Moving - any way to check broadband speed before I move to an area?

[anannya]

Hi everyone,

I've just moved to HK and am living with my brother in Happy Valley. I'm moving out in about a month or so, but haven't decided where to move to yet. I have 3 key requirements - space, transport links and the last one is FAST BROADBAND.

Is there any way I can check what kind of services ISPs will provide before I move to an area? I really don't want to be stuck with 8mb speeds, and would love to be able to get up to the 100mb speeds with PCCW I've seen some of you post. I will be playing games online with my PS3 so download, upload and ping are all relevant (as much juice as I can squeeze out if it!)

So, any advice on how to check what connections I can get in different areas before I decide on a place? I don't think the agents will be able to check this for me when they give me recommendations!

Cheers

Anannya

[virago]

You won't be able to check the connections until you connect. Unless someone else has an option.

Best bet is when you find a place, contact your preferred provider and give them the address, they will tell you if you can connect or not and what connection.

I moved into a place and they could only connect me 8M PCCW at a high price. Anyway it does me for what I need it for.

[anannya]

Thanks, I thought this might be the case. There are a few websites in the UK where you can select location and check ISP speed available in your area. Wondering if anything like this was available for HK, but I guess not.

[virago]

Thanks, I thought this might be the case. There are a few websites in the UK where you can select location and check ISP speed available in your area. Wondering if anything like this was available for HK, but I guess not.

Yes, you can do it on PCCW but i just checked and couldn't find it. It's there somewhere but the website is pretty bad. Otherwise just call them. You can even talk to the guys on the street or shops. They can check quickly.

[BenderBends]

HUGE FYI!!!!!!!!!!!
calling the isp's is like calling mcdonalds and asking if it will rain. They will give you an answer that means jack and $&@!. I did that and was told 30M and 100M by PCCW and HGC respectively, onl to arrive and be told I can only share a 10M with entire building.

[bryant.english]

The new PCCW call centre is in Causeway Bay, (so they kindly remind me every time I call them to complain). My guess is, there will be a hell of a bottle neck right there so, if my theory is correct, you should choose to live as far away from Causeway Bay as possible. How about Fanling?

[anannya]

Dunno where Fanling is but usually the best speeds in the UK are dependent on how close you are to the phone exchange. Although with fibre optic cables (Virgin) it doesn't matter too much. My flat in the UK was 1 minute walk from my friends house but because of how it was wired (mine was newer so the cables there took a very strange route) he could get up to 20mb and I could only get 8mb.

I will probably stay on the island, not too fussed where or about the view.

[virago]

HUGE FYI!!!!!!!!!!!
calling the isp's is like calling mcdonalds and asking if it will rain. They will give you an answer that means jack and $&@!. I did that and was told 30M and 100M by PCCW and HGC respectively, onl to arrive and be told I can only share a 10M with entire building.

Yeah, you are probably right. The way I found out was talk to the little guy on the street and he contacted the office and them and gave me the information. When he said he couldn't supply he took me 1 m to the right to his mate selling what I could get.

When they see a sale in front of them they react...but only sometimes.