The Beanster Blog

Results 1 & 2 are with Globe postpaid Results 3 & 4 are with SmartBro prepaid

Globe, SMART & Sun should be ashamed. Here is the speed I get for 3 HKG. http://about.me/bnycastro Begin forwarded message: From: Vincent Benedict Castro < bnycastro@gmail.com > Date: January 2, 2011 8:55:26 PM GMT+08:00 To: < bnycastro@hotmail.com > Subject: Speedtest.net iPhone Result Test Date: January 2, 2011 8:53 PM Connection Type: Cellular Server: Hong Kong Download: 5.90 Mbps Upload: 3.22 Mbps Ping: 107 ms External IP: 203.145.92.119 Internal IP: 10.194.141.51 Latitude: 22.3172 Longitude: 113.9306 A detailed image for this result can be found here: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/82292119.png Ookla operates Speedtest.net using a massive global infrastructure to minimize the impact of Internet congestion and latency. With over a million tests performed every day across hundreds of servers, Speedtest.net is the ultimate resource for bandwidth testing and related information. Visit it on your computer today to find out w...

2008 2009 October – During a typhoon 2010 July – After a typhoon (best speed tonight: 251kb up / 36kb down) As we can see performance took a real nose dive. Again as with all things network related YMMV.

Last Saturday I went to the SMART Wireless Center in Greenhills and surrendered my SIM card & had my account closed. I’ve been with SMART for about 4 years. My troubles with SMART started when they implemented International Roaming Deposit. Aside from the inconvenience and stress that happened when they retroactively implemented this policy. I also felt that it was unfair, and discriminatory to their customers. I gave SMART multiple chances to rectify the situation but they have failed miserably. Emails, calls, tweets and appearances to their wireless centers have gotten nothing for the consumer. My dissatisfaction with SMART increased some more when they started offering unlimited data to pre-paid users but not post paid subscribers. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and so I have decided to vote with my wallet and end my relationship with SMART. SMART still has the best network in my use but I cannot stay with a network that treats their post paid customers so ...

Globe Visibility: With speed likes this I pity the fool who signed up for a 2 year plan with Globe Visibility. It’s GPRS for heaven’s sake. Good thing I got in on pre-paid. http://globe.com.ph Sun Cellular: The youngest and smallest network Sun Cellular fared better. I am considering getting Sun Call & Surf Unlimited ~ P999/month for unlimited Calls & SMS Sun-to-Sun plus unlimited data. http://suncellular.com.ph Smart : SMART posted the best results among the 3 carriers. I think it is the only one who was able to reach 3G speed. No luck with HSDPA though. http://smart.com.ph Tests were done using an iPhone 3GS Test location: Pricing: Globe Visibility: P5 / 15min Sun Cellular: P10 / 30min Smart: P10 / 30min Conclusion: Without a doubt SMART comes out on top in terms of speed. Both SMART and SUN stayed connected for the most part. Globe Visibility had the most miserable experience. It should be noted that a lot of fac...

Still no word from SMART re: the status of my request to remove IDD ROAMING DEPOSIT for ALL SUBSCRIBERS. I emailed SMART on 31-Aug and again today, I will send them an email every 2 weeks or until they respond. Hey SMART get a clue: you see roaming activation is FREE on Sun Cellular Read more: #BNYvsSMART

A few days ago I had written to SMART telecom’s president Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan about their new International Roaming Deposit policy. You may read it HERE . Today I went to the SMART Wireless Center where I had my plan changed. I explained [although I must admit not in the calmest way] why the whole thing was #1 offensive #2 unfair #3 bad for business #4 their fault the service rep promised that she would elevate the matter and true enough I received a call moments ago from a SMART representative. That’s 3 hours turn around… raising hell and my blood pressure at the wireless center works wonders for response time. Resolution: Of course the lady on the line apologized profusely for any inconvenience that beset me. Ok apology accepted. They also activated my international roaming and waived the ridiculous deposit. Ok very good. Thank you SMART. She was about to let me go but I would not have it. I pressed her to let me know what they were going...

Here is my letter to Mr. Manuel V. Pangilinan president of SMART Telecommunications Inc. I also sent a copy to their customer service address just in case the email address I was provided with was not real. I am hoping he reads it and responds to it. subj: SMART TELECOM INT'L ROAMING DEPOSIT IS DISCRIMINATORY, UNFAIR, and WRONG Mr. Manny Pangilinan Dear Sir I am SMART subscriber in good standing. I pay all my bills on time. A month or so ago I decided to lower my plan from 1200 to 500. I did this because I had noticed that I was not hitting 1200. As I was getting this done I asked the service rep to make sure that international roaming and data services would still be active. She said it would. Now early this month I went on a business trip to China. To my surprise my roaming had been turned off. Upon my return to the PH I gave the SMART hotline a ring. I was surprised to find out that my roaming had been cut because my plan is bellow 1800PHP. I asked t...

I had recently changed my service plan from 1200 to 500 [last April] because I had a SUN 350 line and I wanted to lower my monthly expenses. When I was getting this done I expressly asked the service rep about roaming. Fact of the matter is I was only keeping SMART because SUN had weak to zero coverage outside Metro Manila and because I assumed SMART [being bigger and older] had more roaming partners over SUN. When I went on my 4 day trip to China last week, roaming was not working. Good thing I had brought my SUN SIM card which did roam successfully take note my SUN plan is only 350/month. That is even lower than my SMART plan. So I decided to call SMART and have roaming activated on my SIM. I was surprised when the rep on the phone said that activating roaming now required a 2500PhP roaming deposit and that this deposit can only be credited to your account as bills payment when you decide to deactivate roaming. I asked if this deposit would be used if I roamed and she said no. I argu...

Over the weekend I went to SMART Wireless Center in GH and downgraded my 1200 PhP Addict Mobile Consumable plan to an 800PhP consumable SMART Gold Lite plan. The only difference with these plans is the cheaper within network calling 2PhP vs 6PhP on other plans. I'll be locked to this plan for 6 months only [since I did not avail of a mobile]. -- SMART GOLD LITE --

Since I woke up early and had nothing better to do I decided to hit GSC [Greenhills Shopping Center] to grab a some coffee and look for accessories for the Wind and possibly a Treo Pro [more on those later]... -- Well since I was there and a SMART Wireless Center was in the vicinity I thought I'd pop in and inquire about adding Blackberry service or possibly getting a retention plan and BB handset. At my plan Addict Mobile PhP 1,200.00 consumable plan I can get a Blackberry Curve 8320 for PhP 9,300 cash out + PhP 350.00 additional per month for the service, with a lock of 24 months. If I wanted the BB 9000 aka Bold it would be 20,000.00 cash out. -- Since I was there I decided to bring up the slow data speeds that I have been getting absurdly slow speed on SMART's 3G network. -- [@ the office, Marikina City] -- [@ Starbucks Theatermall, San Juan City] -- The service rep suggested that I pop out my SIM and use a USB modem to do speed tests on my notebook which is absolutely sill...