When news of that draft NTC memorandum circular approving the bandwidth caps to be imposed by telcos in all internet subscription plans I was not all that surprised. Local telcos have been putting these caps on plans since 2009 or so but these have been largely kept in the dark or in the fine print [...]
When news of that draft NTC memorandum circular approving the bandwidth caps to be imposed by telcos in all internet subscription plans I was not all that surprised.
Local telcos have been putting these caps on plans since 2009 or so but these have been largely kept in the dark or in the fine print of service agreements for new customers who sign up for broadband connections.
I was curious to know how much bandwidth I was allowed per month on my 1Mbps Globe wired broadband subscription, so I visited their website and got in touch with representative via their Chat Assist.
Below is an excerpt from transcript of the how the conversation went:
XXX XXX
Mikhail: Going back to your concern, your plan’s speed is up to 1 MBPS.
Jay: Yes. And I want to know how much is my monthly bandwidth limit, if there is any.
Mikhail: The wired connection has no bandwidth limit Sir Jay.
Mikhail: It has no monthly bandwidth limit.
Jay: Really? Even if for example, I have downloaded 100GB of videos and games in two weeks, my connection will not be cut off or my connection speed be throttled down?
Mikhail: Yes Sir. The wired connection is not guided with any download capacity policy wherein the downloading capacity is limited.
Jay: I see. So the bandwidth limit I’ve read on the news only applies to wireless service like WiMax?
Mikhail: Yes Sir, the wireless services like Wimax and Tattoo are the only services that are guided with the Fair Use Policy.
XXX XXX
Since the agent confirmed that the Fair Use Policy applies only to the wireless services like WiMax and Tattoo, I asked for a copy of the Fair Use Policy or Service Order Agreement that governs the wired broadband services.
It turns out that there is none or the agent didn’t know how to answer my question. It was at that point that the chat session was again abruptly disconnected after I repeated my question.
Now, on one hand I am happy because if what the agent told me was true, I don’t have to worry about exceeding my monthly bandwidth cap because he said there was none.
On the other hand, I’m a bit confused because YugaTech reported September 2009 that a friend of his whom had switched from PLDT MyDSL to Globe Broadband read in the copy of his Service Order Agreement about a provision that specifies that bandwidth allowances are imposed depending on the service plan:
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
So it seems I’m back to square one; is Globe really imposing a monthly bandwidth cap on its wired residential broadband service or not? If it does, how much are allotted per plan per month?
It would be great if Globe would be more transparent about this issue, it would definitely help a lot of customers who are still in the dark regarding this bandwidth cap controversy.
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