Utilities & Mobile Fil Products, Globe or ??

My Fil-Products review: I am in Balugo, Valencia, just moved into a new (to me) house. I would prefer PLDT - I had wired PLDT about 7 years ago and was pretty happy with them, but they have no availability at the moment in my area. So I went with Fil-Products, as the only other reasonable option was Globe and they were horrible when I had them 7 years ago. They are fine for phone, but in my experience, useless for internet.

So, Fil-Products - I am paying for basic cable (not using it yet - no TV) and "up to 8 mps" internet. When they are up, it's fair. Far from "great", but usuable. I typically get about 5 mps. I get up to 8 mps during low-use times. Now, if "8 mps" is your advertising factor, I think you should provide minimum of 6 mps and average of at least 7. This they have failed to do. So that "8 mps" might as well be 100 mps" - purely imaginary.

Next, reliability - in less than two months of usage, there have been 3 outages, ranging from 4 to 12 hours. I don't consider a brief disconnection an "outage" - although it can be a problem - try playing 5 minute chess games online with Globe - you will lose half your games due to disconnections! But 4-12 hours is pretty significant. And one every two weeks on average is too many. So I would rate the service, based on these two factors, about a 5 out of 10. Slower than it should be, and while way better than Globe, it's not as reliable as I think it should be.

But there is one other factor - customer service. First loss of connection, I tried every number I could find for Fil Products to report the outage. I think it was 5. All but one were no answer or did not even connect. 1 got an automated response that put me on hold. So, since I was going to town anyway, I went by their office. Among other things, they gave me a number I could call or text to get right to the service dept. Next outage, I used that number. No answer, no response to text. So I went by the office again. They gave me another number that will "definitely be answered, or return text." Today I tried that number when, at 8:30 AM, my internet had been down for 4 hours. No reply. So I drove to their office again. I now have a third number, not on their literature, that is suppose to allow me to report outages. So, Customer Service rating - on a 1-10 scale, I would give it a big fat 0.

Whenever PLDT has availability in my area, I will pay the P2000 to get out of my contract with Fil-Products, and switch to them. Until then, FP is the best I can get - which ain't saying much!

 

Fil-Products uses Globe or PLDT for their infrastructure. Globe and PLDT own all the connections coming into the country (unless it's satellite.) These other services just bundle their own services on top. So, you might still get a crap Globe connection, but maybe the customer service will be better (or worse.)

I'm not a guru on this industry, so maybe Fil-Products actually owns some of the "last mile" infrastructure. Or maybe it's just a repackaged Globe connection?

I believe Air Links does something like this. They just blast a PLDT connection from wireless towers.

 

This is my normal 10Mbps Sky connection for P1,399

 

TheDude is right the Fil-Products is bundled on top of PLDT or Globe, and as you say PLDT is not available at the moment in Valencia - because it is fully allocated.
Now I'm no expert but I figure if you have someone bundle on top of a fully allocated network you're going to get second rate service. Not many people would want to be in their customer service department.
You could enquire with Globe at the earliest so that you can avail their service as I'm told they have 10-20 Mbps. Let us know how you go.

 

I think what a company like Fil-Products does it to buy from Globe and PLDT from their main source in Dumaguete then provide their own network to your house. Thus, it "could" have a better connection than Globe or PLDT. Globe can not even provide decent mobile internet in Balugo, and they are primarily a mobile company, so I am not going to go to their wired network - never had a good experience with Globe - a totally crappy company in my opinion except for basic mobile service.

Unfortunately, Fil-Products is not much better. All weekend I was getting only an average of about 3 mbps, with below 1 mbp at times. Right now I am getting 5.6 mps. I am paying for "up to 8 mbps", so this is borderline acceptable. Thus, I DO NOT RECOMMEND FIL-PRODUCTS. They are not terrible - they stay up most of the time. But their customer service is terrible - you will spend more on your mobile bill trying to get someone to answer a phone than you spend on your internet! About the only way to get in touch is to walk into their office, take a number, and wait your turn. Their actual internet is OK - not what they advertise, but not horrible. Sorry, I just expect more from a company - like deliver what you promise, provide a reasonable means to report outages, etc. So, if like me, you have no other decent choice, well, they are not terrible. Just not a superior company.

BTW, I use Fast.com to test speed. To check that, I just tried www.speedtest.net - it checked to the PLDT server in Cebu - and it was blazingly fast! 9 mbps download, 18 mbps upload. But that is not reality - we do not use the internet to connect to info in the nearest big city. So I switched it to a server in Davao - and got less than 5 mbps. And that probably reflects our reality better.

 

As a follow-up to my previous post, thinking about this more, perhaps I am too quick to dis Fil-Products? If I can get a fast connection to PLDT's server in Cebu, but not a fast one to the outside world (or even further into the Philippines) perhaps the problem is not with Fil-Products, but with their service providers (they buy service from Globe and PLDT, as has been noted). I will start checking my speed to Cebu as well as the greater net when I have slow-downs, and learn more.

 

This isn't correct in itself. The issue is the connection slots are all full until they add new boxes which they won't do until they feel they have enough new customers to mostly fill it making it a worthwhile investment. Further for Fiber it can only go well up to 300M from the box and DSL 540M, aDSL a bit further (forget offhand the number). This means when a box contains 24 slots putting 2 box's for 30 customers in range just doesn't make sense.

However this doesn't mean the bandwidth or the servers are full which is completely different. You can have plenty of bandwidth but not enough slots.... or vice versa.

Now on the topic of which is better. PLDT is the obvious choice. Globe has way oversold themselves and while they have been improving things this is still true and they don't buy enough bandwidth for peak internet times. PLDT has more bandwidth so less of an issue. All others besides satellite go through one of them but IF no globe or pldt is available find out who covers your area of the two. If PLDT does then odds are skycable or filproducts will work fine... if its globe then likely issues.

Lastly the final thing. PLDT controls the countries IPX which routes all traffic from the Philippines. PLDT favors its own connections over Globe connections which often get booted through the overcrowded Hong Kong IPX especially during peak times so PLDT customers do better but Globe customers tend to suffer more especially peak hours / weekends.

 

Have you considered a direct wireless connection from your home to the Globe /PLDT Fibre in Dumaguete?

 

PLDT Fiber...VPN Express, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Fox+, perhaps Disney. Apple TV.

Get the Apps on the Apple Store.



VPN Express for the Apple TV...to watch the Amazon Prime Movies and TV.

Cable TV is obsolete.

Sign up for Amazon Prime with a US credit card.
Netflix is paid with USA CC

FOX+ and Disney is local Debit Card.