Sun Broadband Wireless Failing - Sucks

Update: As of October, I totally dumped Sun Broadband Wireless. No, seriously. To hell with it. I literally threw the Sun dongle away down the trash bin. Now I'm using Globe Broadband's Plan 999 1mbps. It's not lightning fast, but it's far better than PLDT's myDSL, and this I guarantee, 1,000,000%  better than Sun Broadband Wireless. I recommend it, although speeds may vary by location.

This past few weeks have been rainy and windy, no doubt about that. And as you might already know, I rely on internet dongles for my daily internet activity. I bashed Globe's Tattoo internet service on an extremely short post last October (post-Ondoy season) for its under-performance and false TV ad promises. In fairness to Globe, they did the trouble of looking me up and giving me tips to boost their internet connection. Never used Tattoo ever since. Anyway, based from the latest customer comments HERE, their service still sucks. Still, kudos to Globe's customer care department. They deserve it.

Now, let's move on to the Sun Broadband Wireless service. When I acquired their internet dongle at P1895, I was ecstatic since almost everyone gave positive feedback on it. I plugged it in my full speed USB 2.0 drive and happily surfed the net. I even downloaded huge amounts of data from file hosting sites with it, not to mention all the YouTube videos I enjoyed watching. I was fully satisfied so to speak. That was the following paragraph.

A few sunny weeks ago, they were doing fine. My signal strength was averaging up to 600+kbps. It was a different story after that. When the strong rains started whipping up the metro, Sun's glory days were over as far as I'm concerned.

My Sun Broadband Wireless dongle kilobytes per second (kbps) is now ranging from 0.00 to 11.67. Yey, that's so fun. NOT. If you didn't notice I'm using subtle sarcasm.

10 minutes after starting the program

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I'm experiencing broadband slowness at epic proportions bordering Globe territory. Not for 5 minutes. Not even for 10 minutes. In fact, sometimes I turn off my PC for being pissed off at the Sun Broadband Wireless (SBW) service and try to reconnect three hours later only to find out that it's still the same 0.00kbps. What the flock is that!

I called Sun's SBW customer service hotline some days ago and inquired about the mysterious 0.00kbps phenomenon. The nice lady who answered my call told me that they were having adjustments and improvements in the Mandaluyong Sun system. I was like, "OK, maybe they're upgrading hardware or something." Clearly that was not the case.

I even upgraded the software version of my dongle to the latest one. Downloaded it via the Sun website. Nothing changed. I shouldn't be surprised at this point. I'm thinking of dumping my Sun stick and replacing it with Smart Bro(ken) instead. My, what kind of ISPs do we have here in the Philippines.

30 minutes after starting the program

If any Sun Rep is reading this, - and I'm hoping someone from Sun would read this - with all due respect, your service is beginning to fail. I live in Mandaluyong City where your website claims this:

Sun Broadband Wireless is best used within NCR where 3.5G infrastructure is present. 3.5G technology allows you to reach speeds of up to 2Mbps.*

And this:

The published speeds are the maximum speeds available for the plans. Speed per usage would depend on several factors such as time of usage (peak or off-peak hours), location and traffic of users.**

And this:

Fast- Speeds of up to 2Mbps
Affordable- Get broadband internet connection for as low as P1.04/ 30 minutes (when using SBW 50 Special Load)

Easy to Use- Plug & Play; no need for phone lines.***

*Mandaluyong is in the 3.5G infrastructure and yet speeds suck. Is something still wrong with your services in this city?;
**I surfed at off peak hours such as 8am and 12am but yet 0.00kbps still hits me;
***Fast? What's fast?

I don't know about you readers but this is me complaining. If the Sun Broadband Wireless service is doing a good job for you then congratulations. If you're one like me, why not make sure Sun Cellular Philippines hears what we have to say? We pay good money for good service.

'Till my next installment.