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.