Mamutong » Provincial DSL

Blogging from Malaybalay City, Philippines

Provincial DSL March 4, 2007

Internet service in Malaybalay really sucks.

We just had a power blip - maybe one second at most. I’m not running a UPS, so my computer didn’t ride it through and I had to re-boot. That’s the third such power blip and re-boot in the last 30 days.

But here is the kicker. After 30 minutes the Philcom DSL signal still is not back on. I just know what’s going on - although it’s conjecture. First, Philcom isn’t running UPS on THEIR systems. And it’s 5:15 pm on a Sunday afternoon - there’s no one at the Philcom office to reset things.

Sheesh. I can understand the latter, but there’s no excuse for the former.

Last week I visited the offices of Sotelco - the competing phone company/DSL provider in Malaybalay. I gave them every opportunity to tell me why they can provide better service than Philcom (and to justify their higher prices) but THEY NEVER DID! They simply told me they use PLDT and Globe for connection to the backbone, just like Philcom does, and shed no light on how they are different. So I guess they’re’ not.

But here’s what they are going to do. They are going to give me a week’s DSL trial. But I have to pay for them to run a circuit from their nearest access point (which is several blocks away). Ok - I think I’m willing to do that. First step is for them to do a survey and give me a quote - we don’t know when that will survey will be done, though. So I just wait. While I have less-than-dialup access speed through Philcom on a 1,000 kbps subscription (with power hiccups).

I shouldn’t be criticizing these guys. They are my bread and butter. I need to be giving them support. But I’ll keep the reports coming simply to document the facts.

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PhilcomSucks 03/09/2009 09:39 PM 1 point
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if you are planning to get residential internet. make smartbro as your choice. dont bother asking information about philcom/sotelco,they have the same answers that pldt and globe are the source of their connection which is pretty crap. i was a philcom user for a month and its a disaster especially when it comes to browsing. i always get disconnected in my messengers and cant even chat properly. i have plan 512kbps. seriously its plan shit and really regretful.

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junuel 03/06/2009 05:20 PM 1 point
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ah ok...

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Nick Nichols 03/01/2009 05:10 PM 1 point
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Thanks for the info on your experience. I've moved to an extension of NHA in the Depo area of Casisang above Airport Village. We can't even get a land line without paying to extend the line. And I don't believe I can get Smart Bro there either. For the moment I'm internetless.

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Hyacinth 03/01/2009 04:50 PM 1 point
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im a philcom subscriber in malaybalay city for almost 3mos and i have noticed that they don't have stable connection. i think its because they only have 1 server and shared with every offices and residentials here in malaybalay. im using 2wire.com and speedtest.net to run for a speedtest. 2wire gave me a result of 20 - 50 during peak hours(10am-10pm) while non peak hours its 300+. i registered as plan384kbps and after a month i upgraded it to plan700kbps which the speed distribution is still the same with plan384 and no improvement at all. since im locked for a year membership i decided to cut my internet and only phone line remain.

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