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Why telcos should state minimum Internet speed on ads

We’re all so tired of telecommunication companies claiming that the Internet speed they provide can go “up to 5 Mbps” or “up to 10 Mbps” but in fact, that “up to” refers only to the wee hours of the night and not in the morning when most of us need it most. Couldn’t telcos just declare the normal speed they offer so no one gets confused and mislead?

That’s exactly what Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino is working on regarding the slow and expensive Internet connection in the Philippines.

“We are pushing changes in advertising. It would be good for our consumers if what is communicated is clearer. Why can’t we just advertise the average speed? The one that I will get for 24 hours of the day rather than the one that I will get three or four hours of the day,” said Sen. Bam Aquino.

What the senator wants is clear and large fonts of the average minimum Internet speed to be printed on the telco’s advertisements so interested subscribers know what they should be expecting from the service right from the get-go.

This just makes sense so that we don’t feel somehow cheated and frustrated with the kind of connection these companies provide when we start using their services. It’s one thing to have slow Internet, but it’s another thing to have slow Internet after being promised otherwise.

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Avatar for Kevin Bruce Francisco

Kevin Bruce Francisco is the Senior Editor and Video Producer for YugaTech. He's a Digital Filmmaking graduate who's always either daydreaming of traveling or actually going places on his bike. Follow him on Twitter for more tech updates @kevincofrancis.

23 Responses

  1. Avatar for peachmango peachmango says:

    telecom companies must make a difference now.

  2. Avatar for corinne corinne says:

    2015 na lalong pumapangit ung services ng telcom companies

  3. Avatar for steelicon steelicon says:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committed_information_rate

    Committed information rate or CIR in a Frame relay network is the average bandwidth for a virtual circuit guaranteed by an ISP to work under normal conditions. At any given time, the bandwidth should not fall below this committed figure. The bandwidth is usually expressed in kilobits per second (kbit/s).

    Above the CIR, an allowance of burstable bandwidth is often given, whose value can be expressed in terms of additional rate (known as the Excess Information Rate, EIR) or as its absolute value (Peak Information Rate, PIR).[1] The provider guarantees that the connection will always support the CIR rate, and sometimes the EIR rate provided that there is adequate bandwidth. The PIR, i.e. the CIR plus excess burst rate (EIR), is either equal to or less than the speed of the access port into the network. Frame relay carriers define and package CIRs differently, and CIRs are adjusted with experience.

    CIR is derived from the term Committed Data Rate or CDR, and is used in similar fashion, but refers also to voice and non-data packets and not only to data packets as in CDR.

    The relationship is: PIR = CIR+EIR

    The current scheme is mostly marketing bullsh!t.

    It’s cheaper to hire call center agents than to fix their infrastructure.

    I say it’s time the elected government follow the people’s mandate to go after these unscrupulous practices.

  4. Avatar for RS RS says:

    If you have Globe plan from 3Mbps and up, you’ll only get a peak of 75% here in QC! What a s..t! I guess that that is how they mislead their customer. 60% of the speed attained is always with them :(

  5. Avatar for chino loco chino loco says:

    Tama to, sana naman hini na mapagiwanan ang internet speed ng Pinas.

  6. Avatar for Jerenze Jerenze says:

    Medyo semi-related but merong bagong Internet network na papasok sa 2015. Now Networks yung pangalan niya.

    Ang initial reports nila twice the speed for the same price you pay. Sana man lang hindi bilhin ng PLDT.

    • Avatar for vjekaj vjekaj says:

      “…hindi bilhin ng PLDT.” Sana nga, kaso wala raw anti-trust law dito sa Pilipinas.

  7. Avatar for someguy someguy says:

    To them it’s all about marketing. Basta makabenta lang okay na yun sa kanila. Wala naman sila pakialam if unhappy ka or what. Lock-in ka naman sa contract nila ng 1 year kaya sapilitan ka parin nagbabayad kahit ayaw mo.

    tl;dr they just don’t care as long as the money keeps rolling in for them.

    • Avatar for ariel ariel says:

      tama ka talaga bro…wala silang pakialam kung nadedeliver nila promise nila DUSA Ka wala magawa lock-in ka naman sa kanila eh kaya walang silang paki kung nagngignitngit ka sa galit di ka naman nila naririnig eh ang importante ang pera pasok ng pasok sa kanila ….

      hayyss monopoliya nga taklaga!!

    • Avatar for madame madame says:

      Bakit tayo matatakot sa lock-in period if we’re not getting what we’re paying for. I have terminated subscriptions in the past because I was not satisfied with the service. Sinulatan ko sila copy furnished ang DTI.

    • Avatar for hay naku hay naku says:

      tama ginawa mo madame.

      we can hit these providers back hard if we unite
      how so?
      1. gather substantial evidence of their slow speed
      2. document it properly, dates, rates, time, anything relevant
      3. make a formal complaint, copy furnished DTI
      4. find a good lawyer
      5. before all that, create a group, elect a president
      6. sue the culprits

  8. Avatar for Rainbow Rat Rainbow Rat says:

    I hope that there is a refund when subscribers are not getting the guaranteed speed. And we have an option to opt out of the contract if we are not getting what we signed up for. Minsan kase yan ang ginagamit nilang panakot for us to continue with the service eventhough we are not satisfied with it. Kapag hindi mo naman binayaran, your credit history suffers…

  9. Avatar for Internet Scam Internet Scam says:

    This can be called Internet Scam by telcos. Giving the term “up to” but in reality you will get only half of it. And also the term “Unlimited” is a big scam word for telcos and you can’t read your “unlimited” contract because of small fonts saying that by purchasing the “Unlimited Internet” you accept their stupid agreement of xGB is your monthly bandwidth limit and keeps flashing on ads that it is unlimited.

  10. Avatar for Chel Chel says:

    When I worked at a BPO handling a US ISP, there’s a guaranteed speed provided for Download & Upload Speeds. If you don’t get the guaranteed speed, there’s a problem with your dsl connection and must be looked into.

  11. Avatar for Hen-Sheen Hen-Sheen says:

    Blame it on Marketing. Their the ones who promote the products and services of those Telco’s. In this day and age, no one in their right mind to Proof Read or to Proof Check; It’s a total waste of their time! Just rely on machines instead. May I ask why?

  12. Avatar for Ken_Thought Ken_Thought says:

    That’s right! They should declare an average speed. I had an issue with Smart’s MyBro Plan999, the sales agent said speed is “up to” 1MBPS, it was OK on the first 3 months, then suddenly it went down on old school dial up speed, when I called to have the service cut and ask not to charge me ETF, the stu**d customer service b*tch said that the ETF can’t be waive because it in their CONTRACT that the minumum speed can be that much! WTF dial up speed for 2 months already?? I ended up terminating it forcefully by not paying them a single centavo!

    • Avatar for bern bern says:

      I was a victim too, service was okay for 1 to 3 months then it became slower and unusable , instead of whining out I decided to ask them to replace the simcard with micro sim and used it with my phone, from then on I got the service that I paid for because I kept carrying my phone around to use and get everything possible I could out of it, though sometimes speed was still slow I still managed to maximize its usage and even reached to point that my monthly average usage date size was more than 10GB.

      Lesson learned was dont try anything again from smart with contract binding because if you do then along the way the service become unreliable you have nothing to blame but yourself.

  13. Avatar for Easy E Easy E says:

    Dapat may “Guaranteed Minimum Speed” at saka “Up To xMBps within yGB usage” yubg average kasi pwedeng manipulahin pero kung gagamitin yun ay dapat ‘weighted average’ ang gagamitin.

    • Avatar for nami nami says:

      pldt actually has a guaranteed minimum speed,its not in the posters but you can ask before applying or call them up. For 3 mb i think the min is 2 mb? They advised me to call/report if it goes below, so I suggest people do the same.

  14. Avatar for RD RD says:

    Typo: it’s “Couldn’t telcos just declare the normal speed they offer so no one gets confused and *misled?” :)

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