By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
During the first speed testing conducted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in tandem with the respective telco in September, we already informed the NTC and the Globe about the method used by the contractors of the telco to go around the No Selling status of the city by making it appear that connections are located in Cagayan when they are actually being used here. We could not show them any specific case at that time. During the second testing, however, the team found that the address in the statement of account of one the users who volunteered for testing is Penablanca, Cagayan. The user told the team that that was the arrangement made by the contractor who installed the line.
I asked if there is any sanction for the Globe contractor who sold the plan and the Globe representatives to the speed testing said the act would be classified as misdeclaration and that it has a penalty. They said that fix such problem, the company could lock the modems to the cellsite they are supposed to get their bandwidth from but she said that the earliest possible time they could effect that is next year. In the meantime, Alma Aquino, service manager for LTE at Home, suggested to the user to seek transfer to the city if it could still be accommodated; that in the event that there is no longer a slot for the current plan, they will see if there is a slot in a different plant. I had a problem with this because if the contractor located the line in Cagayan, then precisely, there is no more space in their barangay but I kept quiet. During the exit conference, I asked if there if there is a Stop Selling order for both Dagupan and Bulanao but Aquino said they will still check.
At any rate, I are pleading with those meaning to connect to Globe not to agree to the remedy because the misdeclared line would only contribute to the congestion of the Globe’s facilities in the city and when the locking feature of the company will go into effect, they will be inconvenienced.
Regarding the claim of the Globe that they have improved their services in the city which they said could be proven by the fact that the speeds of the five of the nine lines tested have reached acceptable levels — the other four lines had all consumed their data allocation for the month thus the very slow speed —, we pointed that the lines tested are not enough to come up with a reasonable conclusion. I cited the data given by the Globe to the NTC that the company has 724 subscribers lines in the city and observed that the nine lines tested are less than one percent of the number.
I asked Aquino point blank if the improvement in the speeds of the five lines was not due to juggling and she assured that it is not. I was prompted to ask the question by my experience wherein starting October 11 up to October 15, the average daytime speed of my connection jumped to around 6 Mbps when before that it was at around 3 Mbps. Based on the experience, I theorized that the company could turn up the speed of certain subscribers. When I asked who among my friends were experiencing the speed boost, only two answered in the positive.
In the context of the claim of both Globe and Smart that their services are now up to par, I am requesting all Internet users in the city to monitor their speeds to test the validity of the allegation of the two companies. They will use the Ookla speed testing application available in the Internet. It is very easy to use. So that the speed test results would be compiled and could be accessed anywhere, create an account in the website.
In addition to the MSCORE, the official NTC speed testing software, the team also used the Ookla which to me means that Ookla is also a reliable speed testing application. Based on our individual and collective finding, we then could prove if the two companies are telling the truth or not.
As for those whose lines were tested by the NTC and whose speeds have allegedly improved, the owners should keep testing to see if the improvement is lasting. **
