Digital Adventures of Cyril Pauya

I have been using Smart Bro since 2006, when they were still using SendFar (old Wi-Fi antenna).  But when I came home to Midsayap from Davao after a 5-month leave last May, I had my old Smart Bro account disconnected by June 2009 to cut costs.

It took me 2 months to realize that I can’t live an offline life at home anymore.  Also, my wife needed to use the Internet at home to look for nursing jobs and agencies because she wants to go abroad.  We finally decided to sign-up for another Internet connection.

Here are our Internet requirements at home:

1. Unlimited - I use the Internet at home for at least 10 hours everyday, not counting the “downloads” when I’m sleeping , so paying by the hour is a ‘No’.
2. Shareable - I have a wireless router at home so I could use WiFi on my laptop and wire-up my desktop PC.  USB-based Internet plans won’t cut with me.  (I know about Windows XP’s ICS)
3. 384kbps connection speed or more - it must be at par with my old Smart Bro Internet or better.
4. Practically affordable at Php999/month or lower - USB-based Internet plans currently charge you at Php20/hour or you pay Php1,000+/month for the unlimited connection.

Based on our needs, we had 2 choices for our new Internet connection:

1. Globe Broadband - P995/month - it is unlimited, shareable (thru USB modem), 1mbps connection, and affordable at Php995/month.
2. Smart Bro Plan - Plan 999 Unlimited - it is unlimited, shareable, now has 512kbps connection, and affordable at Php999/month.

Clearly Globe was the winner here.  So I went to Davao City to apply.  But sadly, a day after I got home, I got a text message from Globe Davao’s staff that I could not be connected because the plan requires 3G and Midsayap is still being upgraded to 3G by then.  (Even now that Midsayap has 3G, I asked Globe but they did not confirm if this plan could be availed in Midsayap already).

We had no choice but to apply for our second Smart Bro Internet connection.  Here are my chronicles so far:

Date	Remarks
Aug 9, 2009	filled-up application form at Cotabato City thru Dafie who is a Smart Bro agent and paid Php999.00
Aug 10, 2009	Dafie submitted my application form to Smart Wireless Center
Aug 17, 2009	contractor installed Motorola canopy, got Smart Bro error P30040 at Smart Bro’s website telling they are upgrading so my account was not activated
Aug 18, 2009	Noticed that I can now login at Smart Bro’s website without the Smart Bro error P30040 so I asked Dafie for my Service Reference Number and Account Number hoping I could activate my account myself (can’t wait hehe). After 3 failed attempts, my account was locked, called *1888 (Smart Bro Hotline) complaining I locked my account while trying to activate it. CSR unlocked my account and scheduled the activation of my account on Aug 20, 2009.
Aug 20, 2009	contractor came over to activate my account but it was black-out in Midsayap (talk about wrong timing)
Aug 21, 2009	even though it’s Ninoy Aquino’s holiday, contractor still came and activated my account
	did some Smart Bro benchmarks and blogged about it

It was activated today around 10am and signal was good then.

When the afternoon came, signal started to get choppy, I would have a connection for 30 seconds, then it would be off for another 30 seconds, then back again.  I turned-off my laptop.

By 4pm, I got impatient and tried again. This time I actually got a very good connection. I was able to upload a lot of articles at Managing I.T. without a glitch.

I decided it’s time to conduct some bandwidth benchmarks. Here’s a table of my Smart Bro benchmarks:

Server	Download	Upload	Latency
dslreports.com - Los Angeles	255kbps	191kbps	259ms
dslreports.com - New York	266kbps	197kbps	199ms
dslreports.com - San Francisco	493kbps	185kbps	141ms
dslreports.com - Toronto	349kbps	171kbps	382ms
speakeasy.net - Chicago	723kbps	190kbps	-
speakeasy.net - Seattle	707kbps	192kbps	-
speedtest.net - Cagayan de Oro	0.69mbps	0.20mbps	132ms
speedtest.net - Paranaque	0.68mbps	0.19mbps	309ms
speedtest.net - Singapore	0.59mbps	0.19mbps	150ms
speedtest.net - Hong Kong	0.61mbps	0.17mbps	573ms
speedtest.net - New Delhi	0.27mbps	0.16mbps	570ms
speedtest.net - Seoul	0.65mbps	0.16mbps	672ms
speedtest.net - Riyadh	0.72mbps	0.17mbps	539ms
speedtest.net - Paris	0.54mbps	0.17mbps	474ms
speedtest.net - Edmonton	0.64mbps	0.19mbps	256ms
speedtest.net - Stockholm	0.70mbps	0.18mbps	362ms
speedtest.net - San Francisco	0.74mbps	0.19mbps	255ms
speedtest.net - Los Angeles	0.74mbps	0.19mbps	291ms
speedtest.net - New York	0.67mbps	0.18mbps	403ms
Average	580kbps	182kbps	351ms

Accordingly, my Smart Bro benchmarks justifies the plan I have subscribed into.

By 8pm it started to rain, not heavy, but my Internet connection was still okay.  In fact, it was still raining as I conducted some of my Smart Bro benchmarks.

Here are some screenshots of my Smart Bro benchmarks:

By the time I’m done with my Smart Bro benchmarks, I have finished downloading a 251mb video from hak5.org.

Not bad for my second - first day with Smart Bro… again.