Ah SORRY dude for hijacking your thread, dont worry the grass is not greener on this side as well, quite a few people moved to sai kung district and have to wait for a line to free up before they can get internet, can be more than 4 months wait and even when they do get the so called 8M line I've seen some speedtest screen shot and some people were getting 2.87Mb download speed / 0.45mb upload speed.
I forgot to mention this in my thread but another thing you may encounter is that even if you did have a pccw line there's a good chance that they don't have the capacity to give you even a measly 8Mbs line (well, up to 8). This was the exact case for the neighbours who moved into the next door apartment; they were told to wait until someone else in the area. All hail PCCW!
Actually, that was proposed but it would mean shifting the router (or buying a better/extra one). I'm too greedy to share, the line can't cope with that many people!
On a serious note, it's disappointing that HK doesn't have a rural broadband initiative to help the countryside. Having said that, villagers tend to be very insular and selfish so it probably wouldn't work anyway.
Well after a talk with a village "leader" I don't know if I should feel dumb, angry, or excited. Dumb because one of the village "leaders" pointed out to me immediately, when I asked him, a PCCW box just a meter and a half from my door. Angry because the Netvigator CS told me that they needed the infrastructure, but apparently it's there, so now I have to find someone competent enough to tell me what I do with the box, whether its TV, cable, internet, or some combination of the three. Excited because there's hope for TV, phone or internet!!
They will even tell you they have to upgrade the line and they never touch the line. Have had friends ask for the old wire and they got defensive. Just a way to make money. I've had luck using a sim card wifi router box. It's made to be on all the time whereas those hotspots are more made for short uses although I'm sure those portable wifi hotspots work too. You can still get unlimited data and in theory they say the internet slows down after 5GB but I'm downloading movies without issue. I'm overall happy with it and the speeds are quick enough, to the point to where 100mbps, 500mbps, and 1gbps don't make a difference as those are local-HK speeds and anything I'm using is outside of HK anyway and limited by the upload on their end. Interesting that the older high rise buildings you can get 100mbps for $99 per month and now in the villages/houses you're looking at $400-500 per month for 3mbps. What a joke.
There's a good chance that they palmed you off because that particular cabinet or local exchange has reached the capacity for ADSL users. Easier for them to say there's no equipment than admit that they can't supply the demand so don't get too excited mate. Does anyone know what the minimum number of people are needed to request for them to deploy VDSL? There have been known instances of it occurring and as it is still based on copper from the cabinet it costs them relatively little compared to FTTH.
Yup, you're 100% correct. Called PCCW again and they told me that there wasn't enough cabling to go around. That means, no phone, no internet, but for some reason I can get cable TV. Luckily my "unlimited" data plan on my phone didn't slow down too much after 6gbs so I can still use that, but my battery is suffering for sure. Maybe it's time to pick up one of those xiaomi 10000mah powerbanks?