Internet Speed and Reliabiity

I have been staying in Davao, and the internet speed here has mostly been somewhere south of 1 Mbps, both on PLDT and Globe cellular.  Occasionally it goes up to 2 or 3, but it also goes below 0.1 a lot.

My business needs internet, and I can't live in Davao and do business with internet service like that; i.e., I can't live in Davao or anywhere without decent internet.  I think it was a bit faster the previous times I've been here, but not a lot. And one night it was completely gone--making repairs or upgrading (not) I was told.

What are the internet speeds in other cities?  I'd love to live in the PI, but I need reasonably fast and reliable internet.

No better in Ilocos Sur, electricity out or WiFi out once every couple of weeks, never improves.

I'm into my second week in Buenavista, Bohol. The internet where I am is a whopping 5 Mbps but I am sharing that with several other users. I have just ordered a 20 Mbps service from PLDT but I have no idea what speeds it will actually acheive.

I am a bit far off the beaten track so my expectations are not high. I too need a good connection so i might have to spend longer periods in Cebu, where there is a full fast fibre service. I can manage to work there reasonably well through a tethered mobile.

Internet is pain in the ass in a Philippines.
I think out of Manila City and may be Cebu city Internet is just sucks.
Even they declare 1 or 10 Mb in reality is shit.
Unless Philippine government remove monopoly from selected Companies on mobile phone service and Internet it will never improve.

Yes, I agree that the monopoly system is delivering the expected unacceptable results.  Systemic corruption at work.  Price of living here.

mugtech wrote:

No better in Ilocos Sur, electricity out or WiFi out once every couple of weeks, never improves.


Every couple of weeks!!!!! In my time here on Bohol, just over two weeks, a day has not passed when there hasn't been a power outage. They are often just for a few minutes but still a pain. I don't know if the power takes down the broadband as well. If not, I might have to invest in a small uninterruptable power supply just for the router.

Over two weeks now and still no confirmation for my dedicated line installation. Living in the Philippines is going to take me some time to get used to. My business is based in Hong Kong so there is an extreme  mismatch in how quickly things move on. I will have to find ways to cope with the frustration of not being able to make things happen here any time soon.

Hopefully you can get into the manyana mind set.  It takes some time to get into the required lowered expectations as opposed to the western world rat race.

Hello.   I Have been in Cebu for just over 8 months.  I have tried Smart tethered connection, not too bad first thing in the morning ( 6am-8am ) after that it tapers off and by the evening there is nothing. Load also "disappears". Tried Globe LTE pocket wifi, better reception but expensive and too much load "disappeared".  Now on PDLT fibre, good speed and connection but like most things Philippino it took 6-7 weeks to get connected.  Hope this helps.

Yeah, internet, cellular and power are all pretty poor here sadly. :(
I have an internet company back in the US and I have over 100 servers that I have to admin from here. It's a bitch to say the least.

we need to wait for another 20 years when Internet will be eventually free all over the world

All I can say it sucks. . . . . Watch out when they say there speed is up to: bla bla bla, if they were honest it may say from 500K download & 100K upload. In the states I had 25 megabits and it was as advertised. I've had times I've timed out trying to connect to some sites. Also some sites block you because you're in the Philippines.

A vpn will fix the block issue. Speeds can def be bad though. You're correct W9XR, pay for speeds “up to” but rarely ever get it.