What's the Best DSL / Internet Service Provider in the Philippines?

What's the best internet service provider in the Philippines? I should have posted this question in this blog even before I came back to the Philippines. As a person who's working online and blogging, having an internet connection is very important.  


Our relatives said that it's still PLDT. So, without arguing their recommendation, we applied for a PLDT MyDSL. Sad to say, I regret having done so. I was really frustrated that it took about 6 weeks just to know that they can't install a DSL connection for us.

Waiting in line in this digital age.

This is what happened. We went to the PLDT business center and were told that the application processing would take 1 week and we will be given an account number. Since I do not like waiting in line, we just decided to apply via SMS. The agent said processing will take 1 week.

One week ... 2 weeks passed. After many follow-up calls, on the 3rd week, at last I got a call from PLDT that I can now pay the installation fee of P1600 at their business center and the connection will be installed in 3-5 days. This time, I had no choice but to wait in line. It did not take long as I expected, just about 1 hour ... ha ha.  After receiving my payment, the customer relations representative said that it will take 2 weeks (take note that it's not 3-5 days) for the technician to come and install the connection.

So, one week ... 2 weeks passed. Then a few more days, the technician came and said that after checking their boxes (whatever that is), there is no available DSL port for us. In short, we cannot have the internet connection we applied and paid for. We had no choice but to cancel the application. We went to the business center again to get a refund for our payment. We waited in line, again but this time we just waited about 30 minutes. The sad news is we cannot refund our payment at the time because they do not have the money for refunds yet in their office. They said they will give us a call but until now, we're still waiting and it's been more than a week. Sigh!

It's really annoying having to go through these things. Why do these processes take so long? In Saudi Arabia, we applied for a telephone line and DSL this day and the next day, it's installed. Also, why don't they know where their services are still available? If they had known in the first place that the service is no longer available in our area, it would have spared us and them all those trouble. Or maybe they do know it in a limited sense, since what they have been advertising in media is the upgrade of the plan 990 to 1299.  You think so?

In that span of almost 2 months, I had to use Smart Broadband to connect online, especially when my online employers asked if I could go back to work after a month's leave. The problem is, sometimes the connection is good but most of the time it's very slow. Well, what can I do?

Anyway, to end this post in a positive note, I'm still thankful that we did not get that PLDT MyDSL connection. That is because our new friendly neighbor offered us an access to their wi-fi connection (provided still by PLDT). We just had to chip in for the monthly fee. Overall, we ended up paying less for a service that we really needed.

I know it's a bit late to ask this question but I'll ask it anyway in the form of a poll. What's the best DSL / internet service provider do you recommend? (You can also enlighten me further in the comments section.)