On Consumer Protection: Broadband Internet Services

[irangejuice]

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What's happening to our broadband internet service??

The Philippines is currently going into a similar phase in communications evolution as it did during the late 90s. Back in 1995, people were slowly being pulled into this new thing called the INTERNET. It was a small snowball relying on a weak momentum but eventually gained massive support which resulted in multiple Internet Service Providers providing dial up internet connections.

Those were the days. Sure, dial-up internet was sloth-slow but at least there were enough ISP companies--all wanting to please their customers. Each company wanted to do something special for their customers. I remember being subscribed to Sky Internet and they actually did random customer satisfaction check up calls.

Eventually, people wanted a faster connection--a broadband connection. It's a huge leap for the Filipino internet users because now they are actually willing to spend more for their internet. The bigger fish started offering a wide variety of broadband packages while the older and smaller ISPs could not offer these services anymore and slowly faded away. Not all of them are gone but they've been dwarfed by something I call Philippine Broadband Fever.

Now we're left with just the big companies. Being in Cebu, I can only name 2 companies that are supposed to be offering real broadband internet. I'm talking about 'decent' download and upload bandwidth and island-wide (almost) coverage.

Those are PLDT and Globe Communications.

I am a subscriber to both Globe and PLDT nternet services and I must say that I feel like I'm being robbed of my money. There're cases of struggling servers, frequent disconnections, problematic latencies, randomly capped bandwidth, email delivery problems, limited customer care service, non-24 hour technical support, incompetent management..I could go on forever.


I just don't understand how they get away with it. If we're talking about mobile phone networks, if you're a regular subscriber with a P3000 plan, you get treated like royalty but with broadband services you get treated like.. I take that back...you're lucky if you get any kind of treatment at all because most of the time they just ignore you.

Can we do something about this?
Is there something DTI can do?
I am just curious if anyone else feels this way about this..or am I the only one?


sigh.

[omad]

Zerone_null

is that an example of capped bandwidth wherein if your paid subscription is 768kbps and what you usually get is less than 500kbps? am I right? if that's the case then I abhor this practice by PLDT, the ISP I have in Cebu. 'coz right here where I'm at, Comcast Cable is having a promo that you'll get at least 6mbps speeds and sure enough that's what I have and it sometimes reach 7-8mbps at certain times. how do we deal with this kinds of stuff? who are we going to call / e-mail to address this issue? you pay the exact amount stated on the contract but you don't receive the agreed service, in PLDT's case, their connection speeds. it's unfair.

hope somebody here can enlighten us on whom to call, whom to send the letter of complaint? hope another ISP can at least take the existing companies' negative aspect and turn them into positive, I won't think twice in transferring and utilizing their service.

[irangejuice]

I'm not sure but I think here in istorya.net the best person to ask such questions would be Manny Amador. He's battled the PLDT scum before--and won.

[j_cainglet]

i also experienced that way..i also pay 3000php /month for my DSL but i am struglling to get not more thab 400 kbps..imagine! i am sooo tired with them.

[mobbet]

being a new subscriber to the PLDT-DSL, i'd experience that too. I am not satisfied with their services.

any idea how to get back on them? or we say get our money back?

[minimouse]

I think there's a thread here in istorya about smart wireless broadband internet, i think its worse than wired broadband. I think also there are some NTC or DTI connected persons surfing istorya.net. Hope they can give us a light over this matter. even my friend from new york said you can directly file a complaint directly given you have evidence that you are not actually getting what they offered to you as a consumer.

[iloveyou4ever]

I had the same experiences from PLDT and PT&T. I was paying 6thousand to PT&T before for greendot. Everyday magkalagot ko nila because putol putol ang Internet and the worse thing came, 7 days walay Internet. Then I switched to PLDT broadband for 5,500 per month. They are more horrible. Every after 30 minutes, putol putol ang Internet. Then 2 weeks almost wala koy Internet.

I hope there's something we can do about this problems as subcribers. These idiot companies are robbing us by not giving good service yet they get the money.

[Tamblot]

I suppose they have this guaranteed bandwidth subscription which would provide the stated bandwidth on the contract.

What the residential subscribers have right now is the burst rate.

[omad]

^^ bro, I do have both business and residential subscriptions with a specified bandwidth contract on the former. do I need to photocopy the contracts and have a lawyer peruse them? but before I do that, does anybody here have any idea on how to go about this situation? it's really a waste of time and effort dealing with these companies waiting for them to keep their end of the bargain.

[wak_wak]

read mo sa Networking and Internet, kay daghan didto reklamo, and some petition regarding about this issue..