SmartBro WiMax VI: Modem Problems Again (Part II)

I haven't brought my modem yet to the Smart Wireless Center. I've been stressing about it lately and finally decided that I've had enough. This WiMax connection has been one of my stressors since the day I applied for it, sad to say. I don't have the time to bring their defective modem back and have it replaced only for the replacement modem to break down after a couple of weeks. I don't have the patience to do that anymore.

I wrote a letter to Smart Communications requesting termination of their service without having to pay for the pre-termination fee (PSF) and other such payments related to disconnection. I sent it through their WebConnect service 24 hours ago, and they haven't responded yet. But then it says that "valid" requests will be responded to within 24-48 hours of submission. I wonder how they classify a valid request. Anyway, if they don't respond within the hours they said, I will send them an email again or maybe go straight to the NTC.

I am actually very, very tempted to just ignore it, get another broadband subscription from one of their competitors. After all, all they could do if I don't pay up is to sell my account to one of the collection agencies, and then these collection agencies would send demand letters, have a "lawyer" call me and threaten to sue me. They can sue me all they want, I know that I won't be jailed for it. Section 20 of the Philippine Constitution states that: No person shall be imprisoned for debt or non- payment of a poll tax.

Real lawyers don't threaten people or coerce them to pay up or they will sue. That only happens on TV. I know that for a fact because I come from a family of lawyers too, and they don't act that way. 

Au contraire, if the consumer is actually forced to pay up or threatened, these "lawyers" can be the ones to be sued as stated in the Revised Penal Code Article 287.

Smartbro Wimax Review

Last September 17, I bought a voucher from Cashcashpinoy on Smartbro Wimax 1Mbps (125MBps ***edit*** 0.125MBps ***edit***) subscription plus *free* modem for Php799/month, with lock in period of 24 months. I redeemed this yesterday, and since there were a lot of people in the Smart/PLDT center, it took almost 2 hours before I got my modem and subscription. I actually already have another internet subscription from another network, but since their connection is below average, I decided to try Smartbro Wimax.

The moment I got home, I ran to my room to test my new toy - a Motorola CPEi 825 Wimax modem. It was a breeze to install the product, but it took quite a while to find a signal. When it did, all the five signal bars were lit, which means I have perfect reception from my room. Oh and by the way, I first placed the modem on the window ledge to get maximum coverage, but since I didn't want to damage it (I heard it was hard to get customer service from Smart - haven't confirmed this yet, but I'm just playing safe. :D), I transferred it on my desk, which is still near the window so there was no difference in the signal bars. It took me a little more than 30 minutes to completely finish the setup (what, there were a lot of cables involved! :p).

When I started browsing though, was another story. I thought I'd try to check my connection's speed through one of the speed test sites. I noticed that my internet kept disconnecting and it was so slow. The speed test site even barely finished loading. I was really worried then because of the lock-in period. I could not last two years with that kind of connection. It was even slower than my 3G internet. :(

I tried all sorts of experiments to make the connection smoother and faster - I straightened the ethernet cable, updated the driver of my ethernet controller, restarted the modem - to no avail. But then at around 1130pm, the internet came to life! I had my torrent downloader on and it registered 60-80kBps download speed; although surfing was still kind of slow for me. I tried another speed test and it only registered 0.25Mbps download speed, which should be around 30kBps download speed only (is my assumption correct? Sheesh, I'm a certified EcE and yet I'm not so familiar with this stuff).

And so I tested this connection until around about half past 12 - way, way past my bedtime - and there were no downtimes unlike when I first fired up the modem; and yes, it was faster than my 3G internet, which is the way it's supposed to be.

In the morning, upon waking up, which was around 5:30, I checked my torrents and was satisfied that at least 600MB worth of files has already been downloaded, and there was another 300MB+ file about to finish, plus my 50+% One Tree Hill Season 7 download (7.5GB) has reached 70+%, which is not bad. True to their word, Smart's claim of it being more stable has been proven, at least in the first day of my subscription. I sure do hope this does not change for the worse though, I'm actually beginning to love my Wimax. <3

I'll still be observing it for the next couple of weeks and posting reviews every now and then, so stay tuned! :) Photos will be posted soon, I promise!