Yuga on Sun Cellular 3G

A friend's awful experience with PLDT MyDSL recently left me wondering about whether to pursue signing up for a DSL service or not. Definitely, I won't get PLDT MyDSL.

And besides, I am on the road or in somebody else's office most of the day throughout the week.

Wireless broadband would be the way to go, I think.

I used to have Globe Visibility and it was provided by a sponsor. The trouble with it was getting a good HSDPA signal and staying connected. Otherwise, in most siutations, you'd have to settle for a GPRS signal -- which is slower.

The unit, which is small white oblong thing that you plug into one of your laptop's USB ports, heats up a bit after some time and it drained my battery quite a bit. faster than usual It's called a Huawei wireless internet device and is made by ZTE -- the infamous ZTE.

The Globe Visibility service package we got was unlimited and it cost about P2,500 a month. For this price, you had to move around quite a bit to look for a good spot where the signal was stable or contend with slow speeds.

Usually, the best spots are near windows of office buildings or ledges and you don't have to guess why it is called VISIBILITY! People usually made the mistake of thinking I was either claustrophobic or suicidal.

Just this morning, I saw Yugatech aka Abe Olandres post an entry on Sun Cellular's 3G service and it is really worth looking into.

The only thing weighing on my mind right now is whether the 3.5G signal is as spotty as Sun's regular cellphone signal.

Yuga notes 3.5G speeds can be found in Quezon City, Makati, Mandaluyong, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Bicutan, Pasay, Pasig, San Juan, Marikina, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Cainta and Antipolo.

I hope Sun Cellular puts out a list of specific areas (GPS coordinates) where there are optimum signals.

Here's part of Yugatech's post on Sun Cellular 3.5G:

Sun Cellular has upgraded it’s 3G to speeds up to 2Mbps. There are new subscription plans offering as low as Php799 a month:

Easy Broadband Plan 799
Unlimited Use
up to 2Mbps
Php799 MSF
One time charge of Php2,500
No lock-in period

Plan 799
Unlimited Use
up to 2Mbps
Php799 MSF
No initial fee
24 month lock-in period

Plan 999 2-in-1 Deal
Unlimited Use
up to 2Mbps
Php999 MSF
No initial fee
Free Plan 350 with handset
Lock-in period of 24 to 36 months depending on handset model

The Plan 999 looks like a good deal since you also get a free phone with a Plan 350 subscription. That practically makes your 3G internet fee just Php649 a month. Existing Sun Postpaid Subscribers can also avail of the Wireless Broadband plan for an additional Php649 on their MSF.

Note: 3.5G speeds on Quezon City, Makati, Mandaluyong, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Bicutan, Pasay, Pasig, San Juan, Marikina, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Cainta and Antipolo.

PLDT, stealing bandwidth and over billing?

PLDT myDSL has kiosks in malls and even neighborhoods that offer to help people sign up for their service. Their claims are great and some kiosks even have computers set up to demonstrate just how fast their internet connection speed is.

I've tried PLDT my DSL is one of the kiosks and believe me, the speed was pretty staggering. I was sold on to it but my wife prevailed on me to put off signing up until I've looked at other services.

A reporter friend who had SMART BRO (another PLDT internet service) installed had complaints about poor service (ranging from not getting any kind of connection to getting speeds slower than dial up). Still another friend, who is a producer of a TV show, had to put up with more or less the same connection problems (the problem being, there was no connection). The bad thing is, both had to pay their monthly bills even if they didn't have any high speed internet connection.

Now comes the horror tale of an old friend whom I haven't spoken to in a long while.

My friend subscribed to PLDT myDSL's Plan 990 which is a highspeed internet connection service bundled with a landline service.

There is an obvious flaw (which is downright deception) when a company says a service is bundled when in fact it is not. When you say bundled, it generally means that you only need to pay the price stated in their ad and you will get the services specified in the bundle all for the stated price. What happened was, apart from the Php 990 for internet connection, my friend also had to pay another Php 700 for the landline. So, it doesn't cost P990 and isn't bundled. Isn't this a violation of the Price Tag Law? Doesn't this flout truth in advertising?

Anyway, my friend still subscribed for the service despite this false ad claim. But in the months that followed my friend was shocked to find out that PLDT myDSL was billing for a much higher priced plan. For some reason, they sent a bill for P1,995 for the internet connection service.

My friend made a formal complaint and notified PLDT that he had enlisted for Plan 990 and not the plan that costed P 1,995. He then paid an amount which corresponded to Plan 990 (which was around Php 1,600 all together). Thinking that all would be settled by then, he left it at that.

In the following months, much to his consternation, he continued to receive a bill for Php 1995 plus landline charges. And much worse, the connection speed he got was between 30 to 50 kbps -- a huge difference from the 1 MBPS he subscribed for and the 2MBPS that he was being billed for. Then, as if that weren't enough, PLDT cut his service completely because they insisted that he wasn't paying the correct billed amount!

Anyway, just to solve my friend's problem, he was forced to draw on his network of well placed friends in PLDT and the matter of his billing was settled, his service was also restored.

The question my friend now posed to PLDT is whether it would give him two months of free service because he had paid for two months but did not get any service from PLDT myDSL. PLDT has yet to answer him and it seems it won't give him two months free service.

Barack's Cellphone

It's called the Sectera Edge.

I spotted this post on Yugatech and I am reposting it here because it is just too juicy to just point a link to it. (My apologies to Yuga.)

The insistence of US President Barack Obama to still carry a mobile phone prevailed over security concerns and he is the first United States president to ever carry one while in the oval office.

Apparently, that means he has to use a secure unit specially made for the NSA — the Sectera Edge {via}. It’s a Blackberry-like device that allows for secure and non-secure communication for making calls, SMS and emails.

There’s no way of knowing what’s inside this celly except for the price tag of $3,500. If you want one, just ring up General Dynamics (the contractor that developed the phone) and ask permission for the National Security Agency to get one.

There is reason to believe that many of our politicians who claim they are like Obama will cough up the almost P200,000 tag price and even bug a couple of people at the National Security Agency to get their hands on a Sectera Edge.

And I would bet Words for Moolah's shift keys that news of somebody here in the Philippines getting their hands on one will make it in the first gap of TV news programs and probably also land in the front page of a major daily broadsheet.

As to whether all its features will work with the cellphone systems here isn't clear. I would assume that special telecoms infrastructure may be needed to make all of its features functional, the most important one being its ability to make calls on it "secure" or untappable. Perhaps Gloria will be interested in having a couple hundred million pesos inserted in the 2009 budget so that she can have the government buy the infrastructure that will support the Sectera's security features. Hmmm...

But certainly, if you were to own one, the act of whipping on out of your pocket will elicit the usual new gadget question, "Hey! What's that?"

And you'd have to roll your eyes, then tiredly reply "It's a Sectera Edge."

And the conversation would go like:

"Ooooh! You mean it's not a Treo?"

"No, but it's exactly like the one used by President Barack Obama. Only ten were made this year and this one is the second that got off the line."

"Ooooh!"

"And now that you've seen it, I'll have to kill you. Hold still while I ram this stylus up your nose!"