I'm from SoCal - been in Quezon City on Bayan Telecom (BT) for about a month and have 2 other locations on PLDT in Antipolo City. Suffice to say, none are dependably delivering what you pay for unless you remind them constantly, and then only BT does something and then only temporarily. What's rather odd is the radical differences reported by "testmy" versus "speedtest". I mean we're talkin' 1.3Mbps DIFFERENCE tonite!
When I last complained, using a week's worth of testmy reports as my artillery, they "reconfigured" the pre-paid ADSL 2.3Mbps account within minutes and speed jumped from -200Kbps to 2.Mbps +or- .3 for 36 hours I verified that mytest and speedtest were within 200K of each other immediately after the reconfiguration, thus felt dependably served. Tonite it's radically different than prior to my complaint with mytest reporting under 200K and speedtest at 1.2M to Los Angeles. This I simply cannot explain. It could be that I've been downloading a good share over P2P since the reconfiguration and BT is shaping and/or capping.
I'm having SkyTel Cable come in tomorrow with a free15-day 3Mbps test line at the Quezon City location. At 2,000 PHP/mo, that plan is 500 PHP (US$10.50) cheaper than the BT 2,500 PHP/mo 2.3Mbps plan that averages a good share less than 700Kbps (unless you complain using speedtest to back it up. I think my (first) complaint accompanied with about 25 mytest verifications took the wind out of their normal insistence to use speedtest.)
Figure an exchange of 45 to 46 PHP (phila peso) to the US dollar lately.
Oh yeah, almost forgot - - - PLDT as an ISP outside Manila Metro is.. how do I say this?.... A complete and shameless joke! The problem there - using PLDT ADSL with any bandwidth plan- isn't speed, it's achieving a frickin' connection during prime time and often at all for days at a time. We haven't found a dependable solution in Antipolo City (AC) in over 2 years and consequently opened the Quezon City branch. Complaining to PLDT in AC helps only if you happen to be in a recently upgraded zone, and then only until it becomes overloaded (experience speaking).
If anyone has a suggestion for a DEPENDABLE 24/7 700+Kbps provider in Antipolo City I'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT!!!!
We use the SmartBro "wireless" USB in and around Manila Metro and it does okay against the plan sold. - if you use that consistently go to their website and apply your "load card credits" to the 5-day 24/7 200PHP plan - you'll save a pocketful-o-pesos over the pay-as-you-go 1PHP/minute "loads".
However, except for a few other metro areas I've heard about, anywhere in the Provinces (outside Metro Manila) it's completely hit and miss with any and every provider we've tried - wired or wireless. It appears the net cafes are given priority access to the local pipe over residential accounts.
Perhaps a little PHP dressing on the side of the right luncheon date will help. It's a real shame. The people here are so honest (and poor) and their telcoms are all government-owned, thus the various labels are truly a dog-n-pony show.
Rock on!
