Globe's 15GB Bandwidth Cap in Fine Print » YugaTech

Globe’s 15GB Bandwidth Cap in Fine Print

Last May, Globe Telecom sent us a formal statement regarding the peer-2-peer bandwidth capping on their network — claiming they’re not doing any bandwidth capping. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have such provisions in the subscriber contracts, a copy of which is posted below:

A friend who just switch from PLDT myDSL to Globe Broadband showed me a copy of his Service Order Agreement.
globe dsl contract

Item #5 of the agreement specifies bandwidth allowances for various service plans, including a 20% cap of maximum subscribed speed (i.e, if you are on Plan 1Mbps, P2P download is capped at 200Kbps).

p2p on globe

Likewise, there’s provision for monthly total volume of downloads depending on subscribed packages:

Plan 384Kbps : 15GB per month
Plan 512Kbps : 20GB per month
Plan 1.0Mbps : 25GB per month
Plan 1.5Mbps : 30GB per month
Plan 2.0Mbps : 35GB per month

Even if you’re not into torrent downloads, the 0.5GB allowance for the lowest plan can be easily used up just by watching YouTube videos. I guess Globe also needs to provide its subscribers some sort of a bandwidth meter so they can check their running allowance.

Anyone out there experienced being disconnected (or capped) Â for using up their monthly allocation?

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

91 Comments

John Alvero says:

16 years ago

A friendly advise, STAY AWAY FROM GLOBE BROADBAND. Customer service sucks here in metro manila. Last mile penetration sucks. Service delivery sucks. Billing sucks (imagine being sent with more or less 200 pages of billing, in a brown envelope).

It’s a lesson hard earned. So spare yourself. Save yourself from a lot of headache.
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Charles says:

16 years ago

I own the top 3 most popular plug-it broadbands, and i must say, the 15GB/month or 500MB/day download limits are acceptable, given that I don’t use torrents and Globe Tattoo is incredibly slow.

Meaning you can’t really use up all 500MB in a day because it’s impossible for a regular Tattoo user, unless some nasty tweaking was done to your plug-it, just disregard my justification. ;)
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Paul says:

16 years ago

That’s not the point Charles. I think you miss-read the article.

This is not about “plug-in” broadband. This is about Globe DSL. And its not “acceptable” in any way or form even if it was just about your plug-in broadband.

If you are ok with paying for crap, I am sorry, but that is your stupidity. I, for one, am not. If I ever found my broadband provider capping me, I would switch and keep switching. There is always an alternative in satellite out of other countries if somehow all the local companies started colluding.
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Charles says:

16 years ago

Oh hai Paul, for a moment it sounded as if you’re suggesting that i am stupid, thank you soo much for those kind words. It made me feel super.

I was just trying to point out that if you are just a regular internet user doing email, chat, video-calling and downloading albums OR watching Youtube all day, by average there’s no way 15GB/month can be used up at it’s specific plan rate. Unless it’s used for other means i.e. torrent seeding etc..I think that’s what they are trying to prevent.
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taddah says:

16 years ago

globe sucks!

period!!!!!!!!
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LOLWUT says:

16 years ago

Bandwidth capping in this day and age for wired broadband?

A resounding F.U. to the Globe execs who thought this was a good idea.
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Tech Blog says:

16 years ago

I think capping in anyway way is wrong specially if your advertising your service as UNLIMITED, if globe is going to justify this by saying to prevent “ABUSE” of their network due to downloading P2P or seeding a torrent file then they should say they are providing a Limited Internet Service.

I’m no lawyer and I’m not sure if there is such laws here, but I think this could be considered as false advertisement.
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wattt says:

16 years ago

been using globe DLing 24/7 no cap experienced just recently downloaded more than 30gigs on 1.5mbps
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Tommy says:

16 years ago

ALL ISPs in the Philippines suck. Even USA and UK are complaining non-stop about their ISPs too.

Globe’s performed well for me and though I have some issues with the service, it’s nowhere near the anger I’ve had with PLDT’s customer service that lie about network status and keep insisting that the problem is with my setup.

For now the idea is to subscribe to the ISP that has the “suck” that you can live with. For me it’s Globe.

I don’t really know what to feel about the bandwidth capping issue but that’s been going on around the world also due to the massive amounts being transferred by P2P networks thus overloading servers. On the one side most plans here are advertised as unlimited, on the other hand I don’t know the actual costs involved but if ISPs did truly unlimited services here (i.e. everyone maxes out bandwidth 24/7) I think they’re going to be charging much much more than they are now.

Furthermore I’d think 90% of the P2P traffic is in pirated material, so that kind of complicates matters.
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petken says:

16 years ago

@watt I think you’ll experience capping anytime soon. Good Luck to all their subscribers.

I think it is very stupid that an ISP caps the speed. Each subscriber is paying for the speed and unlimited service. They should not blame the subscribers for the congestion. It is their responsibilty to provide the right speed for EACH and EVERY USER. It SHOULD NOT be SHARED by the entire COMMUNITY.

Example:
Globe Broadband Subscribers
1Mbps X 10 subscribers = 10Mbps
2Mbps X 10 Subscribers = 20Mbps
TOTAL = 30Mbps

What is current set-up of ISPs?
Even though the demand of Globe’s Subscribers is 30Mbps their facilities has for example 15Mbps to provide their subscribers. Subscribers share connections so if all of the subscribers are online there is congestion.

What is the solution?
It’s definitely NOT CAPPING.
Based on my example Globe should have facilities that could support the 30Mbps demand of their subscribers. If they cannot do that, they are NOT WORTHY of your subscription and payment.

***This is only my opinion and the examples are just for describing the current set-up of the ISPs.
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