PLDT MyDSL : My First Hand Experience

Filed Under Technology

I got my DSL connection setup yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t around while the contractor installed it so I had to wait until late last night to dissipate my excitement by testing the connection myself. So what happened? It’s less than exciting.

You see, the published speed for this account is 2mbps. That’s 6 times the published speed of my ever unreliable SmartBRO. Who would not be excited with that? And yes, I’m too eager to test it. Unfortunately however, I can tell you of what is coming this early.

I tried to call the customer service and I was fortunate enough to be able to speak to one after several minutes of waiting. However, just when I about to start asking technical questions, I was told by the CSR that he can’t help me because I just had my DSL connected several hours ago. I have to wait for 24 hours because my account isn’t fully activated yet. Whaaaaat!?!?! But what can I do? That’s what he said and it was already late in the evening, I don’t want to start an argument. I hang up the phone and decided to tinker the setup myself. Besides, I have PlanB because I have the number of the contractor.
Rudy, the contractor that installed the DSL modem, was very helpful and accomodating. Even if it was a Sunday, he helped me in resetting the modem. He knows what we was telling me to do. It was just a shame when I found out that the cable they used to connect the splitter to the phone box is a voice-only cable. Apparently, they did not use the splitter when they were testing since they connected the modem directly to the router. Oh well, that’s a small thing that was easy to replace. To make the story short, I was able to successfully connect to the internet. Whoa!!!!

At first, it was blazing fast… errr… comparatively faster. That’s what I mean. hehe… I immediately go to Broadstar in dslreports.com and was pleased enough with the 897/91 kbps download/upload speed at 830am Sunday. That’s less than half the published speed of 2mbps but that’s still more than twice the published speed of SmartBRO. “Good enough, it might go up later”, I told myself until after an hour. To my horror, I was disconnected! Hmnnn… don’t fret! I restarted the modem and then my laptop after it still didn’t work. And viola! I’m connected again. By this time, I asked my lovely wife to test the connection while I ran some errands on our apartment(the DSL is in her parent’s apt). And yes, I got a message that she had to restart again after an hour to reconnect. Hmnnn… maybe it was first-time-jitters… or whatever you call that.

You see, this DSL was given to me as part of DRP setup. With this kind of quality of service, I’m not really sure if I’ll be able to perform my duties if and when the time comes. We’ll be testing our readiness and since DSL connection will be vital. It might be a shot in the moon, but I’m hoping that PLDT will deliver their promises.

Just before publishing this post, I ran one final test. And here’s the result.

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-09-10 09:26:23 EST:
380 / 144
Your download speed : 380 kbps or 47.5 KB/sec.

Your upload speed : 144 kbps or 18 KB/sec.

What can I say? At least, I know the supposed speed of my SmartBRO.

Hmnn… a shame plug. Please visit this Apartelle