Best net service? and my Viettel

When I left Holland 11 years ago I had a 2MB/s cable modem connection which wasn't even the fasted available - so I stopped comparing the service and speeds a long time ago.

I lived in Thailand from 2004 - 2011 and internet was both in Bangkok and Chiang Mai - pretty reasonable, as in reliable and going at a constant pace. No matter whether I chose a 2Mbit, 4Mbit or 8Mbit package, overseas connections would hardly ever rise above 1024kb. --> the same for ADSL connections in Vietnam, the extra MBits some more expensive packages offer do very little for downloads coming from 'the west' - if your downloads are popular and frequently requested from within Vietnam then speeds become surprisingly fast since you're just pulling content from local cache servers.
(try downloading a bootleg record from bob dylan...)

For what it's worth I will list below the different experiences I had with FPT, VNPT and VIETTEL ADSL internet:

#1 FPT all the way!

Why?

Privately owned multinational IT company - operating in 14 countries
- helpdesk with real technicians! they know their stuff and speak English, if not, they will take your number, find someone who does and call you back - they actually keep logs of previous calls/conversation made with them.

Their connections are stable and FPT sees the international link as a crucial part of their packages (most foreign owned companies choose FPT and private customers are using those same lines)

(while Facebook was still omitted from the ISPs DNS  - FPT signed a million dollar deal with FB to handle all the VN ads for them)

2nd choice VNPT
VNPT - state owned - will always try to keep the router password secret to prevent us from accessing the router - just once I found that their MEGA ADSL package used 'MEGAvnn' for both the username and password.

-helpdesk personnel has clearly been trained to answer general questions only, and anything that doesn't follow their 'script' must be escalated to always unavailable 2nd tier staff - sometimes a log is kept, but staff writes only what THEY thought the issue was, not the issue the customer had explained....

In Dong Nai I thought VNPT and VIETTEL were similar in speed and reliability (frequent line drops).

In Lam Dong (Dalat) VNPT was constantly cutting out, and over the course of 18 months I changed hotels 3 times just to 'upgrade' to Viettel ADSL... (only saw FPT once but hotel was too far from the school I worked for)

In DakLak Buon Ma Thuot - VNPT was REALLY fast and reliable! and it was always up! - this was at my apartment located on the premises of the Int. school I worked for (maybe special VIP package:)

last choice for ADSL
VIETTEL - state owned operated by ministry of defence - router/username just the default for the router model - my first choice for GSM because of best coverage, but last choice for internet:

- no English speaking staff at all - website is seriously unorganized and outdated, and ofcourse no English - even google translate struggles to translate some VN websites because of all the extra scripts, frames, tables and flash banners

I'm in Bien Hoa at the moment and was using the 12345678 password protected wifi-ap of one of the neighbours - unfortunately their SSID changed recently to "CHINA_HACKER" and a second SSID appeared with name "CHINA MUON MAN" -->something like that-->they got hacked or so but apparently don't use their internet often because they haven't done anything about it
- so I'm using 3G myself  - first I used MOBIFONE - which had in october a deal of 2.4GB for 30.000 vnd -->usually you pay 70.000 for a month and get 600MB 3G speed and then it goes to 10kb/s for the remainder of the month for free...you can top it up for 30.000 to get an extra 500MB on 3G - you can do this as often as you'd like, as long as your main 70.000 package is still within its month.

I just checked the VNPT prices and they were so much more expensive? I don't understand that actually - so I haven't tried them yet.

I changed to VIETTEL just to see if they had more actractive packages: When I buy their 70.000vnd sim, I get 650MB on high speed - then it will go to 2G  a lower speed but much quicker than the 10kb/s from MOBIFONE...I do have to pay 9.76 vnd for every 50KB though - and this will rapidly eat away the credit I had left and could have used to buy a new package, their website info is so outdated and because I haven't yet found a way to quickly check my remaining balance while keeping my card in my usb modem...(something that works really well with MOBIFONE)

Cancelling and activating a new package cost you sms credits (ridiculous really) so buying 60.000vnd credits won't be enough to activate a 60.000vnd package... and both MOBI and VIETTEL will eat your remaining credits in no-time.
(although mobifone gives you internet for free with most packages - if you still have credit they automatically decide to give you a faster browsing speed until your credit is completely depleted - then you will go back to the slow 10kb/s) - so best is to always try to spend all credit on a package and not leave anything for them to take without warning

I just bought a new VIETTEL sim so that I get again 650MB for free and 9.76vnd for every 50kb after - another option was to get a package for 70.000vnd which would give me 600MB and free slow internet for the rest of the month....
I reckoned buying a new sim was the better option unless you care much for 10kb/s ....

Sorry for my unorganized messy writing I'm tired, and need to get away from this laptop for a while - I hope you can use some of the info

Cheers
Win

3G Prices:
VNPT:  vinaphone.com.vn/services/mobiinternet#cuocphi-tab
VIETTEL: 3g.vietteltelecom.vn/Dich-vu-3G/D-Com-3G/Gia-cuoc/Gia-cuoc.html
MOBIFONE: mobifone.com.vn/portal1/en/services/home/internet/dichvu3g/fast_connect_gc.jsp