Utilities & Mobile What internet should i order?

It all depends on where you live. I live inside the city so I have a few choices to pick from.

I can choose from PLDT (head inserted in @ss), GLOBE (Most restrictions placed on data), and SKYCABLE.

I had PLDT DSL but the fastest I could get and paying 4,500 (includes internet and telephone) was 8MB Down/1MB Up. In people's terms that would be 800k download max and 100k upload max. This doesn't mean you won't have issues. 30% of the time PLDT went down. They claim they were working on it, but I am sure one of these most important wires was cut or wasn't properly secured. I was able to get PLDT all the way in Caundau-ay. I could get GLOBE but had to be outside. I couldn't get SKY, too far away.

I moved closer to the city and more options opened up to me.
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GLOBE use to have unlimited internet but not anymore. They have something called "bill shock" give it up to the Philippines to make something simple, so d*mn complicated.

Let me explain bill shock:
Lets say you get the 12MB download plan and your max datacap is 5GB per month. This is for 999php.

Lets say you go over the 5GB in the month and ever MB you are charged 2php.

Now in sane people's minds. This will be super expensive if you continue over your 5GB.

Well, you will be charged all the way up to 1,499php and that is where they will stop charging you the 2php, but you can still continue using the internet. It will not cut off. They won't tell you this. They will lie with a smile, but they will slowly decrease your speeds if they find out that you are hogging more bandwidth that they give you permission to use.

So, what they told me is that 1,499php will always be the final price if you are heavy user. They will write off (???) any other amount that is >1,499php

So, lets say you use 5GB for the month. 5GB plan is equal or less than 5GB. You pay 999php.

Lets say you go over the 5GB and you are now up to 5.5GB. That is 500MB more.
So, what they will do is charge you 100MB times 2php equals 200php.

So your bill will be: 999php plus 200php = 1199php

Now lets say you use 500MB:
5GB equals the 999php
500MB times 2php = 1000php
So, total is: 1,999php

So, this is where it gets interesting.
You are now 499php over 1,500 (bills shock)

So, the bill you will have the pay for the month will be 1,499php ONLY!!

the 499php they lost from you over using based on the contracted plan is written off.

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There is also SKYCABLE:

I have skycable and I pay 2,800 which includes 50MB download (5MB actually download per second) and 5MB upload (500k actual upload speeds per second). This also includes the 299 cable package in the deal for cable television.

That is a pretty good deal to me. Especially when PLDT was charging 4,500 for only 8 down/1 up.

Like I said. You have to be in the area that will give it to you.

The reason why PLDT can expand more is because it uses the existing telephone lines that were planted in the grounds decades ago. If you want to use SKYCABLE, you must go where the CABLE lines are.

Also will say that you will have a better luck with GLOBE wireless if you live close to an HSPA+ or LTE tower then your speeds will be good. If its 3G, then forget it. Also, GLOBE does DSL as well and they can expand more just like PLDT does.

but one more kicker. Someone will own the phone lines to your apartment or house. You must find out who owns them before signing the contract.

 

Agree if you live in the service area for Sky cable it is offering some attractive deals which I saw when I paid the bill this month. here are some pics.
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These seem to me to be about the best I have seen for people living within the Sky Broadband coverage area. If any questions the brochure I have says you can call 255-1010

Sorry picture quality not so good. Old cellphone camera.

 

I've been a firm globe hater for probably about 5-6 years now as they have been the worst for years and besides my own past very negative experience with them knowing many others over the years with serious issues.

That being said though it looks like Globe is changing things up as well as they lost a crapload of customers to PLDT which was far better while still not good by any western standard. That coupled with Telstra and San Miguel working on coming in they have it appears for now shaken things up on their end to offer better internet as well. Will see if this lasts though or if they are just kissing my butt as have had globe now less then 2 weeks where it was only Globe DSL or PLDT's wireless.

I have an 8Mbps globe DSL line. However its a business line (yah, got myself a little tiny business starting next to my house haha) which is 8Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, and 10GB a day FUP (fair usage cap) for 2,499 a month. I went this route because both PLDT Wireless and Globe DSL residential plans were very low monthly allowances to me such as 30-70GB a month depending on plan which can be eaten up very quickly doing some streaming downloading, and updating 2-3 PCs, 2 android phones, and 2 tablets. I have a number of games and apps on my PC that alone are 20-30GB and as the way of purchasing them now especially in the Philippines is online 1 simple purchase a month could doom me. Both PLDT and Globe were hard to figure out how much going over the cap would cost per GB as well and wouldn't say if there was a cap on the overcharges you could accrue.

As a reference your average 720 quality dvd rip is 1.2-1.5GB and a 1080p dvd rip is 4-4.5GB. A 30 minute video stream at 720p is aprox 0.4GB of bandwidth consumed. 10 high quality 5 minute MP3 songs is aprox 120MB. Means your bandwidth can get used up so easily especially with a device friendly family.

 

I also use the 50 Mbps Sky package and it's been excellent. No major problems. A couple of brief outages (max 2 hrs) a couple of times within the first two weeks after installation, but no problems since.

One thing to add that hasn't yet been mentioned... Sky only has routers available for 16 Mbps and up for new accounts only. I imagine this will change at some point, but that is the current situation.

Details:
Ultra High Speed Plan 50Mbps

 

I'm not there right now as I had to return to the US to deal with a family matter. I used Globe on my phone as my sole internet connection. I would add straight load to the phone and then I would NOT sign up for any of the plans and my internet was never throttled. I did not use one of the Supersurf plans because they would throttle me at well under 1 GB so badly that I then could not even check my e-mail. So...for 50php I could DL about 600MB in 24 hours but for 50php straight load I once downloaded 6GB in 2.5 hours. To me, this was dirt cheap! My phone plan in the US charges about $10 per GB of data. My phone and internet use combined was about 1k php and it worked well for me. I would just keep data off when not needed. My question is, can one not do this anymore?

 

We inquired at SkyCable about their 16GB and 50GB Internet packages and yes, they are available right now. Only not to us as we've been a subscriber for 8 years and these are for "New Subscribers Only."

 

How odd they have no provision for Upgrades Too much paperwork I guess

 

Whenever I got that answer before I immediately canceled even if it would leave me out of service for a bit. But also if you cancel if you wait a week open up a new account in someone else's name maybe be it yours, the wife/gf, or figuring something out. Technically with how they generally work here you could cancel an account and open a new one a week later after the disconnection goes through and its completely legit. Of course their would be the new install fee and whatever which would suck.

 

I agree with ChMacQueen cancel and then ask your neighborhood Sky cable representative to sign you up as new client for the better plan. Might have to use your wife's or SO name though. They tried to tell me same thing it was only for someone swapping from an other service provider in the area when I first moved here so I told them I used a pocket WiFi and that met their stupid qualifications.