racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

The issue of ISPs setting up bandwidth limits is a popular one these days. The NTC is even mulling a memorandum that will require broadband providers and mobile service providers to limit the amount of bandwidth served per customer. This is intended to help maintain a high quality of service. Heavy users are then asked to pay more, which should be fair to those everyday users who don’t really need that much bandwidth.

We earlier reported that Globe telecom’s unlimited mobile broadband offering is not really unlimited, but has a daily maximum bandwidth, after which you will be cut off.

It seems other service providers are following suit, either by changing their Terms of Service, adding provisions for bandwidth limitations, or simply highlighting existing limitations that were already in place before.

One such ISP is Bayantel, which is already highlighting its acceptable use policy. Users are said to be limited to 100 Gigabytes per month, but can check for usage through fairuse.bti.net.ph.

Yugatech thinks the 100 GB allocation per month is generous enough, and I agree. I’ve checked my usage history, and my monthly use only amounts to 5 to 10 GB, so Bayantel’s allocation is more than enough for my needs. Now I might sometimes have spikes in usage, such as when I’m uploading videos and photos for sharing, or when downloading media. But for most intents and purposes, 100 GB per month is more than enough.

NTC’s proposal actually imposes a minimum assured level of service from broadband providers, which means they are required to serve you at least 80% of the advertised rate.

Some technology commentaries don’t think a bandwidth cap is fair, though, with the argument that not everyone consumes their bandwidth allocation anyway. This means that providers actually have excess capacity, but may not be willing to assure this service to everyone.

How much bandwidth do you consume per month? Do you agree to the proposal for bandwidth capping?

To continue my saga on trying out prepaid wireless landlines, I had recently activated Super Duo on my main Globe prepaid subscription. I was very pleased that I could easily call Bayantel lines (which we have at home), in stark contrast to my PLDT Wireless landline, which can rarely connect with my home residence.

But the big issue here is interconnectivity with several networks. For one, I can rarely connect to PLDT landline numbers. This can be very debilitating, since calling PLDT landlines was okay before activation of Super Duo (since this is billed as a regular call from one’s Globe number). But after activation, you effectively lose calling capability to PLDT landlines. Rare exceptions include midnight to the wee hours of the morning. Calling during daytime? Forget it.

Another small issue is calling from Bayantel phones. You get a busy tone, and you get connected after two to three tries. No big issue if you only expect personal calls, but to business users, this can be a deal breaker.

Now I’m not sure if this is only isolated to prepaid subscriptions. I hear that postpaid users are not as badly affected. Maybe that’s the premium one gets with a postpaid subscription. But with Globe heavily marketing their prepaid services such as Tattoo, SuperDuo and the like, they better be sure they have the capacity to service demand.

The bigger issue here is interconnection among the networks. I’m aware that telcos charge each other for each SMS or voice minute. But the charging framework has changed dramatically with the introduction of “unlimited” calling schemes, like the so-called “wireless landline” capability of mobile phones. If we’re going back to the dark ages of walled-garden communications, then we’re screwed. Remember the olden days when Smart subscribers could only text to Smart, and Globe within Globe?

Maybe this is just a honeymoon phase, and things will turn out better. I’m hoping that in the long run, interconnection among telcos would normalize. Things are getting cheaper and cheaper, anyway, and maybe they need to look for alternative business models (rather than charge interconnection fees), in line with the changing trends.

My Bayantel DSL connection has been slow lately, and I’ve been experiencing some intermittent connections. That would’ve been okay if my connection were just for personal use, but since I use it for work, then I can’t afford to be cut off just when timing is critical. I’ve had important chats, VoIP calls and upload cut off and it while it would usually take a few clicks to reconnect (via router) there are some cases when the connection would be down for five minutes or more.

One other thing, I can’t seem to download using bittorrent anymore. Files that used to take 30 minutes to 1 hour of download (like a 350+ MB Linux .ISO file) would now take days. This is disappointing.

I recently received a call from Globe telemarketers (I wonder where they get my contact info) telling me they have a package almost similar to my current Bayan DSL, but only faster. For PhP 1,295 I get a 1 MBPS connection, a landline subscription and some free gadgets like an inkjet printer, webcam and headset.

Personally, I don’t care for the gadgets. I already have an inkjet printer (which also serves as my scanner and copier), and most of my computers have built-in webcams and mics. What I have been looking for is a package that also gives free hours or minutes with local WiFi providers. Globe broadband does offer free one hour Globe WIZ access per month with the PhP 1,295 package. That’s not much, considering that only costs about PhP 100 or so prepad, and that I could connect using my HSDPA enabled mobile phone (thru bluetooth) for only PhP 20 per hour (P5/15 minutes x 4).

I’m not so sure about the reliability of Globe Broadband connection in my area (UP Village), so I would like to get inputs from those who do have experience with Globe. This might help me decide whether to stick to Bayantel or switch.

Just got word from Bayantel DSL customer service that they have increased speeds across the board. New plan speeds are as follows:

* Plan 899 (PhP 899 per month) – from 384 Kbps now 768 Kbps, burstable to 1280 Kbps during off-peak hours
* Plan 1699 (PhP 1,699 per month) – from 768 Kbps now 1280 Kbps, burstable to 1536 Kbps during off-peak hours
* Plan 1999 (PhP 1,999 per month; new plan!) – 2048 Kbps
* Plan 2560 (PhP 2,560 per month) – from 1536 Kbps now 2560 Kbps

Apparently new subscribers as of Nov 1st of this year are getting these packages already. Existing subscribers have to request for an upgrade, which I find very inconvenient and unfair (because we don’t get it automatically). Still, this is a good move on Bayantel’s part, especially considering that their competitors are also increasing speeds.

Here’s one of my latest speedtest results:

There are a lot of bandwidth checking tools around, but speakeasy.net/speedtest and speedtest.net are a few of my favorites because of their simplicity. Also, speedtest.net lets me compare the speed of my local connection to the speed of my actual connection to the world (see my previous post ranting about Sky’s speed problems of late).

I’ve been trying to do some speed testing just recently, when I noticed I couldn’t access both speedtest.net and speakeasy.net . I initially thought that either these two services were down or I was having problems connecting to the rest of the world (much like during the December Taiwan earthquake, where the country’s major pipes were severed).

But I tried accessing these sites from a remote server I had management access to, and I could connect fine (speed was really fast, actually). I asked friends on other ISPs and the sites were also okay from their end. So I got suspicious and did some more network testing. It seems that whenever I try to access either of these sites, I just keep going around in circles, and I don’t really get beyond the Bayantel / SkyDSL servers. I’m stuck between 7600-gw4.bti.net.ph and gatewaynet-v50-rsvt-7606.bti.net.ph, which I assume are both Bayantel’s servers because of the bti.net.ph domain.

See screenshots of traceroute operations below.

Trying to access speedtest.net

Trying to access speakeasy.net/speedtest

I’m wondering if this is a deliberate move by Sky to prevent users from testing their DSL vs. practical connection speeds.

There are still alternatives, of course. There is dslreports.com/stest and bandwidthplace.com/speedtest . Of coures, there’s ookla.com, but as of my last checking, that site isn’t accessible either! And guess what–I get the similar traceroute results.

Something’s fishy here, Bayantel. You know I often recommend you guys whenever someone asks me about broadband/DSL. Now I might point people elsewhere.