Do you have High Speed internet at home? You know, anything less painful than Dial Up? Are you from Baguio?
Yes? Then, this post is for you!
Really, it is. I need help. I don't know which company deserves my money when it comes to signing up for a faster Internet connection. It's just so damned hard to choose when you live on a mountain. Them reviews they have from other places don't really help me.
Anyway, I got three choices for now: Smart Bro, PLDT MyDSL, and Sky ZPDee.
Smart Bro looks like a good choice. My neighbor says it's ok, and considering we're from Camp 7 (where you have to walk down a steep slope for 10 minutes just to buy some load - translation, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!), that's a big plus. I'm quite iffy though; 384 max downstream for Php999? In the words of Will Arnett in Arrested Development, 'COME ON!'. Additionally, I've tried surfing on the internet using my cell phone with a Smart sim in, and I was very disappointed. Considering that signal is a factor for both this approach and Smart Bro, I'm thinking I might get the same shoddy service from the latter.
PLDT MyDSL would be nice. 512 max downstream at the same price of Smart Bro. I've heard mixed opinions, both online and through hearsay regarding reliability. Some say it's slow, some say it's intermittent. Still some say it works fine for them. I guess I'm willing to take a dive, but one event just turned me off.
I was over at their office in Session Road, looking like a jackass while going over their fliers to get some quick info, when I decide to actually ask. The lady who I talked to may have had that 'I'm tired and want to end my shift' look, but to me it looked like a 'Fuck you, we don't need your money' swagger. She answered my questions, but I seriously pushed my considerations for this service aside after my inquiries. Hell, maybe I just needed that to have a first hand experience on how a customer feels when looked down on.
Alright, to some that might not be a significant point to consider. Well, another thing that keeps me from going back to that nice lady and slapping her with a full application form is the actual quality of my phone line where I presume the Internet will pass through. Enlighten me; will it be a big deal if I had static on the phone jack in the study, but a clear line in my room where my computer is at?
PLDT and Smart seem to have a sizable clientele here in Baguio. Not Sky ZPDee. I've started seeing Sky ZPDee ads on TV since just a week ago. I'm thinking of taking them simply because nobody else has, and that would pretty much eliminate one risk that comes with cable, concerning the drop in speed when everyone starts using it. In addition to this, I'd like to think that a thick coax cable would be sturdier than a phone line. AND it'll be nice if I have cable and Internet in one bill. I ask around work, right? One dude tells me his friend says it sucks because it keeps going down all the time. This friend of a friend is from Aurora Hill, which I would like to think is a lot nearer to ZPDee's claimed version of a Central Office over at Mines View.
Another guy in the same predicament as I am says that he'd rather get PLDT MyDSL since cable up here in the mountains isn't very reliable. I dunno though; Seinfeld seems to come out pretty nice. Could my problems with the Sahara channel coming up fuzzy be related to my internet connection? Hmm.
No offense to anyone, but I'm not even considering Customer Service a factor here. It's all about quality.
It's funny, I thought I'd have a clearer outlook of who to sign up for after writing this. I was wrong. Maybe I should read this aloud or something.
Till then...
Help!