Goodbye BayanDSL

I mentioned here before that I've been with Bayantel Broadband Internet since the early 2000s. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I think it's been 10 years or so since we've subscribed with them.

Through the years, it was mostly a positive experience for us. We've had problems with the connections, but the technical support has mostly been stellar. It was rare that we had a downtime that lasted for more than 2 days. Whenever we called, a technician would drop by within the day (if you called early) or the next day.

In the last two years or so, other Internet Service providers, stepped up their game, and offered faster internet packages at roughly the same price.

Despite that, I've decided to stick with Bayantel for my DSL. I was at the 1mbps plan, and i consistently got 80-100% of the speed during the day, and after 10pm, I get speed boosts up to 1.5mbps.

But since a few months back, it became hard to resist the other competitors' packages. PLDT really stepped up with their new plan, especially the 1699 plan (phone was 700, dsl was 999 i think) which had connections up to 3mbps. The tech forum I frequented, had members who got upgraded already by PLDT and they consistently hit 3mbps on their downloads.

And here I was paying 1399 for 1mbps. Just 300 pesos more and I could be getting thrice the speed of what I'm getting with Bayantel. But then, the only way I could get in on that, was by subscribing with PLDT and that would mean I would be getting another landline phone which I don't have use for. I was determined to keep my Bayantel landline number since it's been with us for more than a decade.

So I decided to stick it out with Bayantel. I'm thinking Bayantel would try to stay relevant by trying to match PLDT's packages.

And matched they did. About a couple months back, Bayantel came out with a new set of packages, which included a plan 1799 (400 for the phone + 1399 for the dsl) with speeds up to 3mbps.

New packages, baby!

By then, I was seriously considering upgrading to the plan. PLDT was still cheaper by 100 pesos, but they're notorious for having inept CSRs and their technicians usually take a week or more to get around to your place once you report a problem. So I thought that 100 pesos was a small price to pay for having a faster turnaround on problems.

But I was also paying for the internet plans of my wife's iphone, and for my mother and father's tablets as well. And I was planning to finally get a data plan for my own phone. Here I am, a very senior software developer and I don't have access to email and skype when I'm mobile. Paying a total amount upwards of 3000 pesos (including my wife and parents' plans) for online access seemed impractical for me. The sense of practicality I got from my dad put up a psychological barrier that I couldn't seem to cross.

So I held back a bit on applying for the 1799 plan. It wasn't really a priority.

And then, about a couple of weeks back I got wind of Bayantel's newer packages designed to entice new subscribers to sign up (it was most likely that they were hemorrhaging clients with PLDT's aggressive push with better packages and PLDT Fibr). The 3mbps plan was now only 1499. Just 100 pesos more than my current plan and 300 pesos cheaper than rival PLDT.

1,499! What are you waiting for?!

A lot of the forum members I've been conversing with who were also Bayantel subscribers jumped on the plans. It was the perfect time. So i plunged in as well.

Bayantel upgraded my plan on October 10, 2013 while I was at work. So I was excited to get home that day.

As soon as I got home, I whipped out the trusty internet browser and checked my speed at speedtest. It hit 2.6mbps on my first try. Pretty good, since that was more than 80% of my subscribed speed.

I then proceeded to start my downloads with my favorite bit torrent client. It was then that my enthusiasm got tempered. My speeds maxed out at 40kB/s (or roughly 0.4mbps). So i tried downloading several files at the same time.

The logic is quite simple: Downloading several files should aggregate to your maximum download speed. So if your files are downloading at, say, 1mbps, and your subscribed burstible speed is 3mbps, then by adding more downloads, it will add to the current 1mbps download rate, until you hit your maximum rate.

Unfortunately, it never did. No matter how much more files I tried downloading, the download rate hovered from 0.4 to 1mbps.

So i did what I usually do: call 411-2000. I got a CSR on the other end, explained my problems and he gave me a problem ticket. He asked me to do some screen captures and send them to their email. Which I did the next day when I arrived at work.

On the same day, a technician arrived. They tried fixing it, but nothing came out of it. Technicians came again a couple more times the next week, but nothing worked.

I had a feeling that Bayantel was throttling my downloads, since when it's past 1am, the download speed shoots up to about 2mbps or so, and then plunges when it's about 10am.

Some people would say that it's likely the files that I was downloading, didn't have enough seeders. So I then decided to use a different ISP connection to download the files.

I tethered my PC to my wife's Iphone 5, and the torrents started downloading at speeds of 5mbps and above. When I connected to Bayantel again, the rate plummeted to anywhere from 0.4 to 1mbps. So that was it, the straw that broke the camel's back.

Almost everyday since I got upgraded, i emailed them with screenshots of my download speeds. But in all honesty, I wasn't expecting it to improve anytime soon. It wasn't from some misguided belief that bombarding them with emails would speed up the resolution. This was for me. This was my way out. Proof that they never gave me the speed I subscribed to.

To be fair to Bayantel, some of the subscribers I've spoken to, don't have the same problems that I have. So I guess it depends on the area. I live in the part of QC that's basically a Bayantel franchise area (back when they subdivided the country into service zones to remove PLDT's monopoly and help the other startup competitors get on their feet). So it's safe to assume that the area's already congested.

So it was over for me.

Two more technicians came yesterday (10/19/13). One in the morning (who changed wire connections from the post to the terminal on our house's exterior) and another in the afternoon (who changed connections on the posts along the road to our house). It didn't improve the speed at all. I actually felt bad for the technicians who had to brave the heat, and had to carry and climb ladders around.

So that night, around 8pm, I arrived at Bayantel's branch at SM North Edsa Annex building. In less than 10 minutes, I took a number, went to a representative, signed a small piece of paper, and had my Bayantel DSL subscription of 10 or so years cut.

 I felt nostalgic about it, truthfully. So i walked out after and lamented on it over a quarter pound burger and fries.