The quest for reliable internet in the time of COVID-19

It's as though Globe and Smart conspired to make my life miserable.

Memos from my employer have indicated that I might have to work at home for the foreseeable future, possibly until remainder of the year. With this expectation set, I knew I have to get my own wifi at home. Before pandemic happened, I was mostly reliant on office wifi for my internet connection. For the first few weeks in quarantine, I used my phone’s data connection, which is costly. A single Zoom meeting can use up my entire data allocation.

Smart has a pretty good LTE connection where I live so the best choice for me was PLDT Home since it uses Smart’s LTE signal. Unfortunately, units where sold out everywhere so I had to settle for whatever was available. I ordered Globe Extreme Wifi from Globe’s website and it arrived in less than a week. In hindsight, the availability of Globe’s in the time of a pandemic when so many people are scrambling for broadband internet connection was probability an indication of the kind of service I will get.

Man, their connection was just horrible. I always knew Globe’s connection wasn’t always the best but I didn’t expect them to be so unreliable even when you live right at the nation’s capital city. The dial up connection I used back in college was better by a huge margin.

For two weeks I tried to make the best of what Globe could do. I placed my modem right at the window and sometimes I get one bar, sometimes two. The number of bars don’t make any difference. I had to watch Youtube at 240p. During those two weeks I frequently check PLDT’s website as well as Facebook Marketplace for any chance that as PLDT Home unit is available. Then one day, I found an online seller who had several units in hand. I beeped him up on messenger and the next day I got the unit delivered.

PLDT Home gave me wifi heaven. It was fast. I could download Netflix videos one after another as though I am download a text file using Globe Home. I even got to download a huge Switch game until I used up the free 10Gb (I didn’t bother finishing the download when I signed up for a data plan since the download status reverted to 0%). I could finally watch Youtube videos in their full HD glory.

Or at least that was how it was during the first two days.

On the third day, one of the LED lights on the modem started blinking red. It would blink red for 5 min, then blue for 10 min, and so on. On certain days, it would be continuously red for the entire day, only resuming its connection at midnight.

I called PLDT’s customer service hotline. A rep did some troubleshooting, which didn’t really make any difference. She said she would refer my case to their technicians who will call me within 48 hours. That call never happened, so after 3 days I called them up again. Same thing, same troubleshooting, still no call. For 17 days I have called PLDT’s hotline four times to follow up on whoever is supposed to call me for troubleshooting. I have basically given up. I now believe there is nothing in PLDT’s customer service operations manual that can help me. 171 reps can only do so much, and they can’t connect me directly to the department that is supposed to troubleshoot my modem.

Recently, Smart’s connection have become sucky as well, although PLDT’s reps have told me there are supposed to be no issues in the connection in my area. I used my prepaid data on my last Zoom meeting and it was a disaster. The audio was so bad I felt nauseous afterwards. Last night I could hardly keep up on the conversation my friends where having on a videocall.

So where does this leave me? I’ve wasted thousands of pesos that cannot be refunded. I have at least three upcoming Zoom meetings/training I have to attend and unless some miracle happens I won’t be able to participate in those Zoom sessions. I can’t communicate with my friends. I am isolated physically and virtually without Netflix but with crappy Youtube videos in 240p. And how will I work?

I am giving Converge a try, but first I need to ask permission from my landlord since chords will be going into his apartment building. If this doesn’t give me reliable internet then service I don’t know what will.