The Beanster Blog

Zero interest in the Papal visit, except for the fact that the government is actually telling telcos to shut down their network and the dumbasses are actually complying, I'm talking to your SMART. I think it's all just security theater anyway. Working during the holiday. Spent most of the day yesterday working on Excel files and Blogger for my day job. Work would have been faster if SkyCable's broadband connection stayed up most of the time. It's been three (3) months and still having intermittent connection daily. I get the standard "we are sorry" but service is still poo. Well my head is spinning and my eyes hurt from staring at the screen for majority of the day yesterday so it's time to rest. Check out my work blog here [ vdararealty.com ]

My SMART SIM card has been residing in the XiaoMi Mi3W coming up on a month now. This decision was made since I was not getting LTE at home or at the office anyway. The Mi3W is a H+ (3.75G) device only. Yesterday I saw SMART boasting about LTE-Advanced (they are calling it 5G) more false advertising and empty promises from SMART. I have decided to keep my SMART number for awhile longer because changing numbers is such a chore and to cover my bases. I do miss iMessage on my SMART number tho, I guess WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger will have to do. Meanwhile on the iPhone 5S I have had my newly minted Globe account with a recycled number which means SPAM text even without giving out my number. Changing the number is an unnecessary expense that I would rather not have so I guess I am stuck with this number. I have not been using it heavily since I have a 1.5Gb cap on my current plan. This actually made me think about how my iPhone uses data. I went into Settings -> Cellular -...

I visited Globe Telecom Powerplant Mall. I was able to change my plan from 299 to 999 with out the additional charge of an early termination fee (ETF). As I stated in my previous post Globe is dumb and the call center staff did not know what she was saying.  Along with this new plan I got a bigger LTE data bucket. Globe's 999 plan has a peso value of 1700, I got the GoSurf 999 (5Gb + Spotify premium). 1700 less 999 that leaves me with 701 consumable credits for calls and texts. I asked the staff at Globe Telecom Powerplant Mall and when I exceed the data bucket, I will be charged an additional 1500 pesos (no matter how much I exceed) my other option was to get a different 5Gb bucket that has  Globe's Fair-Use Policy . I figured, if I do exceed the cap I would rather pay the 1500 and use the faster LTE than get slowed down to EDGE. Since my cut-off is on the 24th of the month this new plan takes effect on 24-Aug-2015. So I have to be frugal with Globe data for the mean...

I left Globe late 2011 and moved to SMART. Nearly two (2) years later my situation with SMART has deteriorated to deplorable levels at home and so-so at work. Still no LTE for both. I got a Globe line recently and have been testing their service. I must admit the last time I was with Globe I had a terrible experience during their upgrade phase. SMART - I pay 999PhP/monthly for 40 mins, 100 sms, and unlimited data. GLOBE – for testing I got a 299PhP/monthly plan with 500 peso value, this peso value I applied to a GoSURF 499 package (1.5Gb data + Spotify Premium for 6 months) so I have 1 peso left. that’s 1 SMS everything else is on top. My strategy: Reduce my SMART plan from 999 to 349 (the lowest plan with SMART) as I transition from SMART to Globe. Increase Globe from 299 to 999 (peso value 1,700) and get GoSURF 999 (5Gb). The staff at Globe center V-Mall told me I can upgrade anytime so I call GLOBE and ask how to upgrade my plan. Now here is the dumb part: I was informed to...

The Globe SIM card has activated at 6:38PM. I was able to link my existing free Spotify account and convert it to a Premium account. So I have Spotify Premium until January 21, 2015 2:43AM to be exact.  Spotify Premium works across all devices even if it was registered via Globe. So it is working on the Mi3W which is currently using my SMART SIM card.  Now on to the all important data. Do I have LTE at home?  The answer is yes and the speed is good. This is a definitely a point for Globe and against SMART.  Let me recap,  At Home in Mandaluyong city:  Globe = LTE  SMART = No Service or GPRS or 3G with no data / slow data. At Work Marikina city: Globe = TBD, I need to test it.  SMART = 3G acceptable speed Note: with my plan I have 1.5Gb of data or 1500Mb that means 50Mb for 30 days. Not much for a heavy user but I think this will be sufficient for testing and emergency purposes. 

Got myself a Globe line after 2 yrs.  I hope I don't regret this.  I chose the lowest plan possible which is P299/mo which has a P500 PV (peso value). For my combo I chose GoSurf 499 which includes. 1.5Gb data Spotify Premium  So basically I have 1 peso left on my plan and everything else is on top. I do not expect to exceed 1.5Gb as this is a secondary line and not my main one.  According to Gerry (or Jerry) the sales person at Globe Center V-Mall My LTE SIM card should be activated in 3 to 5 hours.  Spotify Premium is free for six months only, after that I can choose to continue the service for 129PhP/mo via Spotify or Globe (I haven't checked) Data allowance is not affected by using Spotify. I am skeptical that this is the case. I mean will they monitor the traffic on my device and mark Spotify's usage as free while the rest of my consumption is counted against my allowance? [edit: reading between the FAQ lines it seems Spotify Premium w...

In my use-case SMART's signal has been deteriorating.  When I turn into my street the signal goes from 3G to No Service or GPRS. When I am in my room it also goes from No Service to fake 3G. Fake 3G meaning the iPhone displays three bars but sometimes there is no data connection. I am quite certain it is not my iPhone because even my Samsung loses it's signal sporadically. I have four accounts with SMART.  1 999 iPhone plan for my personal mobile 1 freedom plan for my 3G USB modem when cable internet is out 1 freedom plan for work 1 freedom plan for work I have two prepaid sim cards with Globe 1 Samsung Galaxy Data SIM - I got this free when I bought my work phone 1 Prepaid SIM card  Contacting SMART's support via twitter or their hotline they always repeat the same script: Apologize for the inconvenience Ask me to reboot my phone Tell me their network doesn't have any issues in my area. This is no good. I moved from Globe to SMART in 2011 in the hopes of getting LTE it...

the saddest part is that we have no choice: Globe is even worse than Smart. 

Globe has recently been dominant in my feeds. unfortunately for the telco it’s not positive news at all. Globe got blasted for managing their network, which according to the NTC is within their rights, via their fair-use policy (FUP) their official response leaves nothing to be desired and could be construed as a cop-out. Why does Globe Telecom compare themselves to US carriers? US carriers over-charge and treat their customers horribly. So I guess the comparison is valid. I don't see the US comparison as justifying their FUP but as an admission of guilt that their service sucks! Smart Communications, Inc. even though I still don't have LTE at home/work since switching (1 year plus) it is clear that their network is better in more places vs Globe (still YMMV). smart's response is a bit more arrogant but they are keeping up for the most part. The NTC is asking globe to explain the complaints re: their network management tactics. so they will probably get fined, and do ...

Informal comparison SMART vs Globe SMART post-paid on Apple iPhone 5S A1530 Globe pre-paid on Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 GT-S7582

I have decided to graph my mobile phone usage for the past six months (so this graph is for JUN thru DEC 2013). Data points included are: SMS & VOICE CALLS which are further divided into same network (IN-NET), other network (OUT-NET), and LANDLINE. Cellular Data was excluded from the graph because I already am on an LTE PLAN 999 which is an unlimited* data plan. On average I send 170 SMS and talk for 39 mins a month, let's not discuss my data consumption ok hehe. *according to SMART's mobile internet fair use policy unlimited is actually 1.5Gb

Straight from the telco's mouth (er... Email address) So 11 months in with SMART and LTE is still not available for both my home and work locations. Globe is worse so I have to stay with SMART for now.

Got a response from SMART within two (2) days of sending my email complaint  not bad response time really. The content of the response while polite contained no apology from SMART. SMART Customer Care did admit that the two (2) different staff, from (2) different wireless center branches lying to a customer are lapses on their end. (no shit, sherlock), also got the standard promise that my complaint has been forwarded to the concerned group. and standard thanks for reporting it in. If you have experienced problems with SMART staff I do recommend you write in. This way SMART becomes aware of the situation and they can train their staff better. I am attaching the polite and standard response below: ============================================== Dear Vincent, Good day. We understand your frustration and appreciate your transparency.  Your feedback has been forwarded to the concerned group as it is important to us.  Rest assured that  Smart  is exertin...

So SMART data has been terrible lately (at home & at the office) for about a week now. I have been tweeting them and also sent in an email. I got their standard response: 1. Sorry 2. Restart your phone 3. Monitor Their twitter staff informed me there was no service interruption in my area. My bill is fully paid. I get better speed at the mall & some parts of EDSA so it's not my phone. So I have to say it's a network issue, are the new buildings along shaw messing up my reception? If so SMART should really add more cell-sites. I have mentioned in another post that it had been 10 months since they launched LTE and still I have no coverage at home or at the office. I have been monitoring their LTE coverage page  http://www1.smart.com.ph/Bro/lte/coverage  and it seems there have been no sites added in the past months that would benefit me. So my complaints have been sent via twitter and email, I am not sure when or if SMART will even add more cell-sites. My f...

Below is my letter sent to SMART to customercare@smart.com.ph dated today 26-October-2013 Saturday at 2:30PM. I have removed the SR number, my mobile and account number before posting this. ======== Dear SMART,  I do not appreciate being lied to.  Last June, when my 6 month contract with SMART ended I went to your Shangri-la branch because I wanted to downgrade or switch my Unlidata 1500 to an iPhone plan 999. I was informed this was not possible and that I had to stay on 1500 if I wanted Unlidata. I had no other option. It was the cheapest Unlidata plan they had. That's that.  24-October-2013, Thursday — I went to SMART Megamall because I wanted to complain about the lack of LTE coverage and inquire about a new line for work, and tried once again. Again I got the "you have no other plan to go to” speech. He explained that iPhone plan 999 was bundled with a phone and could not be applied to my plan unless I wanted to cancel my current plan and get a...

Got a double digit result for a short while it's back to single digit speed now... -- Sent from Gmail Mobile

The first screenshot is from an Apple iPhone 5 on SMART 3G network. The second screenshot is from a palm Treo Pro on SMART 3G network That’s a heck of a difference on the same network minutes apart. I’m guessing it’s probably the hardware since the Treo is really old piece of kit.

As you can see my last payment was in January. Freedom plan is really great as a spare sim.  -- Sent from Gmail Mobile

I have always purchased my devices unlocked and refrain from getting subsidize units from telcos. Anyway I saw this on SMART's website  and got irked by them saying it is FREE. IT IS NOT FREE! An unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 goes for about PhP 30,990.00 up-front.  Now if we look at the offering of SMART. Let's break it down, you get locked for 2 - 2.5 years with the telco and you are actually paying more for the device. So before you sign on the dotted line and chain yourself to the telco do some simple arithmetic and really consider if it is worth it. Remember that contract HAS a monthly fee, you need to pay the said amount every month. Ask yourself: are you really consuming that much in calls, sms and data? Also remember an ETF (early termination fee) is included if you want to get out of the contract ahead of time.   On the surface, mobile phone subsidies are presented as a way to make the latest and greatest devices available and affordable to us the...

SMART International Roaming Deposit is GONE... hooray we (the consumers) won! I don't know when this happened but I am sure glad it did! SMART has gotten get rid of this discriminatory, anti-consumer, flat-out-unfair, exploitative International Roaming Deposit policy. I have written about this before  (and some more ) which culminated in me settling my balance and closing my account with SMART for good . Food for thought: were did the interest for all those deposits go? did they credit those back to customers as well   or did they spend it on Ramon Bautista's TF for this hilarious switching video?   This comes as good news for me personally because... I am re-evaluating my current mobile subscription with Globe and most of us (subscribers) would say that it has been shitty for months. Globe has scheduled network improvements thru Q4 2012 but who has the patience to wait? Now that SMART has done away with IRD, I can seriously consider the...