Last Saturday, April 24, 2010 I was visited by the Wi-Tribe team to test their 4G Broadband. 
Apparently, they got my name from the iBlog6 event which I attended on April 16 at UP. Two lovely ladies came in their Honda Civic before 2PM. My place is just few kilometers away from their Head Office in Pasong Tamo Extension, so my assumption is I am very near in one of their base stations. And, I could probably get a real 1Mbps speed. 🙂
The 4G Wimax modem they use is the Motorola CPEi 25725 which is not a cheap brand.
It was very easy to setup. Practically anybody (without too much IT back experience) can get it running in no time. It is Plug-N-Play, period. Unbox it, connect the AC power adopter to your electrical outlet, get the other cable – the LAN cable, connect it to your laptop or to your PC and its done. In no time, you will have your Internet connection.
However, the two ladies did not get me to sign up. Primarily because 4G promises of a consistent 1Mbps connection which was not experienced that day. They had to reset the modem thrice. Asked me to turn off the my Windows firewall, but the Internet test speed would give us only a maximum of around 600kbps, it would even go lower down to 30kbps.
I did not write this entry to put them down, no that’s not the objective. Because in our test at the UP Diliman during the iBlog6, they gave us the real 2Mbps speed. It would go down only to 1.8Mbps but I think it was acceptable, but this time in my place, it did not even hit 800kbps. They were challenged, I was surprised and a bit disappointed. They promised to come back next week and do the testing again.
So what do you think why we did not get the 1Mbps speed? Here’s my observation – my room has a wire metal mesh, it was installed there so that no mosquito will be allowed to enter. Now since its metal, I think it blocks the 4G signal. Or any other wireless service available including Smartbro Share It!, the 3G wireless modem of Smart.
If the modem has port for an external antenna, a work around can be made.. I think. Install the antenna outside the window, wire it to the modem inside the room. – Just realized it, the external antenna will not work because that will only strengthen the broadcast signal.
Superior article, m8
Guys, Great article and very very interesting blog. That’s one thing I’m really looking forward. Looking forward to reading more from you next week.
I agree w/ Spidey. Yes, there is no 100% here in the Philippines.
Let’s put it this way. ISPs here all announce that they have speeds of up to 2mbps. Based from my personal experience, Globe Broadband didn’t even reach 20% of their promise speed. Smart was ok at around 500kbps. Sun Wireless broadband, as expected, would be a bit slower than them at 128-256kbps.
Surprisingly, WiTribe is the only provider who exceeded my expectations. Just earlier, I did a speedtest. It was averaging around 1.9 to 2.2 mbps.
It’s true that this is not for heavy p2p downloaders. But for youtube, facebook and casual browsing, this is the perfect connection!
We are 5 at home. 4 of us use the internet. the 2 accesses only at night, the other 2 uses the internet wholeday (since it’s summer vacation)
Just yesterday, witribe was a bit wonky. So there you go, no one can offer 100% uptime and 100% 2mbps speeds –constantly but, some can go as near.
my 2cents. nice site by the way. was reading your HTC post when I was this.
Thanks for dropping by Laarni.
In fairness to Wi-Tribe, when we tested their speed at the iBlog6. They gave us 2mbps from their speedtest found in their website.
But I’m sure, even if we switch to other provider. We will never experience total consistent speed, specially it is wireless.
BTW, the Wi-Tribe team did not come back anymore. No more follow up was made.
I was researching for witribe reviews coz I was gona make a blogpost and stumbled upon your blog.
well, what I found out was there is a number of solid haters haha.
Here is my speedtest results c/o speedtest.net —– http://www.speedtest.net/result/806544057.png
last month, my slowest speed was around 128kbps (peak hours) and around 300 to 400 for nonpeak.
From Spidey: “being in my 2nd week of use with this antiquated wi-tribe, i have been experiencing terrrrrrrriiiibbbble problems displaying web pages especially gmail. i’ve contacted their customer service and got the response that i have exhausted already the 6GB monthly threshold allocation and needs to wait for the next month to refresh my account and go back to 1MBps”
I had the same situation. It’s really terrible to be blinded by their advertisement. How would I get out of the 24 month lock-in period??
When they first tried it it was ok, but they didn’t really informed us from the start that it has only 6GB of usage allowance and after that, it will go down up to 128kps. How will I file a complaint against this?
Hi. I feel bad for you.. I hope you can iron things out with them.
There are options available, other Telcos offer almost similar service already. So for those who have not subscribe yet, test it first.
For those who signed up already, negotiate with them. In other forums I read, they allowed to return and revoke the contracts if the promised consistent speed is not achieved.
hi,
i salute you for your move
you made the right decision of not signing up
being in my 2nd week of use with this antiquated wi-tribe, i have been experiencing terrrrrrrriiiibbbble problems displaying web pages especially gmail. i’ve contacted their customer service and got the response that i have exhausted already the 6GB monthly threshold allocation and needs to wait for the next month to refresh my account and go back to 1MBps
could you imagine that? i will be paying 998 monthly for a service that needs to be waited for a couple of weeks to return to its promise speed!!!
they are doing unfair and deceptive marketing strategies to lure new subscribers. anyway i have filed a complain with DTI already
if i were you i would never lock myself up with wi-tribe for 2 years or even for a shorter period of time
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