Bayantel is BAD Service
I live in Naga City, Philippines. Around here, good broadband is hard to get. Services are expensive, unreliable and unbelievably difficult (especially when dealing with your providers).
My broadband digital subscriber line is serviced by no other than one of the largest Philippine companies, Bayan Telecommunications-fondly or not-so-fondly popular by the name of Bayantel. It’s a 768 KiBS subscription. All over the city, you’d see countless banners and posters telling you that if you didn’t have a broadband deal with Bayantel you’re probably missing half you life. I mean, it says in very bold typeface, up to 1028 kbps for just 899! Hurry!
Well, I have that line and it’s hardly what they say it is. I mean, it’s expected that I’d at least get a third of 768 Kibs right? Lem’me tell you. What they do is that they round up twelve [repeat TWELVE] subscribers into one [repeat ONE] line, and that line crammed up into one of Bayantel’s sparse “geographically advantaged” cabinets. Obviously, this setup is prey to more than just a few hiccups.
And don’t even ask about customer support! As some may remember, I’ve previously posted a HOWTO change DNS servers. You guessed it right. It was the measure of an ailing and unanswered customer in need. I couldn’t load or ping Google and its many domains. So I resorted to OpenDNS nameservers after scouring forums, Websites and IRC channels for many, many hours.
Good thing I’m on Ubuntu. They have an excellent support system for Ubuntu users at http://www.ubuntuforums.com/ and irc.freenode.net (at #ubuntu). The solution was generously provided to me by a fellow Ubuntu user at the official IRC support channel.
So, a word of caution. If, like us here from the proud Republic of the Philippines, service providers provide a lock-in period or legal clause in your service contract whereby terminating your service after a shorter time than what is imposed by your ISP, then think carefully. Then think again. Then with extreme caution choose.
