Internet Traffic / Response Slow Down

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  1. #31

    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    I was in a PCCW shop the other day. I asked one of the sales girls about the internet slow down - hoping for an update on the situation. She said, "What slow down?!" Meanwhile I'm thinking, where have you been for the last month?! She then continued, "If you're experiencing slow down Sir, you can call our technical helpline. They'll send someone out to check your connection for you"

    "Great!" I thought, maybe every PCCW customer should call the technical helpline and ask for a call out!

    Honestly, I thought their customer service was bad, but I at least expect a basic level of knowledge.


  2. #32

    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    41
    Quote Originally Posted by lowlight:
    Is anyone else having significant problems connecting to sites overseas? I can reach Google.com with absolutely no problems, but I can't reach my site at all - when I do a tracert, it barely connects after the 9th hop.

    Other sites, like this one, I can reach, but extremely slow.

    Interestingly, the same thing happens with my phone on GPRS.

    Does anyone know if the earthquake last night took out a major internet pipeline or something? Usually I could find out, but, you know... no internet and all...
    I believe google has a mirror site in asia. Google was not affected much (first page) when the US internet link was out during the new year.

    Yes, I am using PCCW and experience the same overall slowdown for the past few days(or even a week or so).

  3. #33

    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    41
    Quote Originally Posted by CrouchingDonkey:
    I was in a PCCW shop the other day. I asked one of the sales girls about the internet slow down - hoping for an update on the situation. She said, "What slow down?!" Meanwhile I'm thinking, where have you been for the last month?! She then continued, "If you're experiencing slow down Sir, you can call our technical helpline. They'll send someone out to check your connection for you"

    "Great!" I thought, maybe every PCCW customer should call the technical helpline and ask for a call out!

    Honestly, I thought their customer service was bad, but I at least expect a basic level of knowledge.
    I think it's not necessarily the level of knowledge of the sales person but what sales information the company (PCCW in this case) dissimulate from the sales team. There is also a possibility that they were instructed what response to give customer when they asked this type of questions.

  4. #34

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    Jan 2006
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    Talking

    I understand what you're saying bruce999, but when I speak to a PCCW member of staff, I'm speaking to PCCW. The sales person is meant to be a representative of the company. I'm not blaming the girl personally for her response, as, like you say, it could be the response she's been told to give.

    Either way, I think it's incredibly bad customer service to gloss over a major incident, and claim that there are no problems. Whether it's ignorance, or intention, there's no excuse.

    If she'd said, "Yes, there is a problem, and we're still waiting for connections to be repaired. But everyone else is affected too.", then fair enough. At least the problem's been acknowledged.

    Well, anyway. That's my little rant over.


  5. #35

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    Apr 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by lowlight:
    After all this time, my internet is still not quite back to normal. On some days, it is fine, just as fast as it ever was. But other times (like right now ), the download speed seems to be capped at about 700 kbps - a far cry from the 6.5 Mbps I usually get!

    This is really getting frustrating. How long does it take to fix some stupid cables? Can't PCCW just buy bandwidth from another provider? Is there really that little bandwidth available???
    There is plenty of bandwidth available.

    Given that this has cost them a fortune, they have lost customers, they have to compensate "A" class customers, have had to buy new bandwidth at premium rates, the needs of customers paying HK$168 are not that high.

    If you were at PCCW management you wouldn't bother getting more bandwidth, you would wait it out. Everyone is either on 12 month contracts so they can't switch or will not switch as they will not pay for a premium service.

  6. #36

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    Nov 2005
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    Yuen Long
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    105

    Hi,

    Have a look here :

    http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/press_rel/...n_2007_r6.html

    and read the "repairing status" paragraph, you'll have an idea of when it's going to be back to normal.


    Be seeing you...


  7. #37

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    Jan 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tartampion:
    Hi,

    Have a look here :

    http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/press_rel/...n_2007_r6.html

    and read the "repairing status" paragraph, you'll have an idea of when it's going to be back to normal.


    Be seeing you...
    Thanks Tartampion. That was a very useful link! It also had a link to details about the future of digital/HD TV in HK.

  8. #38

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Hong Kong
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    I got connected to HKBroadband the day of the earthquake, so have had, in my opinion, horrible internet speed to both USA and European sites.

    Within HK everything is super fast. Downloading movie trailers from Apple's website for example shows that I do have a 25mb line, cause they download super fast.. (trailers are mirrored from HK).

    But as soon as I goto the USA or Europe, things become super slow. Response times and download speeds are terrible. On average with my 25mb broadband connection I get 250kb/sec to the USA and 150kb/sec to Europe.

    What REALLY worries me is reading in the South China Morning Post articles mentioning that service providers say that by rerouting their traffic, they've restored internet speeds close to 100% (????).

    However, he said internet providers had diverted Web traffic and the delay was not having a significant impact on internet services in Hong Kong.

    According to our reports from the providers, all services have largely been resumed back to normal - it's approaching 100 per cent, he said.
    Is it normal to have 300kb/sec to the USA from HK (if so, I need to move to another country) or are broadband providers/SCMP BSing us with these statements?

    When I called customer service from HKBroadband, they first denied anything about a slowdown, then after telling them about the earthquake problems, they told me that all internet access has been restored... then when I tell them about my download speeds from the US and Europe, they tell me it depends on the speed on the server on the other side.... running around in circles...

    Could someone out there please tell me the follwoing:
    - are you getting the same speeds I'm getting? or am I an exception?
    - What speeds were you getting to the USA and Europe with your broadband connection?
    - Does Netvigator currently have better links to the USA/Europe than HKBroadband?

    Any advise would be highly appreciated. To run my company, I depend heavily on the internet...and at these speeds, I'm afraid I need to pack-up and go back to Europe

  9. #39

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    2,161
    Quote Originally Posted by yellowtip:
    Any advise would be highly appreciated. To run my company, I depend heavily on the internet...and at these speeds, I'm afraid I need to pack-up and go back to Europe
    Is this 25mb line ADSL, SDSL? The network performance has improved in the last two days, HKBN is still maxed out overseas though:

    http://www.hkbn.net/mrtg/oversea.html

    You can always get better performance if you are willing to pay for it. Try asking other telco's for recommendations, e.g. Wharf TT, PCCW. A lot of companies simply resell others infrastructure. The quality of service is dependent on what package you buy, usually its leased line > business DSL > consumer DSL for preference of bit pushing.

    With the faster advertised rates you are ending up with Japan style marketing, the line speed is for local access, you have to read the fine print for overseas speeds.

  10. #40

    I have no hard evidence but I am unconvinced that the download speed from overseas sites is as fast as it was before the earthquake. I'm using PCCW Netvigator broadband.

    Speed has improved in recent days compared to the first half of January but it is not yet back to 100%. I'd say 80% but it is merely my judgment, not backed by numbers. Perhaps my memory deceives me.