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 Part IV

So it so happens that I have a close friend working at Smart whose expertise happens to be Wimax technology, and I happened to talk to him this morning.

This post was what started the grueling whole-morning troubleshooting of the problem of my connection. Unfortunately, the only thing he can check is the status of the serving site if it's behaving efficiently. So here's what I got from him:

1. The modem doesn't have to be in the line of sight of the serving site.
2. I'm the only one using Wimax on the sector I belong in so there shouldn't be a problem. Sorry I couldn't explain what a "sector" exactly is.

After he checked the status of the serving site, he said that there was no problem there, so I'm back to square one. He told me to try to call customer service but he also forwarded my problem to the complaints department already. I guess I'll just have to wait and hope that this gets resolved soon. :)

Smartbro Wimax Review Part III

So today's the 5th day of my Wimax connection. And it's getting pretty frustrating on the browsing part.

I've noticed that the connection almost stops - yes, STOPS - from around 7PM to 11PM. I could download my torrents but it's a bit slower than normal, and I could *not* surf the internet. I just hope this improves overtime. I hope someone from Smart reads this. :)

Smartbro Wimax Review Part II

As promised, here's a photo of my WiMax modem:

Motorola CPEi 825

As you can see, I'm very fortunate to have good reception (the five signal lights on the left side of the modem are all lit). This with my room at the back of our apartment and surrounded by high walls. I hope this does not change though.

This is almost my 3rd day of testing the internet connection. It has been pretty stable most of the time, but as is expected with Philippine internet connections, there are "set" times when the connection is slow and/or intermittent. I've observed that this certain connection bogs down at around 6 or 7 PM until 11 PM. Unfortunately for me, those are the times I am most active online, although I don't really do heavy stuff; I just surf and also check my email.

Torrent downloading is definitely fast - fastest I've seen is 125kBps (multiple downloads); I don't do streaming so I haven't observed it, but I'll try it one of these days if I remember. :)