PLDT Fibr Review 2017

Finally, here's my PLDT Fibr Review and experience.

PLDT Fibr is currently the largest Fibr Network in the country and its still growing. It started on exclusive and conyo subdivisions and finally it has reached our simple village. I live near the border of Metro Manila and Bulacan and I'm glad that it reached us.

PLDT Fibr Plans

Currently these are the plan available when I applied for a connection

Unlimited Plans

Plan 1699 - Speed up to 5 Mbps
Plan 1899 - Speed up to 20 Mbps
Plan 2899 - Speed up to 50 Mbps
Plan 3499 - Speed up to 50 Mbps with Cignal Cable Budget Plan

Speed Plans

Plan 1699 - Speed up to 15 Mbps with 150GB monthly volume allowance

Plan 1899 - Speed up to 50 Mbps with 300GB monthly volume allowance

This article will cover all reviews of these plans since all of them are powered by the same fiber technology.

Installation

It was October 2015 when I found out that PLDT is already installing fibr wire in a subdivision near me. After a few weeks they installed Fibr Cabinet / box. After 2 weeks it finally reached our subdivision.

3rd party company installing PLDT fibr wires

PLDT Fibr Cabinet looks like this it's white/gray and sometimes black

Application Process 

After 2 weeks a PLDT Booth becomes available outside our subdivision. I want to apply for Plan 2899 but they insisted that it's not available for new subscribers. I ended up applying for Plan 3500. I'm not sure if this is a modus or they are not knowledgable with their service, you can apply plan 2899 even if you're a new subscriber. It looks like that they are not trained enough. They offer DSL plans and not aware of the new Fibr plans. I even showed the website to them to explain what I'm talking about. You only need 1 valid ID and proof of billing to apply. I receive a call after 4 days asking just basic question about my job and the plan I'm planning to avail. After several weeks I didn't get any response from PLDT. 

I decided to call their hotline (02)8888171 to know the status of my application. I was surprized when they inform me that Fibr facility is not yet available in my area, even the nearest Fibr box is just 10 meters away from my house. They are not updated to what is actually happening to their installers. I called several times  over weeks and months and learned that the facility is already available but the line is not yet active.

I decided to apply online last April 5 and after the long adventure of the art of getting a fiber connection, finally a 3rd party installer came to my house last April 17. To cut the long story short, if you want to know how long will you get the connection after installing the cables, in my case it took 6 months. 

PLDT Fibr Performance

I applied for Plan 2899 and I'm using it for 2 months now. I got a speedboost promo for 6 months, so my 50Mbps speed will get 100Mbps for 6 months. Currently when connected to wifi my speed reaches 74Mbps using iMac computer and 44Mbps on my android phone. But when I use a network cable I can get up to 94Mbps which is really good.

Your expectations

With my current plan I can able to:

• Watch HD videos even 4k Videos on YouTube
• Download Torrent files (sometimes it's as fast as 8 minutes per movie) and sometimes you can't download a file
• Play Online games, DOTA ping is 30ms 0 packet loss
• Don't expect that all download speeds will be fast. It also depends on the server of the website and the location of the server.

I also experienced the following issues:

• very slow YouTube streaming and Google related websites for 3 days (no problem on other websites)
• On the first weeks I can't access some websites, I have to use VPN to fix this
• slow internet, but this was fixed after I restarted the modem

PLDT Fibr Verdict

So far this is the best option that Philippine internet can offer to me although I'm looking forward on getting a Globe Fiber when it becomes available in my area. Due to the following personal reasons:

• For me Globe has better support not like the shitty personnels of PLDT
• Globe Fiber Plans are cheaper.
• Globe Internet Plan allows you to call Globe cellphone numbers for free.
• I've experienced the service of Globe 3G, Globe Wimax, Globe Pocket Wifi and PLDT Ultera and I can say that Globe doesn't have the best internet service but they have better after sales and support.