Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

About six months ago a friend of mine tipped me about PLDT offering a 999-per-month DSL plan. At first I didn’t believe him, since PLDT was not actively advertising the plan. But when he swore that he already got one, it got me interested. 999 pesos a month definitely sounds good for a 384 kbps connection.

Come early November, the ad campaigns suddenly came out, with that girl squealing “Yes! Yes! Yes that was fast!” on TV. I found the ad funny since the Napster logo was there (in flagrantly plagiarized form… poetic justice?) but it said “Popster” or something like that… not quite sure… but the interface clearly looks like the mIRC interface, which formally is a chat utility but actually is a haven for mp3 piracy.

And this comes from a supposedly intelligent and legitimate company. But I digress.

I was almost going to get my own PLDT myDSL 999 plan when my friends squealed. Some of them were getting speeds of only 100 kbps. Though more than double the 56 kbps dial-uppers get, as far as I know broadband internet is delineated at the 128 kbps level. So much for broadband, huh? But that’s not the end of the story.

After calling PLDT technical support, here’s the downside of their fine print: they are locked on to the account for two years. If you want to downgrade, you have to pay 5000 pesos. If you want to discontinue the service completely, you have to pay 7000 pesos. So if you don’t wanna pay either, you have to suck up to the bad service and pay nearly a thousand bucks every month for bad service.

Now that’s what I call pure bullcrap. Especially after sister-company Smart bitched big-time over Sun Cellular’s right to offer unlimited plans on grounds that reception and call-completion qualities suffer. I don’t know why the National Telecommunications Commission does not have quality benchmarks and regulations regarding Internet broadband access (please correct me if there are), but PLDT is clearly taking advantage at the absence of such by locking-in their subscribers.

Lock-in periods and downgrade/discontinuance/reactivation fees are understandable, as each task entails additional tasks for various departments of a particular internet service provider. But at the prices demanded by PLDT it is like being taken hostage, if not being baited into a trap.

I have had my own experiences regarding downgrade and reactivation fees with my ISP, but they only constitute a few hundred pesos; definitely they don’t run into the thousands. And that’s the reason I’m gonna stick with them for now until better Broadband deals come along.

So much for being “fast.”