set up yours.
I envy your internet speed! 🙂
Anyways, thanks for your responses! Kudos to you!
Regards,
Keno
I used to have PLDT, it was terrible for me, though. My Globe DSL runs a steady 3 Mbps, so I can’t complain about that. I use Smart on my Smartphone,a nd it works OK. But, on my phone I mostly limit my internet usage to just keeping up with my email.
Hi Bob,
The cable system there is where the cable system here in Metro Atlanta was 10 years ago and they had the same problems. Also, Cable is a shared connection and the more people on the same node as you the slower it will get. I think as time goes by the issues you have will “slowly” but surely be fixed. Ok maybe more slowly there in the Philippines than anywhere else, LOL.
Hi Peter – My primary internet provider is also Globe, their DSL service. I have had very good service from them. As you say, from time to time you will connect to a bad gateway, but if you re-connect it is likely you will get a different one. Overall, I have been very happy with Globe. I also have Skycable as a backup provider, but the service is only fair. I plan to cut them off as soon as my contract expires in January.
I believe that the proper terminology would be that the island is at the southern end of the country.
Where is Wise Cable office in TAgum? Cant find it in the net 🙁
Hi Keno – There is LTE in Mintal! I have a friend who lives in Elenita Heights in Mintal, and he has very good LTE coverage. Speeds are very fast.
The problem with SkyBroadband was that speeds were slower than they should be, and a lot of sites could not be open. They did work hard with me, but were never able to fix the problems. I was a subscriber for more than a year, but the problems were persistent.
they are a joke. the most expensive and slowest web service in the world. on top of that they swith it off many times a week for many hours:
Yes, Globe seems to be fine – while it works, but when it fails it can be a bit of a pain, and they schedule a repair visit which is usually 48-72 hours away.
I now have a small handout from Wise Cable – there are no HD channels being offered but it does say that an Internet service is to be offered at some time in the future, so I have to presume that they service is digital.
As I said in my earlier post, Sky Cable here is analogue, so no Internet possible. However, because they pull their signals down from digital satellite transmission, then modulate them onto cable in the analogue domain, you not only see digital artifacts, particularly during inclement weather, but also see lots of analogue noise. What’s worse is that, because they use contiguous, adjacent, channels (something which terrestrial transmitters usually avoid) on the cable, the bandwidth of each channel has to be restricted in order to minimise adjacent channel interference – truly a low-resolution viewing experience!
I use Charter Cable internet service here in the US. I have subscribed to their 30Mb service but the most I ever get is 8 to 9 (occassional 10.1) Mb. Furthermore, when I first inquired about adding internet service to our cable TV service to form a service bundle, they told me that the monthly price for internet was $29.99. I don’t usually open their bills but just pay it automatically. Last month, I decided to open their latest bill envelope only to discover that they were billing me $49.99 for internet. Still fighting them to get it down to $29.99 as originally agreed to. 🙁 Charter does s*ck.
Hi Harold – I actually have never lived in DECA homes before. I still use Smart LTE. It is not as fast as it once was, but I still get 20 to 30 Mbps.
Globe LTE is just as bad as the standard wired Globe connection – it uses Carrier Grade NAT, but with no possibility of a static IP. I suspect that Smart LTE also suffers from the same problem, but Smart don’r have LTE service in Tagum, so I cannot test. What is the IP address assigned to the LTE router (on the LTE side, not your local IP address used within your LAN)?
I HAVE BAYAN BROADBAND.MYCOMPUTER IS SO SLOW,IF IT WERE ANY SLOWER IT WOULD BE STOPPED.
I THIKK MOST OF THAT IS THE COMPUTER ITSELF.IT IS REAL OLD.AND THE MOTHERBOARD I HAD INSTALLED IS OLDER THAN THE COMPUTER.
mindanaobob i do not remember that we ever met. what nonsense are you talking about?
however you mix up the facts and however narrowminded you keep your blog and whatever you censor it does not change the facts
Might be time to upgrade, John!
I have never said anything about having met you, Fred.
Hey..ive been using globe tatto @ home DSL for 2 years now..the speed is excellent…not like PLDT ADSL..wen powerinterupt internet will resume after 24hrs…and i hate it..
Hi Lenny – glad it is working well for you. That is good news.
Ha ha, Jon, so they slipped on in on you? My mom is also on Cable in the States, Comcast. She seems to like them, but I think the pays a high price for the service.
MindanaoBob said:
That’s what I thought about cable internet in Tagum. I wonder when they will be available there.
[Comment imported from blog]
MindanaoBob said:
Are you OK, Fred? 😯
[Comment imported from blog]
MindanaoBob said:
Ha ha, Jon, so they slipped on in on you? My mom is also on Cable in the States, Comcast. She seems to like them, but I think the pays a high price for the service.
[Comment imported from blog]
I have here in Dumaquete Globe Wi Fi 500P monthly Skycable 60+ channels 500P Monthly ………………….
work excellent
If they are not providing the service you are paying for, then they are in breech of contract. Terminate the contract for breech and refuse to pay any penalties – I did after having a 20k service, which was called broadband!
Bob,
Iam using Tattoo Broadband, but this connection is so slow it takes 30 minutes before i get online, luckily the owner of the house where iam stay offered his wifi just to share
little amount , it is PLDT company, this connection is good.
Use the wired one…internet only for 990…
M thinking of switching to cable-DSL…my PLDT DSL is good but the landline is BAD. We cannot use the landline phone because its always out of order! Please, update me on the cable-DSL(Skycable) services or the Globe-DSL services. Thanks in advance.
Hi Bob, Good day! Do you subscribe to the skycable’s HD channels? Thanks.
Hi Steven – As I pointed out in the article, they are providing service to the point where they are not breaching the contract in my opinion. Because of that I do not feel that it would be right to fight with them over it.
The P990 service is too slow in my opinion.
Okay, I think they have good HD quality channels than Cignal. Its cheaper too.
All specs are within the contract, Steven. What would you suggest that I should complain about?
I don’t consider Davao as the “bottom of the Philippines” where did you come up with such nonsense?
Cable tv – internet has been available here in the Cagayan de Oro region for several years by a local cable provider . Results have been mixed at best . We used it a number of years ago , primarily because that was the only option available in our location .It’s my understanding that present limits are up to 1.5 but it’s constantly changing .
At present , we subscribe to the cable company for tv service at 700 peso a month for 80 + channels but i would never watch more than 6- 10 anyway so that’s fine for us . Currently using PLDT wireless for internet at 1,300 a month for telephone and internet . Basic plan is supposed to be ” up to 1.5 Mbps but for past few weeks have been getting closer to 3.5 consistenly for the basic plan price ( who says there’s not a Santa.. ) .
The scuttlebutt is that PLDT has installed new underwater cable and will be offering upgrades so maybe our situation is a freebie to entice upgrade . We will be moving to another location so probably won’t know what’s happening with PLDT for awhile . At present , just enjoying the free ride . it is nice though to be able to download 4 movies before the one you are watching on your pc is finished… 🙂
Sorry but Skycable service is horrible. If it were cheaper , maybe I would be less critical , but the fare is the same or more expensive here than in Europe or the U.S. being much worse. The technical service is very bad, the call center too. I can not think anymore that someone is getting rich at our expense , with the excuse of living in a country in process of development .
Every 2 days the connection is not even 10% of the speed offered and no possible solution. I live in Cebu , where are constructing large buildings , where there are technological centers and call centers. I can not imagine that will offer service on other islands.
My point is simple. If a company does not provide the promised service does not meet the contract, has two solutions. Pay user demands or lower their prices and try to offer logical and affordable services . Everything else is a scam.
No borders and for scoundrels and exploitative multinationals.
I know, my English is not good , but certainly all understand me perfectly . A different issue is that you’ll agree with me… of course.
Hi – We are with PLDT and can download at high speeds. And Skype use has no problems.
So, now, I’m in Lapu-:Lapu and I can’t seem to get anything to work that is worth while. Even tried the SmartBro, but after two or three days, they cut the bandwidth and I can’t even send an email. Now after a years this article was posted – who do you all think is the best and 2nd best service provider for internet?
Not all services are available in Lapu-Lapu.
-Al;
Hello,
I’m from Deca Homes, Mintal, Davao City… And just read your previous comment that you live in Davao.
Skycable is starting to install their cables here in our subdivision. Currently, I’m using Globe and would like to switch to SkyBroadband.
Do you recommend their internet service? I work online as well, so I’m looking for a stable internet connection.
Hope to hear from you regarding on this. thanks in advance!
Regards,
Keno
Does your globe network work fast enough to stream movies?
You know exactly what I mean when I say–“Welcome to the Philippines” Just another reason they are a third world Country. I tried to get PLDT for two years but there was always a problem. People told me I needed to bribe them. I would never. So I never got it. I that had byantel wireless for my phone which was pretty good. However when I took their internet package it was the pits. I could not up load or downloaad. By that time Globe came on the scene and so I called Byantel and told them I quit. They said I needed to cancel at the office. I told them I did not sign at the office and I will not quit at the office. Note the time and date I will not be making phone calls and will be disconnecting my lines. Never the less, their lawyer called me on a regular basis even though I laughed aat him and called him an idiot. He said he would take me to court. I said good. That will me at your expense and the judge will see that you are a scammer. I never heard again. Globe has been a mixed relationship. Sometimes we love, sometimes we hate but for the most part, I guess we love. At my office at Church I have Byantel. I spend more time on the phone with them then on the computer or phone in the office. Nuff said. Oh, at home I also have Cable Star. They are the absolute worst. You watch a half of a show and it goes out. The channels you like (there are 100-96 junk 4 good) They don’t work when you want them unless it’s a 24 hour marathon of cupcake wars. Can you really believe there is such an audience that watch people make cupcakes for hours? Right now as I type the picture is frozen. I called. They said there is a blackout somewhere. I said it is always something. I said, do you know that your man was at my house to collect the money during the typhoon? They should only have cable service like that. I said, how about a refund for the years of bad service. She said write a letter. Write a letter? Why? Did you write a letter every time you gave me bad service? O she said she would tell someone. Oh yeah. Filipino efficiency.
We have a real star guesting on the Podcast today. He is making a special appearance. His name is Victor, from Australia. Seems a nice guy. 😉
We have a real star guesting on the Podcast today. He is making a special appearance. His name is Victor, from Australia. Seems a nice guy. 😉
They will think I’m stalking you lolZ
They will think I’m stalking you lolZ
Ha ha.. you mean you are not stalking me, Victor? 😉
I plead the fifth…
Just joking.
Bob:
Last year, after getting fed up with SMART for the last time, we switched to Bayantel DSL. They have been very good and professional. On the one time I needed to call them, I got the standard “we will notify you within 24 hours” speech that I used to get from SMART (Who was called out here 7 or 8 times per year and NEVER got back to us, 24 hours or not). I thought, “Oh brother, here we go again!”. The technician was here 15 minutes later. Problem solved 2 minutes after that (Wind tilted the antenna).
Not certain how widespread they are outside of Manila, and they are a little more expensive than SMART (I think we pay about P300 / month more), but zero headaches (Which is worth the little extra… I used to waste so much time arguing with SMART from constant downtime… Cheaper is very seldom better).
Hi John – This really goes to confirm what I said on the podcast, that it varies from one place to another. I say this, because here in Davao, Bayantel has a really terrible service record, yet you got such good service from them there in your area. I am glad that you are getting good internet service! That is great to hear!
Bob, no complaints on my end! Thanks for addressing the topic!
Bill
Glad that it is working out for you, Bill! I have a feeling they are putting up a new LTE tower in your area soon, and if they do, your service should be even better.
Hi Bob – In Dumaguete Globe has good service and good net for us. Are they good for everyone, that I’m unsure.
Globe has also been good to me.
I haven’t seen the “podcast”, however I can offer some input based on 14 years thus-far experience in various locations in the Philippines.
while many actually located *within* Manila, and to some extent other major cities may have a wealth of choices, even then and certainly everywhere else is extremely problematic.
I remember moving to a new subdivision, and was paying P5k + for wireless (Bell Telecom) service, which was at best functional 50% of the time. Several years *later* PLDT laid lines and a couple of years thereafter so did Globe.
I moved just a few km away. All that was available in *that* subdivision was Globe and it took 2 months of constant pushing to get it installed.
Then we moved to the interior or Mindanao. The one and only choice was the local telco provider who definitely could not offer 24/7 service. When DSL went down for 10 days over Easter I discovered that PLDT (who actually owns the local provider) had started offering service so I switched. PLDT here mostly works, except when it doesn’t, and then it may take 10 days to get service restored – explain that to your customers who take their business elsewhere because you can’t service them. PLDT still owes me (promised) rebates going back 1.5 years now, not that those come close to compensating for loss-of-business. PLDT says all will be good “soon”, they’re laying fibre. Yes, in metro Manila. Here????? hahahhaha. The PLDT rep has no idea where Mindanao is on the map.
Other providers? Can they spell the name of the city you’re in?
Summary: “best” is what you can get wherever you are. Go for landline/DSL *if* you can get it since wireless remains extremely problematic in comparison. Be happy when it works, and hope you can get a human to start the multi-day (or week) process of repairs periodically. Keep a log!
Hi Ed – Sorry you chose not to listen to the podcast! But, thanks for leaving your comment.
Glad you found the one that is good in your area, James!
Yes, it all depends where you are at. and Possibly Standing LOL but we have had good internet with Globe.
Hi Bob,
I’m enjoying the podcast and fresh questions that new people might have.
It took us three tries to find our ocean side house internet. Yolanda for the long term knocked out the pole connection so the landline Globe that we had at our other house was not an option, and the wireless version worked there okay,but was no good by the ocean at all either.
Smart proved to be a total bust with no success at all.
Finally Sun turned out to be a great connection, the least expensive, fast, clear and consistent.
The two houses are only about a fifteen minute drive apart, but with totally different results!
It does go to show you that what works in one place may not work in another
.
Hi Queenie – Glad that you are enjoying the podcasts! I am having fun doing them, and I feel that they give a little different twist to LiP, and it’s good to shake things up from time to time.
Wow, Sun! You are the first person that I know who is using Sun. I use them for my phone, but not Internet. Glad to hear that the quality of the internet is good! They do offer a great value, at least for their phone service.
Yeah Bob–I use Sun for my phone service too!
Yes, I really am a big fan of Sun for phone usage! All of our family has Sun!
I personally would not be happy at 1.2 Mbps. But, we all have our priorities! If it works for you, then why not!
Yes, I suppose so, Ed. In 2000, I already had broadband here in the Philippines, using a satellite connection. 🙂 Seems I always have tried to stay a step ahead!
Philippines’ Internet speed still one of the slowest in Asia…
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/infographic-philippines-internet-speed-still-080520114.html
Only 10 kpbs at my place…
Hi Bob, why not just provide your ‘podcast’ on your web site for anyone interested to download at any time?
You mentioned that you have a 50MBps link, so bandwidth is surely not be an issue. Most people are not “Itunes” subscribers and have no desire to be, so why drastically limit your audience?
Hi Ed – The podcast IS on my website and can be downloaded at any time. You can listen right on the website or download it from the website.
Take a look at this screenshot which is clearly labeled how to play or listen to the podcast, right here on the site!
So, what you are requesting is already here! Nobody has to go to iTunes to listen!
Hello Bob, Thanks for the blog. It helps a lot for me because I’m moving to Deca Homes Mintal soon and I’m searching what internet provider is good there! So I’ll try smart LTE if its works.
Hello Bob – thanks for that quick response! really? sad to hear that. I thought I can now experience high speed internet. When you say ‘unreliable’, what do you specifically mean? I’d like to hear you go further with that. just brief would be enough so that I can have a good idea why it’s unreliable.
Nice to hear your LTE experience.
But unfortunately we don’t have lte yet in our area (Mintal).
Where are you located specifically?
The best way to go is by getting Strong VPN IP Address blocked and subscribe to http://WWW.HULU.COM and http://WWW.NETFLIX.COM. HULU will allow to watch TV shows and NETFLIX has lots of new movies released before they come out on DVD.
Do not use the VPN if you are downloading movies since you IP address with VPN would be a United States IP address from either east or west coast.
You will also be able to use APPLE TV with strong VPN. I gave up on Sky Cable.
Hi. I just moved here in davao a couple of days ago. I listened to the podcast. I would like to know from you which internet provider would work best in buhangin area.
Hi Eych – I have never lived in Buhangin, so I can’t say for sure. I would ask my neighbors and see what they say. In general, I would recommend checking if Globe DSL is available in the area, it is excellent here.
where are you located? how about in talomo area? any suggestions?
I do not give out my location publicly, Ketch. I used to, but started getting security issues from a certain foreigner. Sorry.
Yes Bob and I fully understand why one must have sensible concerns.
This should be broken out into its own thread because it’s a really important topic for all to consider. especially given our general location.
The first best “security” is by obfuscation and general control of lip-flapping and loose-fingers, all sensibility sadly needed these days and here.
Nasty people can’t do harm to the family if they don’t know where to find us.
Sadly one doesn’t need to do anything bad to be in gangster cross-hairs, the wife already does too much stupid to cause danger and only tells the husband when way too late.
So best not to let the gangsters know where to find our babies.
Hi Ed – I Have written many times about this in the past, I don’t feel a need to write it all again. It happened before you were frequenting the site. It involves an American guy who was a sort of stalker type. He made threats against my family – my wife and kids. to the point where I had to bring in the PNP for them to be on guard against him. Bad ordeal. The guy is a real piece of work.
Thanks for the historical footnote Bob.
May I respectfully suggest that you resurrect the thread and move all prior to a current topic thread, without need for reposting on your part?
I submit that security in the Philippines is and must be a major and dominant issue and thus should have its own definitive header.
Yes while you, I, and most survivors have mostly found our individual solutions to the issue, the other 98% of your readers might benefit from what we might have learned over our years here.
Hi Bob,
Thank you for this discussion. My family and I are thinking of moving to Davao. Although we are not yet sure exactly where! 😀
We have been researching and planning on visiting some houses for rent. As of right now, which internet connection is it that you think is the best atleast in your area?
I currently have Sky Broadband 5mbps and they are pretty stable. Back reading the comments, I am getting the impression that Sky’s not really reliable.
I hope to hear from you!
All the best,
Jen
Hi Jen – I gave up on Sky Broadband, it was just too unreliable. Currently, I am using Globe DSL and Smart LTE. Both have their good points, and bad. I consider the Globe to be pretty good, though.
I have subscribed to Skycable broadband 3mgb and hd tv for some months. The tv after two months of problems seems to be resolved, however the broadband up to now is only suitable for anyone who is nocturnal as I up to now lose connection for some hours around midday and most of the evening. The internet connection as a daily service is practically useless. I am not a computer techie but I do expect to receive the service I am paying for. I would certainly not recommend Sky broadband to anyone, but for now the tv reception is fine. I realise cable broadband is relatively young in the Philippines but a huge multi-national like Sky should have all the necessary technical knowledge to supply an adequate service from their affiliate companies experiences around the world.
Hi Ian – SkyCable Philippines is not related to the multinational company that you are referring to. SkyCable is a Philippine company with no overseas operations.
Hi Bob……looks like no one has commented here for a while now. I guess I’ll be the one to update it. I live in California, USA. I have a Filipino girlfriend/fiancé who lives there with her family which consists of her mother and father and two younger teenage sisters. She’s a super sweetheart and unlike any girl I’ve ever known in America. She grew up and still is very poor financially, but she never complains about anything. I don’t have a lot of money but I try to help her and her family live a better life as much as I can. This year I got electricity and water installed in their small two room house. That was a major upgrade and improvement in their lives. In the year we’ve been together she’s always had to use the local cafe’s to get on the internet to talk to me on the chat messengers. I bought her a tablet on her birthday with 3G sim card but when she left the store walking home two guys pulled up on a motorcycle and robbed her at gunpoint. I got her another one but the 3G signal wouldn’t get the internet, so I got her a pocket WiFi. We were trying to get that dialed in talking to Globe by chat line but on her way home from the café a dog ran in front of her bike hitting the front tire sending her sailing out into the street. She had to go to the hospital with multiple cuts and bruises. If that wasn’t bad enough the new tablet and pocket WiFi were run over by a passing jeepney smashing them to pieces. She still can’t ride her bike yet. A girl she knows was selling a 3 month old 22″ flat screen HDTV for only 2300 pesos so I got it for her. It’s the first TV her family has ever had. Never even a radio. I was wondering if you could recommend the best cable provider I should look into. They live in San Fabian in the Pangasinan province. I know that’s not near where you live but I thought I’d ask just in case you had any useful info you could give me before I start getting into it. Also, can you give me any info as to what would be the best bet for DSL or any other wired internet for her? The wireless there doesn’t seem very efficient to say the least. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I read a lot of the stuff you have on the internet. You’ve hipped me to many aspects of the Philippine culture. I’m seriously thinking of moving there to be with her and her family. I would get a nice house for all of us. Keep up the good work. Denny Dederick
Hi Donny – Thank you for your comment, and thanks for reading my site. Unfortunately, my friend.. the questions that you ask are just not possible to answer. “Which Provider is best?” Well, as you already said, the place is nowhere near where I live, and even if it was…. things like which Internet provider works best is different on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. One provider may be great at one house, but in the next neighborhood it may be the worst. Because of that, I would really have no idea what provider is best in the area where your friend lives. Even in Davao, where I live, the provider that works great for me is crappy if I go a quarter mile away. The way to find out which might be best for your gf is to ask around to neighbors where she lives.
Good luck to you.
Yes, that’s one area where many parts of the US have it hands down on the Philippines: internet connectivity. And, not just an artificial “speedtest” to a selected server, but actual real-world connections. My wife and I used to stream HD movies while friends in the back were streaming things to their devices, while another person staying with us was listening to Pandora on her iPod Touch! No way I can do that type of stuff here.
Definitely, it’s so much faster and more reliable here.
What I seen and actually verified is that BUSINESS connections in the Philippines are actually very consistent and good speeds.
The big problem pops up when you have a home based business and they wont run the connection at the higher speed UNLESS you are a registered business with the Government and paying tax etc. (I know some folks that get it, but had to pay some “side money” to the installers.
We do know that the Philippines has trunk speed and bandwidth, since all the call centers and Big Businesses could not operate without it. its just not available to the unwashed masses….until folks are willing to pay more, and that is happening VERY slowly.
last visit I had a consistent 4-7 MBPS ….at night, LATE at night, and surely not on Friday through Sunday when all the gamers are on line. LOL! (SMART in Meycauayan)
My son would lose his mind trying to play his games and run his graphics business if he ever went to the Philippines. Our House connection here in the Peoples Republic of Northern California is at a consistent 75-85 MB per second but it costs 55 USD per month. How many thousands in the Philippines could pay that price?
Hmm, haven’t heard of the business connections, although it does make sense. Haha, I could only play my games on Philippine servers, and even then it would sometimes be laggy, wouldn’t even think of joining north amer
My wife and I stayed at a nice hotel in GenSan last summer. In the morning the internet speed was decent, but by late afternoon & evening — fuggedaboutit!
*American servers, lol
Looks to be a real plan, but as with most government projects….well you know that answer very well. (Any government, not just the Philippines)
http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/philippines-free-wifi/
Haha, we uses to play around midnight, and it was pretty good. I guess the Facebookers are done at that point, haha
Looks kinda interesting, but I wonder how security and speed would be…
Anyone know anything about this?
http://www.techspot.com/news/62041-soon-there-free-wi-fi-all-philippines.html?
I’m staying here in Catalunan Grande, Davao City for almost a month. Can you give me suggestions on what internet connection should i use. I’m using PLDT HOME DSL now but I’ve been complaining for almost 1 month due to its very slow connection. Please give me suggestions. Thanks
I am sorry, I have never lived in Catalunan Grande, so I have no experience with Internet Providers there.
Hi there,
Can you check if pldt fiber is available in your area?
Aaron you got used to the usa speeds??
Good post.
Lol yup, I wish the PH would get US speeds soon 🙂
Good news, we have Sky in Iloilo. I will check that out Thanks Bob
That service is no longer offered.
Yeah, we used to have it, but they discontinued it. Sky does have a 50MBPS package we can upgrade to though, so if we wanted we can still get 50MBPS speeds.
What does service like this cost on a monthly basis?
If you live in a decent sized city, Steve, things are good. The Internet service I have now is great, no complaints!
Hey AJ
Just curious, I thought your dad was getting upwards of 50 Mbps
Back when he installed an antenna up on a bamboo pole. Did that not work out?
I’m stuck with PLDT DSL as the best offering in my area and it’s expensive. I have to pay for a phone line I don’t use along with the cost of the DSL. It’s about 2750 when you include the VAT.
Cable Internet is a non-player. The cable TV signal cuts out regularly.
We have bad internet here too. I was really surprised that in Manila we had an incredible connection as long as gamers didn’t screw up the shared bandwidth. Weekends are just the worst will all the teenagers and kids online. When schools off the internet becomes unreliable. I have Smart Bro and I wonder when they don’t call it Smart Bro-ken! lol
As with most things, not available in Cabanatuan. BUT…we have the largest SM City mall in Luzon outside of Metro Manila. They’ve started building an S&R store, and I hear that Ayala may be putting a mall in here, too. So, maybe we’re due for more good stuff!
Eventually this country will catch up to the year 2016 and hopefully we can get better internet nation wide. Prayers for better essential services across the board since we get power shortages also.
Got PINOY TV dish for P100 per month.
Wife watches religiously her TV dramas.
It has CNN PHILIPPINES and many other channels.
Good service, no interruptions.
Only P100 per month… amazing…!!!
I never watch TV.
Got sky Internet and cable tv very happy with it, sometimes the speed a bit slow but miles
Better than pldt nothing but problems with pldt, Derek in pasig.
Hi AJ
We will be taking up the Sky Internet once our Globe DSL contract is over in April. I will say though that Globe gave us a new modem recently, due to our complaints, and the service got a lot better.
We gave up with trying to get PLDT installed. Despite the fact that we live in a very modern, gated sub-division they only put in a few lines. We would have to wait for someone to move away before a line becomes available.
I’m spoilt here in Singapore though as on a bad day I get a speed of 90MB! I wonder when that would be available in the PI?
Cheers
AJ UK
I hope you have good luck with Skycable. My experience with them has been Terrible to put it in nice words. I must have herd the phrase “There is a Problem with the Line in Manila Sir” 100 times when dealing with their customer service reps.
Maybe there in PH you dont have the speed but it certainly seems like there is quite a variety. Here in New York I recently upgraded from Comcast Cable to Verizon Fios, fiber optic right to the back of my modem. Out of the router I am now getting around 60 mbps up and down. I was getting 5 up and 15 down from Comcast out of the router and 30 down and 10 up without the router. WoW, what a difference ! Verizon no longer repairs the old copper phone lines in my area. If there is a problem they will only replace with fiber optic. I was having problems with my copper wire landline every time it rained for the past few months thats why I changed and with the increase in internet performance I am glad I did.
When I vacation in Iligan CIty, I use a globe Tattoo and get full signal. Daytime the speed is ok but prime time evening from about 5 PM til about 1 AM it is hardly useable and slower than dial up. Between 1 AM and 7AM is when I get the best use of it. This indicates to me the system is under capacity for the peak hours. maybe this applies elsewhere in other parts of PH as well.
Just got back from the PI New Years and had a wonderful time. The only point of frustration came from being spoiled on the internet here in the states. After traveling to 6 cities there and struggling to get a speed fast enough to use my ipad I started to care less and less about the internet as a whole. Not really all that bad of a deal in reality. At first we would go to the coffee shop in Dumaguete and all 4 of us would be obsessed with our gadgets. It was kind of funny actually! As time went on we cared less about the internet and more about the people around us. Although we are planning to move to the PI in 2020 and hoping the internet there is vastly improved as we need to stay connected to our daughters here in the states. We don’t care for the bigger cities and hope that internet will reach the less populated areas. Good article.
I have two internet connections here at the house in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. They are both prepaid sim card connections that I have in the Huawei B593-931 modems. The first is a 4G Globe (the only 4G signal that we can recieve here) that I use for our Magic Jack. I don’t like to use it for anything else because they are very quick on the net metering. I also have a Smart 3G that I use for my general surfing and downloading. They also net meter but it is not as bad or as quick. I only pay 600Php for each connection for unlimited. I can live with it being a little slow at times.
When we inquired about PLDT’s fiber internet, they said they were installing it in lower end subdivisions first. Meanwhile, higher end subdivisions like Woodridge still don’t have it.
I’m hoping to get really fast internet speeds here soon too, but I’m also hoping for good LTE so I can browse anywhere 🙂
Cool. Never heard of it, but sounds like a good deal for anyone who loves Pinoy shows.
Yes it will catch up in 2041
That’s weird. Never heard of it. Although, it would kind of make sense I guess. Those Fiber boxes they put up must be pretty expensive. But it’s weird, you’d think this wouldn’t be a problem for higher end subdivisions…
For the last 4 years I had PLDT 5 Mb download speed. Two months ago I got the Skycable 16 Mb . Even though Speedtest shows that I am getting 16 Mb my speed is almost identical to the PLDT 5 Mb. I talked to many people about this at Sky. Two of them told me the same thing – that although Sky advertises and charges for 16 Mb in actuality they do not have 16 Mb available !!
So I paid for 16 Mb and only get 5 Mb. Am I upset – well the thing that keeps me from being upset is that Sky 16 Mb is about the same cost as my PLDT 5 Mb was- so although they basically scammed me [ imho ! haha ] they arent costing me any extra money .
One problem that I had for the first 4-5 weeks was that at peak times ie around 4-6 pm my download speed was less than 1 Mb [ i didnt get a Speedtest result because it was too slow for Speedtest to open ! ]
A question – previously I read where you had a tower at your place and were getting about 65 Mb download [ I think I have the number correct??] . So what happened to that internet connection ?
Thats Great!! News Bob.
What you really need is a 3D printer…print your own circuits perhaps?
Lol I wish, they’re expensive though, over $1000 not including the filament… There’s a bunch of cool things I’d love to try, but for that price, it’s not worth it.
For us, that isn’t a huge problem. All the concrete walls help block the signal, lol. People always find ways, I’d be way more worried about neighbors compared to someone on the street.
You can also connect through the electric outlets.. Ethernet over power lines..
https://www.524wifi.com/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/679/s/tp-link-tl-pa4010p-kit-av500-powerline-ethenrnet-adapters-500mb-s/?gclid=Cj0KEQiAoby1BRDA-fPXtITt3f0BEiQAPCkqQcb73zvfUK7ncsHxB3H2MvRwzcNo-M5aCmrnQD6Zw98aAsBT8P8HAQ
Yeah, but we’d have to buy some adapters. I’ve also heard that with older houses, there could be problems with the wiring. If we can find cheap adapters it might be worth a shot.
Not knowing everything you did to troubleshoot your problem I will offer some suggestions that you might have already done.
First thing you should have done is connect the second router directly to a computer so you can configure it separately. In the settings you should assign it a static IP address that is in the IP address range you have allowed on the main router. Make sure it is setup in the main router as a static address with the MAC address so that there’s no chance that DHCP on the first router would give out that address to another device on the network, should that second router be down for some reason.
Second step is to disable DHCP on the second router. Allow the first and main router to assign all addresses to all the devices plugged into the network. Many times people don’t realize that their second router can try to take over the network responsibility of assigning addresses.
After you did those steps save the configuration and power it off. Then you connect a short cable in the same room with your main router (the incoming cable to router 2 should go into the LAN port). Power up the second router and plug a computer into one of its ports and check to see if you have network connectivity. This step can verify it works as configured and will tell you if your long cable isn’t working. Of course another way to tell if the long cable was the problem is plug a computer into it and see if it has network connectivity.
If you already did all these things, sorry for taking your time to read this as you did everything you should to make it work.
AJ,
Please excuse my computer ignorance. I am not that knowledgeable about Networks. But it sounds like you would rather have the PC’s all directly connected to a router. Why. I am asking because here at home I have 1 PC and 1 printer connected to the router, anything else is Wifi. Is the wifi not as good as the direct connection. Just curious. Good article thank you. Anytime I get a chance to learn I enjoy it.
When you have that much stuff and the possibility of most of them to be used at the same time I can see where a good WiFi could become very useful. For myself i prefer everything wired so there is no chance of someone driving by in the street sniffing out WiFi systems. Even though they are passworded and maybe encoded I think a good hacker could find their way into a wireless anything.
The new router that came with my Verizon Fios setup has WiFi and it did a nice job when I tested it out. It goes half way down the block and maybe more. After that I turned off the WiFi part of it and just use the wired ports. The WiFi might come in handy at times but by default I am leaving it off.
The trouble we had was with the cable being defective, and we didn’t have any other cable long enough to replace it. Also, the router planned to setup there wasn’t allowing me into the configuration page for some reason. Thanks for the advice though 🙂
A further thought. Depending on which hardware is plugged into the ends, you might have too many bosses. For example….
Two routers would compete with each other assigning IP addresses if both DHCP servers are active.
If you happened to have two different IP subnets, the systems would not “see” each other on the wire and therefore would not talk to each other without further routing instructions on one or both ends.
Yeah, we’d like to have all PCs connected to the router. The WiFi isn’t too good because of all the concrete walls and the distance, but setting up a separate router as the WiFi hotspot closer to the other devices helped a lot.
Yeah, my cousin thought maybe the type of cable was wrong, but even connecting a computer directly to the cable didn’t work, so the cable was defective. Thanks for he advice though, if we ever try to do this again, I’ll remember what you said 🙂
Yeah, but we already had the routers on hand and didn’t want to buy anything else. Right now though, our WiFi router is working great and covers the whole house 🙂
With the wired connection…it is possible that you needed a crossover cable rather than a patch cable. Depending on the age of the other components you plugged in, they might not auto adjust for crossover.
A crossover cable directly connects the ethernet transmit lines to the other end receive lines…and both ends are talking properly with each other.
Otherwise, a transmitter might be talking to a transmitter and a receiver to a receiver…..
It turns out there are a couple of different standards for crossovers. Here is an example of one of them.
http://www.archonmagnus.com/computing/elec/diagrams/crossOverCableDiagram2.jpg
There again, you could always work off a single router and use a couple of Wifi repeaters plugged into strategic mains outlets around the house. We have a setup like this that gets around, or through, the weak signal/concrete wall problem. It doesn’t solve the problem of having four desktops and 2-3 phones all trying to stream movies or play online games simultaneously over a 5Mbps PLDT connection!
Wow great article AJ! I plan on moving December or early 2017 and I’ll need a fast net connection to do my job. This truly helps! Thanks for posting and to everyone who contributed with helpful information.
Make sure your moving to an area with great net coverage. I say Great net coverage because some islands, in fact most, aren’t as progressive as others.
Davao, Iloilo, etc are progressive islands.
When I was in the USA I talked to a tech about cable Vs DSL. He said that cable slows down when there are more people using it. That’s why you get better speed in the middle of the night. DSL isn’t great in the Philippines, but that is what I have used for almost 2 years and it usually works reasonably well. When it slows down, I call the Globe hotline and the speed improves.
Hi Bob,
I’m thinking of moving to the Tayud Consolacion area of Cebu, have any info on the internet or cable providers? I’d like to see U.S. channels, of course football is a biggie.
I’ve been to the P.I. twice and a year and a half ago when I was in Cebu I never thought to investigate internet or t.v. options.
Any info would be appreciated,
Thank you,
Ken
I really don’t have specific information for the area you are asking about, but if you want to get the kind of TV that you mention, I would recommend that you check out this article about Kodi.
I am going to move to Samal in June would like very much for you to help my landlord get a decent setup if it is not too much of a problem for you…Would be cool to meet you I like your style and you are very knowledgeable…Once I get there is it’s is ok with you…I will message you our telephone number for contact …Take Care hope your feeling better …
In Samal it will really depend on where you are, since the only internet avail is wireless. A pocket wifi router will get you 5 to 25 MBPS , if yu have a clear sightline of Davao, but you will get absolutely nothing on the back side of the island. Again, it is also time dependent, good in the morning, inconsistent as the mercury rises.
Same, and even if it does deliver, there’s still the Globe barrier…
Sounds quite unstable. I hope you get better performance as time goes by.
I wouldn’t het too excited about this – all the article talks about is the link between SEA and the US. That bandwidth is shared between all the users in all the connected countries. There is nothing about upgrading the individual customer connections.
I don’t quite understand the “The project is expected to provide initial 20 terabit per second capacity with state-of-the-art 100 gigabit per second technology …”. I would guess that it’s talking about bundling 100Gbps connections in parallel to achieve the 20Tbps total bandwidth, with the option of adding further 100Gbps to increase capacity as demand grows.
But don’t fool yourself to believe that any one connection is going to see anything like 100Gbps. We are still stuck with our slow (5Mbps in my case), capped (10GB/day or 100GB/month max), local connections.
Raising these limits will require further massive investment to update the local infrastructure – the gateway computers in the local data centres, the communications between the data centres and the cabling between those and the customer premises.
Me? I’m praying that Sky bring digital network to Tagum, replacing the current, horribly outdated, analogue network that they have here. However, with Sky having implemented their DTH (satellite) service in order to serve ‘remote’ areas, I think that the hope of getting a digital cable upgrade has been set back.
Yes that is what she told me but what do all those nice resorts use to get a good signal??
look forward to it but I do not think I will hold my breathe as things seem to fall through a lot.
Who told you they have good signal?
Hi AJ – That’s a lot of “good to know” information. I only hope that I can “outlive” SMART-Bro (aka SLOW-Bro, NO-Bro, and SMART-Broken) and witness the fruits of this venture and any follow-on competitive responses.
Who am I kidding – I don’t expect improvement in the provinces until specific pockets are full.
😉
Secdea has put a very tall and precarious looking tower up, but they are barely around the bend of the top of the island. Their wifi is slow. Others facing Davao can get a good signal sometimes. Samal is shaped like and egg, high on the center, so the signal is blocked on most of the island.
I get a decent signal, but 3km further they cant even get a cell signal, let alone wifi.
Samal has many “dead” areas.
A general rule on Samal, if you cant see Davao, you wont have a signal.
Good information. Who knows maybe in 10 years it will become reality.
Rusty
Personally, I have never found a “fast” connection on Samal. I am used to a 50 Mbps, though. If something like a 5 Mbps connection were available there, that would just not be adequate for me, so we are probably talking about 2 different things when we say “good” or “fast”.
Lol, all the loading time gave you time to think of some names I see. It would be nice if it succeeded, but I won’t be expecting it to. The problem with those pockets is they seem to be bottomless…
Haha, 10 years seems like an optimistic prediction haha. Seriously though, it would be nice to have but I’m not going to be at the edge of my seat.
Yeah, the article is kinda confusing. I see what you mean though, with a lot of people using it, what seems like a lot will be whittled down. As I said though, most electronics are only capable of 1 Gbps unless you spend a lot of money for fancy equipment to get 10 Gbps, but even then, you still won’t be able to use the whole 100 Gbps.
In the morning we can get 20 MBPS, but it drifts down to 5 late morning, and 2-3 in the afternoon. I doesnt bounce back to 5 or over until after 8PM. I have had as high as 25 early morning.
Sundays are slower.
Most of the time we can watch live sports without streaming, Netflix, etc..
There are times in the afternoon when it is hard to download an Excel file.
This is with a pocket wifi and no antenna. I wonder if my signal would be better with a proper router?
AJ are there providers in Fil that use satellite transmissions like here in the States.
they cost about $80 mo. I think.
If your connection speed is varying like that, by time of day then I would strongly suspect that the slowdowns you experience are due to congestion (or contention), and not related to the quality of your signal. If that is the case, no router or antenna is going to make any difference (unless the antenna enables you to connect to another cell tower).
One of the problems with a satellite dish (geo-stationary sat) connection is the transmission delay times – the signal has to travel from earth to satellite and then back from satellite to earth which takes a minimum of a quarter second. This is, perhaps, okay for browsing – for online gaming it would be unacceptable.
Far a two-way link, the equipment installed at your premises has to be capable of producing a strong enough signal to reach the satellite, and higher data rates generally require more power.
Often, a satellite link is combined with a terrestrial link – using the satellite only for higher bandwidth requirements where latency (delays) aren’t a problem – file downloads, for instance. Other, lower bandwidth data, goes via the terrestrial connection.
I won’t hold my breath. We’ve been promised so many things by these companies. lol
AJ
We live on a rural secondary road and the only reason to be on it is if you live here or are delivering something. No Jeepney’s unless someone is moving in during the day or sneaking off during the night but lots of Trike’s.We have one wire and that is for electricity as we have no cable, internet or phone service. It was only after being here 13 years we got water. But speed bumps there are a plenty. Not installed by the city but by the parents of the children who play on the road. four bumps prior to reaching my gate, but if one kid is never hurt, I’ll live with those bumps in the road. My dream is a wire bringing internet to my house, but a dream it must remain, and remain thankful we have city water.
I’m used to the city, don’t think I can live without the Internet, haha. Hopefully you do get Internet there somehow. Glad that you have water though 🙂
I heard about it from my friends. I think Smart is already improving it’s LTE speeds here in Davao. It still has caps, which sucks, but the speeds can reach 100Mbps, which would be nice.
Actually additions and amendments to the constitution can be a very good thing. Most times there is a realization that things have been missed or left out or just not addressed at all. Think about all the amendments to the U.S constitution. Are there any that you would say shouldn’t be there?
Yeah I agree/ At the time they were taking them out, we thought it was good but after awhile, we realized it was better when they were around, lol.
13 years without running water???? Is that right????? I can’t go 13 hours without running water. well, I can but choose not to. You must be tough. My son can’t go 13 hours without internet.
I know servicemen/women are tough, pat-pat on the back, but dang.
From living in a luxury condo and driving a luxury Town Car, I now live off-grid with no services (and no electrical wires), driving my 15 year old clunker on muddy roads.
No speed bumps here.
An occasional trip to the city reminds me of “the good old days” but if I choose to stay at home, I can always watch Manila traffic LIVE with the TV dish or access Internet via WiFi to check the latest on LIP.
Living off-grid without city services is a challenge. From all the people that I know here, I am the only crazy one and when something breaks and I can’t repair it, I almost think that they are right.
But when everything is in order I almost think that I am right.
Ahhhh….
Time to go and check the batteries. It’s overcast and the voltage is low….
AJ,
I read, and I’m sure you did too, where Globe/PLDT bought X amount of speed from SM. That they experimented in Manila and it was between 30 to 100 MBPS.
So places like Manila/Davao are supposed to see faster LTE speeds by the end of the year. Places like bohol probably won’t see LTE faster speeds for years. This could affect Paul.
Isn’t it strange that after Duterte said he’d open up the internet/etc., to foreign competition that the companies got on the ball.
Sounds like a rough lifestyle, lol. Don’t think I can survive like that.
Speed Bumps are needed. Change can be good but not in all cases.
Always be Leary of changing, or adding addendum’s, to laws/rules or the constitution. Any constitution. They were put in place for a reason.
In my town we call speed bumps “humps.”
On the island of Bohol, except in the major town (Tagbilaran), your lucky to get on average 2 MBPS. Even in Tagbilaran the average speed is 5 MBPS.
I would have to ask You if there are amendments that should have been added? What are they specifically?
As I said the constitution, and other laws, were written for a purpose. If they are ever changed/added to it needs to be seriously considered. Nothing should happen unless it is done over a great deal of time.
That goes for the Philippines and all countries.
Rusty,
I don’t recall anyone commenting on making amendments to the Constitution in this article? I’m certainly not recommending any amendments to the Constitution. Btw….which constitution are you referring to? If you are talking about the Philippine one then I don’t have anything to say about it since I have not read it. If you are referring to the U.S. Constitution then I would say that all amendments are seriously considered and very thought and very difficult to pass due to process that it has to go through to get passed. 66 percent of Congress must vote for thr amendment and 75 percent of state legislatures must vote for it. Surely our forefathers wanted to make amending thr constitution very hard to do. Which is why in 229 years only 27 amendments have been successfully passed.
I personally think each amendment should have been passed. There are even some that didn’t pass that I would vote for.
Willie, In my opinion I was just telling others that one should be leery of making changes. Especially to laws. Does that mean that all laws are perfect? Absolutely Not.
Another example of change/advancements/improvements: They’ve wanted an international airport on the island of Bohol for years. So they are now building it. Yet they are always concerned with electricity, security, and water. Sure hope they’ve prepared for all of this.
Really depends on where you are in the states and your provider.. I have Tmobile and they suck and all we get at the house is DSL 1 mb a sec. The Playstation network says my connection is too slow to play games.. I pay $35 a month..
I live in hawaii and T mobile is awesome plus it gives me free international txt and data so when I travel I don’t end up with big bill or change SIM cards 😉
tmobile is good in some places just not in my area.. Free txt and data? thats good to know..
Travel as much as you can. One day you will have responsibilities that will limit your chances.
Welcome back:)
Hello everyone,
The Philippines is a wonderful country to live in if you do not need any service. When you live in the Philippines, then goes back to a century, judging from the Western Standard. It is the way of life of the people. The Philippine people avoid any problem, so problems are never eliminated. Nor do people take responsibility. In order to avoid all problems, much is lied. Countless times I was told: “I call you back”. Of course no one calls back, that was a deliberate lie to eliminate the problem with it. This game can now be continued daily, but it would not bring any solution. You would experience the same day again and again, just like the famous Hollywood movie. So there are two possibilities, one lives with it or one loses all its nerves. I am Swiss and please excuse my not perfect english.
Greetings from Brian
Based on what you say, I would guess that you have only lived here a few years. As you stay longer you will learn how to make things work in the Philippines… if you pay attention to the culture and experiment with handling things in different ways. Good luck.
Hey Bob, I see they have higher speeds and lower prices since you wrote this, considering signing up, but after reading your article, not so sure… any word on how the service with Sky is now?
Since the time I wrote this article, I left the cable internet, but I’m back again now. I’m getting 50 megabits per second for a price of 2899 pesos. The service is really great except there have been a couple times when we had extended times of slower speeds. But, I would say 90% of the time I get the full speed. I do recommend them highly.
Hi anybody can recommend me which internet broadband shall I choose coz at the moment we’re on smartbro but the connection is so slow 🙁 also my parents moving to cagayan De oro city and thinking to get broadband internet for them and it’s hard to choose which one really are the best to get 🙁 any idea guys…
To see where the world is head, watch “The Circle when it is released. The internet is wonderful but it is so easy to ruin lives years after
I agree, Luke!
Looks interesting. Haven’t heard of it before now though, lol. Thanks for the recommendation 🙂
No, I have no plans to leave the Philippines. Why would you ask,Mark? Just curious.
Very little to worry about as far as a false positive drug test. I worked for a large trucking company based in Washington for many years. As safety director I put in place pre-employment, random, and for cause testing for drivers long before it was required by the federal government. In all the many years of testing, had to be thousands of tests, we never had a false positive. In every instance where an employee requested a second test on a positive sample, the second test was also positive. Just be sure to let the clinic doing the testing know of any prescription and/or over the counter medications you may be taking.
That’s good to hear, eases my mind a bit, thanks 🙂
Wow, i already have a hard time getting used to it still being light out at like 7pm, don’t know what would happen to me if it’s light out for 17 hours a day, lol.
Aaron, Did you end up getting hired to go to Dillingham? It’s not going to look anything like the picture you posted 🙂 And the mosquitos there are big enough to carry you away! Some refer to them as the Alaska state bird 🙂 .
The online medical questionaire is brand new to this company this season,so the jury is still out on how effective it is. If it works like it’s supposed to,it will really help streamline the hiring process.
There are going to be days when you absolutely hate the job and want to quit.
When I first started 31 years ago, I had days like that (still do occasionally).
On those days I would total the hours I had worked and how much money that I had earned to date. Usually that reality would give me the incentive to work a few more days. Remember that the season is relatively short and a person can do almost anything for a short time.
When it’s all over,you will look back and think that it wasn’t all that bad,and most likely want to do it again. Good Luck
In the school district where I work all applications must be done online. If you walk in with a resume, they send you to one of the computers to input the information. While it might sound fussy, we have 10,000 employees. Can you imagine trying to corral all that information if it wasn’t digital?
Lol, I’m not sure I’d wanna see mosquitoes like that. I’ve seen (and been bitten by) mosquitoes enough in the Philippines. I’m expecting that there will be days that I will hate it, but just have to tough it out, lol. Thanks for referring me to the company btw 🙂
Hi AJ,
Another good and interesting article! I think you are wise to be careful about what appears on the internet. Since you are a blog writer you have the articles you write for your dad, but I think you do a good job at avoiding being overly controversial.
Peace
Jay
We are almost at 17 hours of daylight now. Gaining about 7 more minutes a day. LOL
Yup, it is definitely a lot more efficient and organized compared to having a huge stack of papers that you have to sort through.
Hi AJ, do you speak tagalog? just curious.
Yes it needs serious help.
You can help yourself on this… read the article and it tells you how.
thanks for that. very useful for me, I’m planing to move to Davao (Tigatto, Buhangin District) this coming August. Will see what will be the best over there.
Regards from Germany
Juergen
Dear Bob I have been following your site since 2012. I have lived in the Philippines for 5 years now. I just recently moved to Davao City. I really like it and wish I would of have moved here sooner. My Question is about which internet provider would be the best here. I live in the S@R area . I called Globe and they don’t have any slots open for Globe Dsl to transfer my service from other city. They have Globe 10 mbs wimax at 50g cap per month though available. Your thoughts on sky cable bundle. smart internet etc. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Starting out in Davao City. Thanks.
Very interesting, you definitely get what you are paying for. Out a Taty uses DSL in Digos and its variable, not reliable. But I have been reading that overall connectivity and Internet performance will be improving country wide. I assume like you said, remote villages rely mostly on wireless. Maybe that will improve too with infrastructure changes? Great to hear Bob.
Good luck to you, Juergen. I hope your move works out well. Be a little careful about the location… there were just some major NPA attacks in Tigatto, I would recommend that you take a second look.
Hi Steve,
Welcome to Davao City! I also love this place, and will continue staying here long term, probably forever!
On Internet, you mentioned a couple of things that are wireless… WiMax and such.. NO NO NO. Stay away from wireless at all cost, those Wireless systems never work out. I also live in the general area of S&R, I have Globe DSL and like it, are you sure they can’t get you on? It has been years sine I have heard of not being able to get it due to a lack of spots for years, so maybe they can get you on.
I also have a SkyCable connection. It runs good and bad. Finally, I am getting good service. When I had the 50 Mbps it was not good, but they downgraded me to 16 Mbps and it is much better. The good thing about SkyCable is that it is unlimied bandwidth. I would give it a thumbs up, but only for the 16 Mbps, not higher.
I hope this helps!
Good luck with your move.
Maybe more of a misunderstanding.
Good to hear that you’re getting such good service l
Peter. Thanks for the update.
I had better internet in the province than in Metro Manila. Being in the city doesn’t guarantee anything. 🙂
Great information. Thanks Bob.
Once again this article is right up my alley!
Thanks for the very helpful advice.
I get fast Internet speed here in Quezon City with my wired service. When I visit Gumaca, Quezon, I frequent the internet cafe there where the speed is also good. I assume they use a wired service provider.
Thank you Lee.
Nobody said it is a guarantee, but it does give better chances of getting reliable and fast service. 🙂 Hope you are doing well, Jason!
You too Bob! I enjoy your articles.
Digos is a small town so that’s unreliability does not surprise me.
Let’s discuss the “geek gap”. Surveys indicate that 13% of the US adult population (Unknown is if there is a correlation between amount of gray hair on ones head and that 13%) do not use the internet. Knowledge and use of it varies amongst the remaining users. In any discussion about the use of the internet, those facts must be kept in mind. It is clear that Bob Martin is on the other end of such a scale and good for him. There are many, many resources available on the internet to learn about the use of the internet. In my experience, I have found that very little of the providers of the information have established an objective to target that 13% or those with little background or knowledge in the use of the internet or ‘computer devices’ in general. Prior to retirement, I worked two jobs and ran my our family business. It may be a surprise to many that in this day and age that those jobs and running the business required little use of the internet/devices to meet objectives. During my working career, I made many attempts to learn more about the internet/devices: I found that the providers spoke way above my knowledge level and I just did not have the time to search every tech word or phrase to keep up. Let alone enrolling in a class. Now in retirement, I do have more time on my hands and do take the time to do the research to understand “geek” talk. My daughter actually comments that I am becoming more knowledgable. A little background: In 1976 (I think Gates was holed up in his parents garage during this time), I enrolled in a intro computer class: Mainframe computers languages (Basic, Fortran, Cobalt) and such things as “loops” and filing out punch cards as I successfully pursued my BA in Bus. Admin. Times have changed.
Keep up the good work Bob and just try to remember that 13% when you write.
Internet services are always evolving and changing. This means that what is best one month will not, necessarily, still be best next month, and what is best for one person may not meet another person’s requirements.
When I first arrived in Philippines, ten years ago, the only option I could find was a dsl service, offering 640kb/s for PHP4,500/month. Then Globe dsl arrived in Tagum, offering 1Mb/s for PHP999/month. I stayed with Globe until middle of last year (2016), upgrading a couple of times, to a 5Mb/s service. Originally, Globe had a reasonably generous, daily bandwidth cap, but moved to a much more restrictive monthly cap. However, worse was the fact that Globe implemented something called Carrier Grade NAT (CGN) but with totally inadequate resources, resulting in activities such as a simple Google search taking as long as 30 seconds to return results. With CGN, you could still get a full 5Mb/s transfer, but may have to wait for several seconds to establish the connection to speedtest. Incidently, CGN had been applied to the Globe LTE service much earlier, with the same, horrendous, problems.
Last year, PLDT Fibr arrived in Tagum, offering a 50Mb/s connection for PHP1,899 with a monthly cap, or PHP2,899 with no bandwidth cap. I opted for the unlimited service. In the time I have been on Fibr, there have been four occasions when the service has failed – just for an hour or two, as a result of PLDT network problems … at no time has the Fibr connection to my house failed. Other than that, I have a full 50Mb/s connection, up and down, all of the time.
I am extremely satisfied with the PLDT Fibr service, and would recommend it highly. I suggest that you can add Tagum to your list of cities for best Internet experiences. I believe that there are now other plan options available, offering various speeds, capped or uncapped.
Thanks Philip! Glad you liked it!
Yes! it’s a big scam.!
Thanks for the very helpful advice.
I get fast Internet speed here in Quezon City with my wired service. When I visit Gumaca, Quezon, I frequent the internet cafe there where the speed is also good. I assume they use a wired service provider.
Great article, I pay 1620 pesos per month from Globe here in Gingoog and for me it meets my needs. But I also check on and off for possible upgrades and when we moved here we were with another company and the service was very poor. But we live in the city so that helps us. Plus I do not have a business online so I am doing research and travel planning, so my needs are not as much as yours.
My post says that it is “waiting to be approved by lipmag”. Does that mean that it’s not fit for public consumption?
Hi Alexander, thank you for your review there, that is a good analysis. I used to live in a rural community in the US, and we had very poor internet there.
Bob Martin that was a long time ago !
Of course their billing dept has no clue whether you have service or not unless you make the effort to call them, give them your reference#(s) and the detailed repair history sequence (which you obviously called them twice-daily to follow up on), and request a rebate. It will take them them 2 billing cycles to credit you – if you don’t see it by them, call them again with the rebate-reference-# you asked them for.
Of course.
So how long does it take to transfer service? Are they rather quick? Or is it a situation where I have to call 5 times an hour till they finally surrender?
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6274926309
As I wrote in the posting you replied to (read again above) …
“On the relocation question, facilities permitting (ask before you sign to move!) allow a minimum of two weeks; while you might get lucky in one week don’t count on it. This last comment is likely very much area dependent; Makati might be much harder than smaller provincial cities”.
You are best advised to go to their local office where you want to “transfer service” to, and have them check your specific intended destination address for you. Depending on your target address they might tell you a week or two (paperwork, you know!) or they might tell you “maybe a few years” – it depends! Go ask specifically!
Facebook is just an example. Downloading and uploading files requires fast internet connection. Posting live on facebook requires fast internet connection. I was also able to stream movies while waiting for other drivers. Even your home internet connection will slow you down when you try to stream, browse, download and upload.
If you wish to stream shows on the Kodi box, I would say about eight megabits per second is what is needed for that. You can also use the Kodi to download shows, and if you do that the speed doesn’t really matter.
Yes, you will need a VPN if you want to stream things like Netflix from the United States.
I’ve had to use a free VPN app to get Pandora working while here. ShowBox, Popcorn Time, and Kodi need good internet to be any good over here. All I’ve gotten is buffering left and right, and youtube works intermittently… A lot to be desired when not located in a heavily polluted city =)
I have used satellite providers in the past and was not satisfied, so I did not cover them. Hope this explains why.
Hi Mike – I was not mentioning the provider on purpose, because I did not want to promote them. LOL It is Sky Broadband.
That volume boost that you are talking about, I am guessing, is with PLDT. Their boost package is very small and very expensive. Globe offers a much better value. The big and cheap volume boost I was talking about is on Globe.
I don’t understand the point of the speed test?
i am in a small town – things have changed – that is wireless
Of course.
Ok. My article has nothing to do with internet in the USA. You seem to have completely missed my point.
just reading the replies here you mentioned you had slow service in the us – i’ll bow out
Good luck Brian, hope you can get what you’re looking for.
I’m sorry, I was raised that way and my wife is a bit OCD on me as well.
All looks good now – thanks Bob.
I was asked a question and I answered it honestly. Irene don’t care anything about the internet in the United States, I don’t live there so it makes no difference to me.
Exactly Bob. 99% mentality. Sorry my comments seem to be so controversial. I attract people trying to show me up I guess :/
I would change the three large cities to metropolitan areas. Metro Manila and Metro Cebu are comprised of many more cities than just City of Manila (Quezon City, Makati) and City of Cebu (Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue).
I just checked the moderation panel, there’s nothing there. I’ve never held any your comments before and see no reason why I would want to.
I know in my area (Makati near Trump Tower) Sky Cable and PLDT are the best with unlimited usage. What I’m really curious about is how is the customer service to solve outages and what is the turn-around time if services need to be relocated in the event of a move. I’ve heard PLDT can take a month to fix an outage while they still charge you for the service you didn’t receive.
That is very strange indeed, Peter. I checked it out this morning. I found that there was nothing waiting for approval. I “unapproved” the comment, then re-approved it, and it appears to be fine now. Please let me know if you cannot see it.
I used DSL in Maryland for $50 a month and it sucked I switched to cable for $29 and it’s reliable.. It really depends on the area and the lines.
Sounds good Terry, glad that’s working for you.
Thanks Bob,
I was doing some research for our move in August/September to the Subic/Alongapo area and came across an article that was talking about a major fibre infrastructure being put in place there on behalf of a Chinese company moving into the area. Apparently they insisted on it. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed and will do some research when we make our trip out there in a couple of weeks time.
You’re getting a bit hypersensitive. Of course it’s the Metro areas.
Just puzzled by this: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28e28de56ebebc128e5f3a0883953d15653f2a830ce5e47fd20d205c15ac7c31.png
Very good article. A lot of the problem I think is expats coming from fairly large cities in the US to smaller cities here in the Philippines. I come from a smaller city in the US so I know slow internet in the US is a real thing. Maybe not in LA or some other crazy big city but it exists in the US as well. If someone says “well internet in the Philippines is nothing like the internet in the US” that statement is not 100% true. You can find garbage internet in the US as well, it just isn’t as widespread. Thank you for the article Bob it was a great read. Besides that I also use globe as a backup line, I’m not using the Globe 10mbps DSL line though since unf they don’t offer it where I’m at, but I do use the 10mbps 4g(lte) version with the 50gb cap.
Understood.
Bob;
I have the worst internet next to some farmer living in North Korea. But if moving off my mountain in Bataan is what is required to improve it, I’ll keep the bad internet. But I’ll still moan about it. (LOL)
You can be in the boondocks and still have fast internet just need a cell tower cell tower nearby or line of site. I was in Apo Island doing some scuba diving and posting on live fb, this is while my IPAD was tethered on my phone. I bought a plan with unli data, 90 min call, and text for 7 days for 99 pesos.
Of course if you’re going to live “malayo sa mga bundok’ (where you will know what that phrase means) then your access will be extremely limited – just like if you were living in the rocky mountains in North America or even rural Kansas. A mountain man or a rural farmer isn’t yet likely to get wired DSL, for those the equivalent is very expensive satellite service, which you can get – at a large price. Otherwise, exactly the same excellent dedicated internet service is available in many cities outside those 3 mega-metro areas.
In 2001 it was dial-up modem, fortunately my first best friend here operated an ISP, and that worked fine, I was able to log in to my servers overseas and continue to earn a living. Soon DSL came to metro Manila then expanded and expanded. Prior to 2006 broadband service was difficult and expensive and very unreliable most anywhere, but then PLDT DSL came “to the province”. Bandwidth was lower back then but it was quite adequate to run an Internet Cafe and facilitate my work. Of course, that cost in the mid-PHP1K+ range and still does, what changes is that they keep bumping up your bandwidth for the same or less money. No problem in 2011 getting the same DSL on a copper line in Kidapawan, N.Cotabato in Mindanao, same here as in Davao or Manila, same cost same service, includes landline (whether you want it or not). Later transferring service to a more rural area of the city was no problem at all – just pay per meter to get the wire in from the closest pole (likely at the highway). If I was still just on the other side of the highway I could have fiber by now at the same price, and fiber will soon come the extra km to here too. I recently “downgraded” my service to 1299pesos, surprise, I still get the same bandwidth I was previously paying significantly more for – not to complain.
Now, all that is with PLDT. You however don’t even want to ask about Globe – just don’t even think about it !
In summary, you can have one of:
a/ good
b/ cheap
c/ far remote
Pick *one*.
I have a PLDT Fiber plan at P3500 per month in CDO City. It’s reliable about 90% of the time. I see more people getting this service here since it became more widely available in the last year. This evening I was getting 32mbps download and 31Mbps upload speeds. The P3500 deal includes a Landline phone. I was paying about P2000 in the USA for a similar setup.
LOL I understand Paul. That’s where we are very different though, I will never live anywhere unless I have a good internet there. It’s been important to me. I understand though, we just have different goals in mi d.
What speeds are needed for Kodi/Android TV box streaming services, and is a VPN needed to get the US version of Netflix, etc?
Bob what service are you using at 1999 for 16mbps Unlimited. I have a globe package
at 1699 a month @15mbps with a capped limit of 150GB and with my activity I can often hit that limit with 15-20 days of the month. They offer a boost option to but the amount of boost
is way to small and the price is not low. I tend to just accept the rest of the month at 5mbps
but would love to know your service and package as globe does not even offer, from what I saw on their site, an unlimited service at any cost point.
Sounds like you’re getting pretty good service from that.
Simply having the ability to post on Facebook is not necessarily fast internet.
“I bought a plan with unli data” OK PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS IN MORE DETAIL… Which company, what plan, what type of service, DSL, cell 4g LTE, cable internet etc etc… I spoke with Globe and Smart sellers and NO ONE offered unlimited data! No one! Good grief is that frustrating! If I want internet at home, it had to be a one year contract, which sux for us, being here for only one month. Thanks in advance…
Bob, great article but you did not cover satellite internet. Providers such as philsat.com . Would that work well enough in remote areas to provide streaming video?
Compared to few years ago, services are slowly improving in the Philippines, atleast in the major urban areas. It used to be a lot worse many years back. More cell towers are also coming up in the provinces. If your work is heavily dependent on the internet, then you should stay within the urban regions as much as possible where wired services are provided. If you just check internet once in a while to read news, information or check emails from family then it’s ok to live in the provinces. Expats should keep this in mind. Some expats just murmur and expect too much, because they don’t gauge their needs vs the infrastructure available to meet them. Always do your research first about any province or area you want to live in the Philippines for long term, especially related to (1) Infrastructure and (2) Medical services (if you have some medical condition, especially senior expats). countryside may be idyllic, but can cause you more stress in the long run if you have any needs that require better infrastructure.
Thx Bob
We are on the last week of our month long vacation visiting my wife’s family in Cebu, technically Argao, a 5 minute walk from the beach. I would like to say that even though the internet may be better near/in the main cities, the pollution is unreal!
NONE of the internet providers that I have reached out to, offer anything less than a 1 year contract which really annoyed me! We are stuck using pocket wifi (garbage) and one of our neighbors was nice enough to give us her Globe DSL wifi password. The problem with that though is very low signal from her router to us upstairs and one apartment over. The result is, very slow internet even with DSL and don’t even get me started about the internet cafe’s, unreal, worse than at the apartment or pocket wifi…
Free wifi on the aircon busses are crap as well lol! Same for the flights offering free wifi, not once did any pages on my Note 5 load, not once… 14-15 hrs on one flight, and the flight attendants always had an excuse as to why the internet wasn’t working. Mostly blaming the weather, LOL! even when there were sunny skies…
On a side note,I smell corruption, perfect example. We went whale shark watching early morning, which was a long ass drive. While there, I made an interesting observation. There are around 20 maybe 30 paddle boats taking around 9-10 people each. The cost is $10 per person and $20 if you want to swim with the whale sharks. The boats change passengers every 1/2 hour, sooo if you do the math, the money generated per year is in the millions of dollars. Let’s see, $100 per boat times 20 boats every 1/2 hour, so that’s 40 boats per hour times $100 which is $4,000 per hour and that’s not including the ones that pay double to swim with the whale sharks. Ok so $4,000 times 8 hours a day is $32,000 per day, times 365 days a year is $11,680,000. Of course there are operating expenses but I’m sure frozen shrimp chum that is tossed into the water to attract the whale sharks is cheap, as is paying the employees. Let’s say on the low end, $11,000,000 per year. This money is split between the local area and the government, one of the workers explained to me when I asked… So where is all this money really going?
Another odd thing was being restricted by EVERYONE I was with, not to go out at night! WOW, I have been told constantly that I will most likely be robbed or worse. Of course me with my big mouth, I had to respond, “why can’t I buy protection while I’m here”? If someone tries to do something to me, I have the right to defend myself, right? That’s not what I was told lol, my wife said, well, you’ll stay here in prison and I’ll return to the states. So basically it’s like the TV show “The Walking Dead”, don’t venture out at night. Of course we can’t forget the 3 hour blackouts/brownouts and cable tv cutting out for hours, lol…
All in all though, I still want to return (possibly as soon as next year) better prepared of course, hell with apartment living, 3bdrm house next time…! =)
I know I rambled onto other topics not necessarily related to internet access in the Philippines. For that I hope that everyone can forgive and understand, thank you all…
Good luck to you Steve!
Nice post.
Thanks 🙂
Aaron is my son, and a pretty smart guy, but I have to disagree with this article.
I have Smart LTE on my cellphone. The speeds are great! In most parts of Davao City, I get between 25 and 30 Mbps on my phone. It does have a data cap of only 3.7 GB per month, but I don’t ever reach the cap because I don’t go out all that much.
But, my mobile data is as fast as my home data, so I have no complaints.
Sorry Aaron. 🙂
Hey Bob… Mindanao is not the Philippines… And Davao, definitely not most of cities here. Ok, if you live in Manila, Cebu City or Davao, I bet you have decent LTE… But I live in Olongapo (which shouldn’t be so bad, with SBMA, and so on, but unfortunately it is far to be the case…), I am sorry, but I concur with Aaron. You can define a national ISP by its global performance, not by the few peak services in some major cities ! First, as PLDT (which at the end of the day is the only real ISP as it has monopoly on ingoing/outgoing datas) think they are so smart that they don’t need to get a backbone provider, our datas take ages to load, second, they regularly run into issues with their submarine cables, third, as long as this country won’t have strong consumers’ associations to pressure companies to respect their promesses, providers will just do what they want, in this case, absolutely nothing !
Hi Bob, I picked up an “unlimited” Sim card (as the clerk described it) at the Abreeza a mall a few months ago. I got up to 10 Mbps on average but what ticked me off was after 2 days it shut off with a message that I was using to much data. Not cool.
Hum. 3.7 GB per month? I guess I don’t understand GB. We get 50GB of data per month on Bohol. Why the difference?
Davao is much more advanced than Bohol, right?
Never said, implied, or meant to imply that my experience is universal. I only commented on my personal situation.
I understand and agree with your feelings. If they say “unlimited” it should be unlimited. I understand my plan, because it clearly states that I get 3.7 GB of data per month, and they have delivered what is promised.
When they say unlimited, they leave themselves wiggle room. There are usually terms listed where it tells you what “unlimited” is, which is ridiculous.
Overall though, the Philippines is still very far behind in terms of mobile internet and even just internet in general. Data caps and sub-par speeds shouldn’t be a thing now imo. Also the companies have so many different plans that cater to different plans that cater to different uses like Facebook, Youtube, etc. There really should just be a few plans with no locks on what sites you can or can’t go to.
U are right on AJ. But first the internet as a whole needs to be improved then mobile will just flow right in as the network will be able to support it. So it is a case of both need to improve.
Thanks for your helpful article. The wired internet are the best choices to use for home use whether you’re in a big city or in a remote town. But people who are mobile, like taking a vacay for instance need a good pocket wifi that offers a substantial number of GB. 1 GB isn’t enough for daily use. These prepaid plans are a waste of money for a small amount of data given to you. The only option is to have a high-priced postpaid plan with the most amount of data they can offer for the month. I guess, you always get what you pay for. Thanks for your informative article.
We recently left Globe’s 4 G LTE for PLDT Fibr Optic 20 mbps….excellent plan
I can understand why the difference would be large. Going from wireless to wired internet will always be a huge improvement.
There are bright spots appearing. We frequent a coffee shop in Tagbilaran, Bohol with free WiFi offered via PLDT Home Fibr and speed is averaging over 130 Mbps.
Hello Aj,
Great article! Like you, I too keep getting my hopes up, only to see them get dashed. I have only been here in the Philippines for a hand full of years, but I split my time between my home in Alaska, and my home in the north end of Tarlac. I actually have very good internet/cell service in Alaska, but struggle with what is available here. After the comments made by Jack Ma, my hopes once again jumped, but I had to remind myself of the past promises made by others! Like Alaska, I think that once all the “Old School” politicians and business men/women move aside for your younger generation to take over, the internet will remain very stagnant here in the Philippines. But I am holding my breath for the change!!!! Great article.
Thanks 🙂 Yeah, they keep saying they will improve the service but until they do, I won’t believe it…
Hi Aaron. It’s especially frustrating for those of us who are willing to pay almost anything providing we get great speed/service in return. I’m guessing ‘internet’ is consistently among the top 3 issues for expats.
One lingering issue here in the Philippines is that it has no Anti-Trust laws unlike that in the U.S. which simply means that no matter how much promises businessmen do in terms of offering good services through fair and healthy competition in say the telecommunications field, the market niche for other companies to survive is simply getting smaller that they simply die out or be bought or, (using the infamous “divide and rule concept”) some businessmen do tactical alliances by establish themselves independently within the market itself only to be bought and become an affiliate as to who whoever it is will offer the best take-over price. Much like Philippine Elections wherein certain personalities of unknown origin suddenly catapult themselves to say running for president of the country. As the hapless ignorant and gullible become part of one’s so-called following, they suddenly bow out of the elections and “offer” their followers to other candidates with of course the best price. Some facts I knew in my own basic investigations years ago concluded that as PLDT just bought SMART and SUN, ROC (Ramon Cojuanco, owner of GLOBE Telecom) also sits in the PLDT board – so as far as healthy competition is concerned that it is simply not happening. Second to that, PLDT has “positioned” itself as a gateway provider thru it’s partner APNIC of Australia in which GOOGLE categirized as being “slow” in terms of speed. APNIC also provides gateway services to Japan. Here in my place in Iligan City, GLOBE, SMART and SUN internet and mobile services actually passes through PLDT X5 impact fiber optics services in areas wherein the former 3 have no or does not need to have cellsites. So, saying that of course simply means that when PLDT internet services in my place is down at a time will translate to the other 3 being down as well. As a whole, it does no matter how much the other 3 advertises (in their internet services offered) that they all pass through PLDT-APNIC no matter what. Last tidbit I want to add – those telephone services bundled with PLDT Plan Packages are actually internet phones (https types, not the old analog-microwave type that the Philippines used have) which is a great savings for PLDT. Also, I have read once that TAOBAO of China did offered them gateway services but the latter declined for reasons they only know.
Yeah, I think it’s up there. Going from good internet to bad is very noticeable and the ISPs not doing anything really isn’t good :/
You can’t use the excuse that the Philippines are islands, it’s hard to get good service to there. I’m now in Taiwan and my 300mb service costs about $20 per month, with a 2 year contract.
And my video games no longer lag, as they did on PLDT’s service, after 8am or so. Other than the lag, my 5mb PLDT service was decent enough, but for a price that was around $40 per month.
One of the biggest problems we face is caps! I did some research on this a while back and found that transmitting data costs very little. The Telcos make enormous profits on the internet. Yet they want to cap us so we have to spend much more. I had Globe DSL, 15mb with 150GB cap. I live in Ormoc City and we had Yolanda move through which FORCED the telcos to fix and replace all the bad lines as Yolanda simply blew them all down. My service was top notch. It was very rare I had any problems with my speed. In fact, we now have fiber where I live as I see ‘PLDTFibr’ on my wifi.
The problem though was the cap. I have a 3 year old daughter and I bought her a tablet to play with. I put an app called Kids YouTube and she loves it and it keeps her busy. She has learned a lot from it like her colors and the alphabet. But she can use up the entire 150GB cap by herself every month!
But I also understand that a cap is needed because there will be some who abuse it. For instance, they will let the family next door use the WiFi for a price. And if they have good bandwidth, perhaps they will will let more people use their internet. And that is bad for the bottom line of the telco as they lose sales.
Wow, didn’t even know that the owner of Globe is on the board of PLDT… Now I see why the duopoly is working out real well between them lol. I guess hoping they compete against each other isn’t gonna work, so now i really hope a foreign company comes in to compete.
If you do a “Volume Boost” on Globe for an extra P299 per month you will get 500 GB more data allowance without slowing you down. I do it nearly every month. That should solve your problem.
If you decide to go with PLDT FIBR they have plans with no cap at all, and the price is quite reasonable.
Definitely, the excuse that the Philippines is a bunch of islands shouldn’t be used. There are ways around it and if they just made the infrastructure good in the first place, it wouldn’t be an issue…
I never seen that ‘Volume Boost’ before. I seen something that was much less for the same price… let me look. I see ‘Additional 200 GB for DSL and Fiber only – P299’ which would be what I need at minimum. Caps just make my blood almost boil! That 299 is pure profit for Globe. They already made their money from the P1599. If it was unlimited, the cost per GB less than a penny and I doubt I could ever use too much bandwidth even at 15 or 20 mbs. I am fairly certain, if you was running torrents on your connection that it may raise some brows. But I don’t do that on a home connection. If you do this, best to have a server! 😉
And yes, I have my eye on the unlimited fibr deal. The problem here is pretty deep. It goes back to 2012 when Smart/PLDT bought Digitel. I was on Digitel and PLDT tried to force me into a new contract. Same service for more money. I was threatened in some bad ways. It made me so mad I got a new service from the cable company (Angono) and just paid the DSL/Phone bill until my contract was up. I ignored PLDT’s threats. Right now, I contacted PLDT well over a month ago to ask about the service. It took a few weeks before they even responded in any way. Finally, after I was starting to complain, they asked me for my name and address. I gave them all the info they needed and haven’t heard a thing from them since. This was October 2. I don’t like PLDT because they treated me very, very bad and they still have very poor customer service issues and this ties in with the article here in a way.
***But I don’t like caps even more.***
I pay my bills and I cannot understand why PLDT just treats people like shizzle!
Although AJ is not happy with it, I have no major problems with Internet in Davao. It is fast. I have SkyCable (they offer up to 50 Mbps), and the rain has no real effect on the internet for us.
Like my Dad said, rain doesn’t affect our connection. As for the speed though, I think in 2017, 50Mbps (the highest I’ve seen Sky advertise) isn’t really acceptable imo. We’re on their 16Mbps plan and youtube vids automatically go down to 144p and sometimes buffer for a bit, pictures take some time to load, gifs stutter and such. Not a single company offers fiber in our neighborhood which is located right in the middle of the city. Sure some of the time it’s decent and I’m probably just cherry picking times where it isn’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Philippines really should have better internet ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Hmm they look pretty good, hopefully they expand and continue with the quality.
It’s a slippery slope for sure, but 150gb a month is really low and I’m sure they know it. They expect you to buy more data so that you can keep the speed… I think it’s ridiculous too.
About a month ago Duterte mentioned this, but like most things he says it faded and has been forgottonm…
Dunno, it’s fast in Davao, with sky cable offering 30 mbps service.
The problem is the rain that can take out the signal entirely, which means several days until it’s repaired (that’s if you tell them it’s down and they send a lineman out).
There was an article on abs cbn that said that realistically, the provinces bring the natiinal average speeds down. If providers stopped offering the slowest and basically unusable speeds they it would increase.
Food for thought.
Jack Ma is fast to criticize but at least Filipino citizens aren’t trapped behind the great firewall of china, with risk of being taken away if they look at the wrong type of material while online.
The article about his meeting with Jack Ma was published less than a week ago, so he’s definitely still aware of the issues and working on it.
All the appropriate monies will have to be squeezed out of the incoming telcos, kind of like what’s happening to Uber and Grab right now.
Hi AJ,
In my area they are starting too upgrade the internet it has been down for about 8 hours about a week ago and that’s not normal here but the speed was really bad and now it’s better only because we upgraded our internet
Hi Aj,
Nice article! I can say one improvement I have noticed in the Philippines is that on a very basic level service has been extended to more Filipinos. We were spending a fair amount of money contacting our family in Bohol and they used to never be able to contact us unless they went to a Net Cafe and video called us and we happened to be on-line. Actually, that is kind on us because I just got my wife a smartphone recently. I still operate a dumb phone.Now they can call us by messenger on their phones. The quality isn’t great yet, but before it was non-existent.
I agree with you on competition. In the USA, AT&T had a monopoly for years and their was little improvement. The thing I find frustrating here in the USA is internet/phone/tv companies actually punish loyalty. They all offer deals if you switch. If you don’t switch they slowly up your rates.
Peace
Jay
lol probably true 🙂
This company is setting a very new standard in affordable, fast and blisteringly fast internet. Certainly worth a look.
https://rise.ph/mission
The biggest problem in the Philippines is the governments Philippines first policy. Until this is removed no international company is going to invest their hard earned money when they have no security.
Glad you got better internet 🙂
I am paying 3500 pesos per month for PLDT HomeFiber in Cagayan De Oro. It’s up about 90% of the time and I’ve had it for almost 3 years. This evening my Download speed is 56 Mbps. Not bad. I watch Netflix and iTunes Movies and rarely ever have any issues.
What does need a lot of work in the Philippines is the Power Grid. It’s seems to be slowly improving in my area. Power outages now run 2 to 4 hours only 3 or 4 times per month. The first week I was here we had an 8 hour power outage and it was 36 Celsuis and I had just come from a winter climate.
Gary Dadds just said exactly what I was going to say really. If the Philippines wants international companies to come and do business in the Philippines, then they need to really look at this insistence on majority ownership of businesses by Filipino companies/individuals. No company is going to invest heavily in, and try to run, a business which they can’t have any real control over, so real competition is not actually possible.
That’s good to hear that you can communicate with family here now.
I agree with the US brands and loyalty. Every ad I saw for them was about switching being so easy and all that but then at the same time, I see tons of people who’ve been customers for years be treated poorly.
Here in Davao, we don’t have fiber in our area even though we’re right int he middle of the city. It’s kind of like a lottery I guess, good internet here haha.
I do agree that the power grid also needs work. Recently we haven’t had any power outages here, which is a good sign, but I think in some areas and probably other cities, they still have power issues.
Can only agree with the comments. “Follow the Money” is usually instructive. There is no competition here because large Corporate manufacturing etc. was designed through an unholy alliance of corruption and self-interest between business and politics over decades. This simply can be translated across-the board for most service-related businesses here. As others have noted, it is not in the best financial interests for Corporations to improve/update services as this would remove their big profit margins….. this on top of inefficient supply-chains with Manila being the excuse for lack of service/support to businesses & consumers the further away one is from Manila !! ie. for 4 weeks now the local GMall in Toril has had no ‘Load’ Cards for Globe – reason = Hurricane around Luzon… then eventually after you stop laughing your find that cards have been requested 4 times from Globe HQ or wherever with no response… OMG, a “welcome to the Philippines” moment at which the Filipino’s themselves laugh about with you… so these problems effect everyone. Foreign business will not invest much here because of all the government inward investment restrictions – Capital controls and importantly, Ownership controls etc. etc. Miss-placed ‘protectionism’ and inherent corrupt practices are no secret and until they are dealt with everything remains the same. The Internet and PLDT issues were the subject of a newspaper article a few months ago and that summed it all up. “No brains -No choice”.
Very true. Changes will have to be made before investors would even consider investing their money here…
Yup, very true. The Philippines will need to change a lot of things before investors will probably be interested in investing…
Manila being the central hub for everything is very true. Just try to have something repaired through official means, they’ll either have to wait for parts to ship from Manila or send the actual item there to be repaired, which could take weeks at least.
I do find it ridiculous that Philippine companies are given more relevance even though they don’t do a good job. In order for competition to actually happen, foreign companies need to come in, but right now it isn’t appealing to them…
Hi Bob, saw your article about internet connection in Mintal area and I know this is kinda old post so I’m wondering if what ISP are you currently using and is it wired (DSL) or wireless (LTE)? Me and my family will be relocating soon when the house is finished and I am wondering which reliable internet provider I can apply to. currently I’m using PLDT fibr in the north (Lanang area). I don’t have a problem of any kind but this relocation is driving me crazy. I work online and I need reliable (perhaps 90% of the time will do). looking forward for your response. thanks!
glad to hear your move is going smooth so far,,,as far as my question to you was about obtaining a tricare supplemental policy here to go along with our tricare select primary ins carrier..Are there US companies that will and are signing up tricare select participants here in the philippines???
If the PLDT Fibr is as good as mine, here in Tagum, you should be very happy. I have been using mine for about 14 months, now. It seems to go down about once a month for twenty or thirty minutes, usually when a tech has the street cabinet open – frustrating, but not catastrophic.
Having said that, my connection went down for around four hours last week and when it came back it was on for ten, off for ten a couple of times, before returning to normal.
The failure has never been at my local connection – the optical signal is still good – and I don’t bother reporting the problem because I know that it will be restored anyway.
Thanks for the update Peter. I am really looking forward to giving the fiber a try.
I guess it is my problem for living at the end of the road in Bislig City but I just tested my connection and it is it’s usual, 4.11 Mbps Download and 0.94 Mbps Upload. Very hard to get anything done and forbids any streaming. The unit is brand new.
Yes if you choose to live in a small town those are the kind of results you should expect. We have 15 mbps with our cable connection, and will have 50 mbps with our fiber. List of speeds are easy to get a large city.
I think you will really like fiber optic internet Bob. I have been using it here for the past couple of years and would never go back to anything else. Sure, it cost a bit more but from the enjoyment I get from it, plus nearly 100% reliability so far it is worth the few extra dollars I pay for it. I am on the 50 up 50 down plan but any time I do the ookla speed check it is a bit higher so I am well satisfied. I hope you will have similar results.
At the moment I am getting 57.71 down and 65.63 up. I hope yours will be similar.
Great brook court Bob. Thanks for sharing. I am confident that i will also get great results if i am able to get fiber. I have been promises they would try their best.
Been here for nearly 5 years now and have had several different globe dsl plans here in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Finally now have one that is unlimited at 15mbps. 1800P so more than happy but Bob is right avoid wireless and pay attention to the data caps. At one point I was on 15mbps with a 150GB cap and I was often hitting that early in the month. After 2 annoying months changed that plan to a 10mbps with a 400GB cap + 100GB for youtube and that would have done me fine but gf is close to our local globe agent and she got us put on unlimited for about 100 peso more.
Those data caps are a killer! Good that you are avoiding them!
I have had Internet in Makati and Cebu City. My experience dates back to 1989. But with the opening of the new International Airport in Panglao, Bohol, I am also expecting that if you locate close to the airport you will also have fast Internet.
I will be moving to Panglao, Bohol and hope with the new airport completion I will get workable Internet speeds. We are luxury hospitality head hunters world wide so this is important. I will probably be comparing what I can get with my Comcast cable Internet speeds in Florida. Just did a speed test and found I have 88 download and 25 upload speeds.
Good luck. I hate always heard that Intenet is not good in Bohol. I hope i8t works out for you.
great article thanks dude
You are most welcome, zak. Glad you liked it.
Well internet in the USA is pretty good now. I live in a place considered “Developing” maybe even rural but I can’t complain about the internet right now. Yes I was also on the PLDT 100Mbps FIBR internet in Masbate where I lived for the last 3 years or so and didn’t have any real complaints. For everyone else FIBR is definitely the way to go if you’ve got it in your area.
I also can’t complain, in my view. I feel these two incidents were isolated, and not anything within the control of PLDT.
Yes, I remember the resent outage, and to the credit of PLDT, the fiber cable was conveniently cut on a Thursday when the PLDT office was actually open for their two-days-a-week. Since they didn’t have any connectivity either – they were very much on top of it and by evening DSL and landline were working again across the province and yes in my house too 🙂
I am curious Ed, is there anything in your life that you don’t complain about? if things are so bad where you live why don’t you move?
Bob, I only mention things people might also experience and could learn from so as to avoid.
Sometimes questions are needed to gain proper perspective and understanding.
Same as you mention issues you encounter where your experiences might benefit others, which we all appreciate.
I leave the irrelevant and inappropriate experiences by the wayside where such belong.
No offence intended.
Ed, I have never advocated leaving your children behind. I would never say that. You bitch so much about how terrible your wife is, though, that I think you should leave her. Take the kids with you. From what you say, she is not around regularly enough (except to get your money) for her to be able to care for your kids anyway. It does not seem that you love your wife. I know that I would never say those kinds of things about a person that I love.
Do what you want, Ed, but your constant bitching and moaning makes it seem that you are miserable in your current wife. You constantly air your dirty laundry here.
Bob, the “fix” is to recognize, understand, and appreciate the issues deficiencies and strive to alleviate those for the good of everyone. Why is that so difficult to comprehend?
Hi Bob. I think all the Fibr plans have unlimited data downloads. My download speed was being restricted as a result of the cables being dislodged when new subscribers were being connected to the local Fibr box – or so I was told by the contracted PLDT technicians. I still don’t understand how the landline was cut, the download speed restricted while the upload speed was unaffected. It was also something for which the 171 Customer Service Agent had not been prepared. I guess the best thing to do is call 171 and post a message on Facebook whenever you have a problem.
Really, you had a T2 dedicated line 17 years ago back in 2001? In GenSan? Who provided that, there, way back then, in 2001? That must have been costing you a 6-digit fortune in US$ at the time, given that the max you could squeeze out of the then-standard v.32 modem was 56k up-and-coming a couple or so years later and that’s what most everyone was using for a connection at best. No one in the Phils could even spell ISDN back then let alone define it, and DSL was still half a decade away from initial rollout in places like Makati.
So, Bob, please, what _where_ you subscribed to in GenSan seventeen years ago that gave you 2Mb/sec, aside from the screeching cost for such screeching speed just at the turn of the century? Ten years later, possible, but almost 20 years ago? Dying to learn what I missed out on, since it was such a struggle back then to get anything other than a V.32 modem connection.
I was asking a serious set of questions,given that even 1Mb was still serious bandwidth 10 years later. Yours is the first I’ve heard of anyone other than large corporations, universities, government, or military having anything more than V.32 in 2001 since there was no ISDN here. At the time I was quite happy that I had a working 14.4k link, which is what I needed to work, I was used to doing with much less historically. Hence my surprise and further query to you given the timeline. I still expect it would have cost you quite a lot back then, given what I was paying for just 56k wireless a few years after that. Quite a surprise, so.thank you for answering my question. Even DSL didn’t come to where I was in Cavite until around 2007,until then it was always “soon, coming soon, please stop asking”. Again, your experiences seem significantly different, hence sometimes one must ask questions to learn things.
Bob asks one good question and Bob wrote: “Your wife is not even good. If things are that bad, moving is a minor thing. Why die a miserable person?”
Aside from the fact that your “Why die a miserable person?| many many people constantly personally express their opinion to me about my wife, including comments my attorney made several times of his own volition. Well that’s what a Pinoy legal wife is all about, eh? Only Bob, you never experienced the other side of the coin and you (Bob) ignore and condescend people with life-experiences lower than yours, most of whom just give up and go away, plus the LIP blocks until recently.
To your question “Why die a miserable person?” again, thus far you totally ignored – I will not abandon my family including my 5 young kids. You may advocate abandoning the kids, yes or not, so that it’s clear – because if you don’t advocate abandonment then please stop suggesting anything such. Not me. I’ll work and support my kids until I die. Your opinion may differ.
I read everything you wrote, Ed, as depressing as it was.
Abandon the wife? All you do is bitch about how she is leeching all of your money, basically the way you talk she is stealing from you.
Never said anything about abandoning the kids. Kids are capable of moving too.
Hi Max. I am glad to hear that PLDT has been responsive to your calls. I usually don’t even call them, because the problems are fixed quickly. However, this time I should have made that call! LOL
Bob, I was sadly sidetracked by need to reply to your comments.
My initial intention for LIP today was to provide mostly positive info and supporting current info and evidence regarding PhilHealth. Yes, I also have some notes you would dispare regarding how the entire current event could have been avoided. Those notes aside, and given your website reorganization, what would be the most appropriate place to actually post all such? Where is now the proper place for Philippine healthcare info and how does one post to there? Kindly advise. LIP followers might be better served than forced to dig through the current disorganized jumble for some actual facts about things like PhilHealth?
Maybe works in Davao Bob, but it takes a day or two to even connect to 171 with a TnT (Smart – aka PLDT) SIM, and then it’s almost impossible to even get my phone# into their system, let alone beyond that. Hence grumble! Landline down, calling PLDT by cell is virtually a no-go. See the problem with PLDT? Things may be different elsewhere like in Davao, but here not so good. Maybe if PLDT built some cell-phone towers it might be different. So the problem remains, how to contact PLDT for repair when no office, landline broken, calling by cell will eat hours to no good. All that and I will again say that in my experience PLDT is still the best of the miserable lot and not something that can be dealt with from home and often not without a day-trek to the coast where you are. Maybe try along the way, but usually signal even for Globe not so good let alone SMART.
Comment appreciated Bob. While focusing on your first question to me, I neglected your much more important second.
There are innumerable good things about where I live. You already have many contributors extolling, so it wouldn’t be much of a contribution for me to simply repeat all such. There’s another side to “Life in the Philippines” or at minimum there is much more than just a rich-dude playground in the magic park – at least for those of us who are 100% serious having and raising a real family here and live the rest of life here and hope that years from now our many kids will remember to visit Daddy’s burial place in the “bundok” and bring their future families with them and tell them many true stories.
With that in mind, yes certainly I often come across way-serious since *this* is real life,. Sad to say.
I started with the apartment together with the wonderful woman who first caused me to emigrate to the Philippines, the trips to the big-city mega-malls around the corner thing, spent too much, built the big house-and-lot for the live-in-gf, built her InternetCafe biz, etc etc. All gone, though I sincerely hope she’s well and prosperous with what I gave and built for her and I hope she did something even better with it. Whereas for me years later, much older, much poorer, marginally wiser, it’s not so easy now!
Specific to your question, now as the sole supporter of my (12 years since meeting) “new” wife, her money-draining “businesses”, and our five children all 10years and under, having just purchased a house in the community most reasonably close to her family, all pending legalities of full payment issues on her part with my money, plus renovated it at significant expense to make it habitable and half-nice, your thought of throwing *everything* away to move again is just not a reasonable option. Yeah that’s one nasty run-on sentence – exactly as life.
This is “retirement”, the extreme opposite of what others write they enjoy? A young tourist can go play, whereas a legal immigrant and now elderly resident family man with all at stake can’t just bail, can’t just abandon the kids and family and all. It can’t even be considered. We are here, I can’t financially or emotionally or physically trash all this now. nor remotely consider abandoning my wife, kids, family, home, everything, just NOT an option. There comes a time when one is past the proverbial ‘point-of-no-return’ and the only possible direction must be forward. At this point we must make do here as best we can with the hope that things here will slowly catch up to the turn of the millenium. Hope that adequately answers your question of “if things are so bad where you live why don’t you move?” and makes readers seriously contemplate where they will live and who with a few years down the road, very literally.
The deficiencies I periodically mention are opportunities for those younger with ambition and money.
For those of us much older and the opposite of unencumbered, reality and perspective manifest a world of difference.
I may sometimes ask relevant questions. As long as permitted, I may sometimes comment here to help others avoid pitfalls I’ve experienced and suggest that what other writes portray in some parts of the country may not even remotely apply in most other places. .I hope this provides some proper perspective, and things people might consider.
Bob, why personally attack everything I write to ask or advise others to beware of?
How about just simple exchange of info? What’s so wrong with that?
Ed, you CONSTANTLY bitch and moan. No sausage in Kidapaway. No good internet. Your wife is ripping off your money. EVERYTHING sucks in Kidapawan. That is all I ever hear from you.
Reality is why would you live in misery when it is an easy fix?
Hi Malcolm – Glad you are enjoying it, I know I do.
Do you have Unlimited data? I have no problems with data caps or speed caps.
I complained one time on the FB page and it was 4 days before they responded. When I dialed 171, the response was immediate. So, our experiences were opposite on that.
Funny that you had 14.4 Kbps in 2001 in Manila. I lived in General Santos City in 2001 and had 2 Mbps.
The PLDT landline WAS down, I called on my cellular phone.
Wow! ‘unsweetened wholemeal bread”, how wonderful that would be! We may have fiber internet service here before 2020 rolls around, long before one can buy “unsweetened wholemeal” fiber rolls at any bakery anywhere reasonably around here. Then I can faster download and salivate all over pictures of Good Bread Real Bread, lacking but fondly remembering the real thing. Some people really do mercilessly tease us living outside their haven.
Alex, I agree regarding the Phils, be patient, fiber installation may only be one to 3 years away in provincial capitals, with subsequently back-end infrastructure upgraee, and if really REALLY lucky maybe even one real 5-day PLDT office where you can actually attend and pay the bill; wow what a concept. RSN, in our lifetime, maybe. Pray!
Meanwhile, be so very very happy when these days (realistically 1/3 Mb/sec Up/Down) copper DSL actually works and enough otherwise adversely affected people can find a way to trek somewhere way far to report problems.
Such is reality. Privileged people elsewhere may disagree and disparage our reality.
Understandably, Phils telcos invest NOTHING in their ancient infrastructure, nor should any intelligent creature expect anything other, get real, 30-years-broken, hey, you ‘customer’ WAIT and PAY while you wait and you just say ‘thank-you’ that you have any connectivity at all,or go to jail. Don’t let reality fool you yet again..
My intentional positive comment – be patient – FIBER coming, be patient.and hope that it’s actually an ‘upgrade’ for your money. Meanwhile pay as best they will accept your money and be grateful for any connectivity at all.
My comments should of course be totally ignored by people in Davao and Metro Manila – some totally different world.
Hi Bill! I am assuming that you are Bill, my neighbor? What you said kind of aligns with our discussion when I met you a few weeks back.
I guess I have been lucky. My speeds have been very good except for an isolated incident or two.
Hope to see you again soon!
Bob, you did’t bother to read the extensive reply on this specific topic that I provided to you and all readers? Why ignore the facts? It’s not so simple to just abandon everything including the wife and all kids and just “move” !!!! Please!
I am not attacking you, I am trying to help you. You are a very sad person, constantly bitching about how bad your life is. Complaining about how bad your wife is. Why would anybody want to live like that? Only you can fix it. Bitching on LiP does nothing to move you to happiness.
And, honestly, Ed, this talk that you can’t seem to get away from has nothing to do with the topic of the article. No further posts off topic will be approved for publication.
That does not sound good. I hope for your sake that they get back to work soon.
Bob suggested: “if life is so tough in Kidapawan it is easy to solve… move!”
My pointing out deficiencies for other readers to consider is one thing. Bob’s suggestion is, sorry, way off the cliff.
Families can’t just blindly uproot again and throw away everything with no future to aspire to,
Bob may have meant well when he suggested the above, but would Bob himself, significantly older, having irretrievably given all his lifetime earnings and possible borrowings to a totally dependent wife, then further needing to support a much younger crop of 5 kids to totally support and educate, do as he himself suggests? Seriously? Really,who would do that, just “move” and devil may care?
Not too easy to yet again just throw everything away, expensive house et al (still to be fully paid for!), plus uproot the 5 kids to, go where, back up where we came FROM to be near my wife’s family and (ostensible) businesses, no home there, nothing up there now? Go price a container for all the household goods to get them back up there? Who has a spare PHP100k just lying around waiting to be burned for that, a container just to move the hosehold good back somewhere, just the start of moving the family and household? Experience it and do the math before jumping crazy yet again! Money all gone from all before so how you gonna pay for that and where to live on the far end?
“Daddy, pangit buhay lagas sataas ng kalyee dito, magtutom ko gutom gutom” 3-year old crying to urge siblings to cry louder.
“Daddy, pangit padala ng recommendation sya. Can we go back to our house? Please Daddy, even stupid our money all gone now?”
Dramatic, yes. Realistic per suggestion in context? Yes, Suggestion perhaps better avoided?
Sorry but I just can’t seem to grasp how anyone would recommend such.
We moved here from the Metro Manila area to be close to wife’s parents and family and her (so-called) “businesses”. Bob’s suggestion to yet again throw away everything to reverse the prior move to Mindanao is not such a good idea. Would _you_ Bob, just throw away house&lot and everything you paid to get to and move back to where you used to be and try to re-establish life there with no money left to do so? You would ignore the impact on the 5 kids elementary-school and below? Really? Maybe you would, but from my perspective to respect my wife’s request – we are down here now. We can make a life here, such as it is, and eventually all we miss may come to us. Or we die. Let’s please be realistic and reasonable in context.
In short from where I sit ****NO**** I trusted all and I made my bed and that’s all I have left.
If my experiences can help anyone do better, then I hope for that and that’s why I’m posting.
Not so easy Bob. Would _you_ in old-age throw away everything and take your 5 little kids to go live hungry in a ditch? Not I. Respectfully, that’s a very bad suggestion. Please consider reality, LIP, eh?
Totally uprooting one’s entire family and household is, as an understatement NON-trivial and very expensive by the time you pay everything, without even contemplating purchasing a replacement house/lot for that abandoned as suggested. Not to mention the emotional and logistical costs of disrupting the *KIDS* yet again.
The more contemplated, the more better avoided entirely. Sorry, but think about it all, really!
Looking forward to it becoming available in my neighborhood.
Nelly Lopez
We might ostensibly pick and choose location (read: no-brain-wife chooses location magically expecting mega-money from heaven while she goes off to play esuplada kasama barkada), we who must work work to make that magic money drop from heaven way fast every day must accept that wife’s choices come at an often onerous and impossible operational cost. Seriously, consider whether to move outside of metro Manila or choose to solely care for our kids absent a whole lot less ongoing abuse from the wife, which trust and thus mistake I made and should have been wiser. Accept that domicile location is subject to PLDT growing pains,notwithstanding wife’s clueless promises, when our ability to solely provides “bigas” suffers or the kids starve, very seriously.
Thus in context, waiting for “PLDT Ffibre’ in the ‘boondok” provincial capital?
I recall posting recently that I was surprised noticing huge rolls of fiber-optic cable appeared at intersections of the subdivisions hereabouts Nice conversation with the (normal good hourly) workers told me it’s coming, just don’t die waiting for anything more too fast, realistically it might be installed in a year or so?). Funny how the workers who do the actual daily work can provide a grasp on reality. Yeah, the huge spools of cable await – and they will be connected to *what* and how to PLDT routers yet to be manufactured and imported from …take one wild guess that thanks to politics may now get a LOT worse?
The manager at the local PLDT office that’s open 2 days a week, sometimes, resurrected my migration order. Last time PLDT told me that my copper DSL was dead for a week or so because of prior migration order last year. they had to cancel the fibre order just to restore normal service, really! Anticipate fibre installation, just please wait, which advice I may only accept. The “local PLDT” manager is a very nice and honest guy with many provincial capitals to commute between and service.
Pldtfbr???????
This is my internet provider here in South East Asia
I think it is well worth looking forward to! I love it.
Well in Masbate City we have Fiber, it was indeed 100mbps. Here in the US we don’t have 1gbps yet, it’s only up to 400mbps so infrastructure really rolls out quite slowly even in the US. Probably slower in the PH but things in the PH are generally slower and most people like that. Most expats that want to live in the PH are in search of the slower pace. I guess we can’t pick and choose.
It is okay service but sometimes it just gets real slow it is not very good to upload videos on YouTube it takes two days for one video
I loved my American provider better high speed internet access in America so much better than Philippine internet
When I first moved to Manila in 2001, I connected with state-of-the-ard V.32 14.4KB modem, to my first Pinoy friend who just happened to operate an ISP there. (That’s 12.4 Kb with a K – wow that was so incredibly fast back then, though not Mb or more like today). From there, moving to what was then ‘the province’ (which recently seems to have been incorporated into Metro Manila) the only choice was 5000+peso/month 50Kb (ostensibly) wireless link. Worked half-way about half the time. I paid them half accordingly, suggesting that considering the facts and lack of contracted service they were well advised to accept my money and say “thank you”, bye now. PLDT moved into the area- good!
Fast forward a dozen+ years into the interior of Mindanao. Ah! PLDT eventually arrived here too circa 2015 and bought out Metrophone. Funny Bob mentions calling the PLDT ‘hotline’ for repairs. Now just how you gonna do that when the PLDT landline is also down? No other way. Ok, trek to the PLDT office in town. Wait, it’s Saturday, or Sunday or Monday ….Tue …Wed. Wait for the local PLDT office to finally open Thursday morning, *if* they open this week for their advertised 2 days open office, so as to request PLDT restore service. Oh, and then wait another few days for PLDT to do something, or wait until *NEXT*Thursday* to repeat! “Hot line”? How you gonna call PLDT 171 if it’s not working ?!? Before anyone asks, don’t even think about buying yet another “SMART” SIM, it won’t work!
It’s all fine and good if it’s a fiber cut affecting half of Mindanao. If it’s something more local, like just in the one city,go kick a tin can because that’s the closest you can get to attending at the PLDT office actually reporting your service outage before next *THURSDAY* when they finally open for 2days/week office.
As far as the so-called alternative providers – don’t even ask! Don’t go there, or you may wind up in jail for requesting service for your money.
PLDT is the best available to date – see above. Sigh. More fun in the Philippines.
Thanks for this, Bob. PLDT FIBR has been a lifesaver for me. I teach 7 classes a week, and I was pulling out my hair trying to find decent internet service. When PLDT gets bad, I call them. They have been responding well to calls so far.
Mark, those must be truly gigantonormous video files, on the order of tens or more gibabytes each. Might be worth the effort of recoding them on your local box and uploading a resulting much smaller version that still retains your video resolution. Alternatively, could the problem be _not_ your link but your target (YouTube)? Don’t know but worth checking. Do you have the same issue simply ftp’ing your sample file everywhere else?
The way you come across life is absolutely miserable. Nothing is good. Your wife is not even good. If things are that bad, moving is a minor thing. Why die a miserable person?
I think that PLDT Fibr is one of the best things to become available in Davao City since unsweetened wholemeal bread. For an extra P.300 per month my download speed has increased from 8 Mbps to 54 Mbps and the upload speed from 0.76 Mbps to 26 Mbps. The thirty-fold increase in upload speed is a real boon if you have a lot of pictures or video clips to upload to advertising sites and the like.
However, I’ve not only experienced a few days with no internet through no fault of the PLDT but also periods of three days and six days with the download capped at 36 Mbps and no dial tone on the landline. I called 171 on another landline only to be told that my 50 Mbps subscription was active. “Yes but I’m capped at 36 Mbps and have no dial tone” said I. “Our records show you have 50 Mbps plan” said she. That was going nowhere so I made my way to the PDLT Facebook page and made my complaint there. I was quickly given a ticket number and a technician despatched to sort things out. Seems that when new connections were made to the local PLDT Fibr box my wires were dislodged.
So things were sorted and I learnt that the best place to complain is the PLDT facebook page rather than the 171 customer service line.
Really? According to the PLDT web site, the 400PHP (not 300) increase from (ostensibly) 3Mb/sec to 5Mb, not even close to your 10x bandwidth increase you suggest, and that’s for *fiber* which isn’t something available this week or this month or likely even this year. Here still on copper I should be happy with 1Mb/sec with it works at all, and it’s clear that throwing more money at the problem monthly will just buy us less food but no more bandwidth. Their copper infrastructure is so old, so decrepit, that it’s a wonder their excellent field people can piece things together for yet a few more weeks on a good day. Like when you finally get through to PLDT and get someone with no clue in Manila, and tell them DSL is down way too long now and all the rain soaking in again is why their local “box” is dead again – and they have absolutely no clue what you’re trying to tell them! Guess they don’t teach elementary chemistry here, so of course college graduates can’t understand what happens when you put repetitively put copper in contact with water for a decade or 4, half dry, repeat, repeat. Funny that a few days thereafter the local technician visits and advises “Ed, massive corrosion in the box. Again, like all here. No wonder it was dead. We cleaned it best possible for now. Pray! See you again, too soon”.
Huge rolls of fiber cable have recently appeared at the edge of the subdivisions hereabouts. Rumor has it that migration to PLDT fiber could be possible by a year from next Christmas! They have my application, but decline to apply their advertised promo rates here. Live can be just so much fun living in a provincial capital city.
I have never once heard you mention anything enjoyable about life in the Philippines, so it is just unfathomable why you would choose to stay here. You even constantly complain about your wife.
LOL, I live in Manila, my PLDT FIBR has been out for 3 weeks as of tomorrow! I’ve been in a repair queue since PLDT and DOLE are having a labour dispute! A lot of the folks that do repair are contractors and are currently laid off! So you are quite lucky getting your repair completed.
Welcome to the neighborhood Bob. I have been having this problem almost since we got PLDT. May and June was the longest period we ever had where we got the speeds we pay for.
MUCH of the time ours is 0.20 or slower . I call but all they ever do is ” monitor” our connection usually. Eventually it goes back up but for weeks I would check the speed before watching a movie or something and it will be close to 50mbps then instantly it drops a to 0.20 or under for the entire day then between 4 & 6pm it will start working again for a few hours then the next day it will start all over again.
I have been very disappointed in PLDT .
Hope you have better luck with them than I have had for 18 months.
Ed, if life is so tough in Kidapawan it is easy to solve… move!
LiP forum, Ed, that is what it is there for.
I am glad you are finally asking yourself the question Ed, and hopefully, you will come up with the answer that will finally make you happy…
“why is that so difficult to comprehend?”
Good luck on finding the answer.
I am sorry but that is incorrect. You can choose between unlimited or limited plans. You can check on the website if you wish.
I had a satellite internet connection for my internet cafe business. There is really no reason for you to be a smartass.
It did not cost me money… it made me money.
Dsl was available in Davao city in 2003 because in that year i got my first dsl connection.
This is a great article and also a great test comment to see if moderation is still acting up
Hi Bob!
It’s been a long time since i visited your site! several years???? lols
anyway, Fiber is a shared connection, the 100mbps is only within the local loop, i.e. within the philippine network, so you are not really getting the real “100mbps” when visiting external sites which 99% of it. 🙂
Hi Dans. Nice to hear from you, indeed it has been a long time! I hope you are doing well. Asa ka karon?
Whatever PLDT has gone outside the country, I am very happy with it. The FIBR connection is the best I’ve ever had in my life, including in the USA (but that was many years ago).
mine was down for about 2 weeks and still no technical personnel attending my “no internet no dial tone” problem, been calling them everyday to follow up still no response from technical with no update so i guess this one is on their side being unprofessional.
Very sorry to hear that. I’m glad that I’ve never had such a problem with them in the last 18 years.
Hi Bob – So true, so true. Internet access progress in our Province remains constant: slow & shaky. ?
Available PLDT service has “upgraded” from “Canopy” to “Ultera,” and GLOBE now provides 4G (LTE) service. For our location, that’s a considerable jump in technology spanning the previous 10 years. ?
Our road to high-speed, fiber-optic cable based internet access hasn’t been without its road bumps, either. Three or four years ago, PLDT crews laid a fiber-optic cable alongside the highway, passing right in front of our house. Though the on-site engineer couldn’t say when local consumers (such as my neighbors and me) would be connected and receive high-speed fiber service, he speculated our wait to be less than a year. ?
Fast-forward to earlier this year: In a “burst” of infrastructure improvements, DPWH commenced on a road-widening project, to include the stretch of highway running in front of our house. With tears in my eyes (couldn’t say whether they were tears of sorrow or of laughter), I watched the DPWH backhoes digging up the PLDT cable, our public water supply lines, and anything else that was buried alongside the highway. ? It took some doing to get the water line restored (after the long “finger-pointing” session had ended), but I fear that high-speed fiber-optic cable based internet will remain a dream for now.
I accept my “internet fate” as a trade-off for a relaxed life in the province. ?
Hi Paul. Good to hear from you! Interesting hearing about the provincial internet improvements. I hope the Fiber Optic line becomes a reality. It is a real miracle here in Davao. I have gladly traded the provincial life for superior technology. Good luck!
Thanks a lot for the insight
Sure!
maraming salamat po!!! MABUHAY!!!
Bob: It will be about 10 1/2 to 11 years before I relocate to the PH. By then, the internet should (key word there) be considerably better/faster than it currently is.
I think ISPs are almost the same here in the Philippines, PLDT, Globe, Converge. just choose who gives better customer service and I think small ISPs like IXSforAll, Infinivan etc. offer great customer service but they only offer connection for enterprise clients.