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  • 1 Post By gardabble
  • 1 Post By gch555

Stuck with an ISP

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  1. #1

    Stuck with an ISP

    The current apartment I am in (Central) has an old ICable 150 Mbps contract that has been running for 3 or 4 years. The owner of the contrat left HK a while ago but tenants have kept on paying the bill on a monthly basis at 7-11.

    The speed is atrocious as it averages 5Mbps, and the connection drops a lot. I am not sure if it’s because of the old and probably defective equipment (Cisco DPC3000 and Asus RT-N12-B1) or the ISP.

    Should I contact customer service (but I’m not the owner and I don’t have the account password) and ask them to change the equipment (not sure the modem and the wifi router are provided by the ISP)? Or maybe just go to another ISP (I think I’m elegible to HGC and Netnavigagor but not HKBN)? Will they be able to erase the current ISP line?

    Thanks a lot


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Sha Tin, New Territories
    Posts
    493

    Is the contract up and you are still paying for the service? Call the ISP customer service and find out. If there is not contract you can tell them that you want to cancel the service. Then you can search a new one.

    TheRoadAhead likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    258

    It should be out of contract by now, unless someone has been renewing it? If it's an expired contract and it's 'abandoned' (as in, the contract name isn't aware of it or doesn't care) I would just cancel it and get something else.

    150mbps isn't lightning fast so the equipment should be fine. Could be congestion related problems, could have always been this crap, could be misconfigured profile by your ISP, could be just the type of traffic you're accessing. Could be a combination. Personally I wouldn't bother, you're likely paying too much if it's still priced as a 3-4 year old contract.

    You have plenty of options on the island, shop around.

    TheRoadAhead likes this.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by gch555:
    It should be out of contract by now, unless someone has been renewing it? If it's an expired contract and it's 'abandoned' (as in, the contract name isn't aware of it or doesn't care) I would just cancel it and get something else.

    150mbps isn't lightning fast so the equipment should be fine. Could be congestion related problems, could have always been this crap, could be misconfigured profile by your ISP, could be just the type of traffic you're accessing. Could be a combination. Personally I wouldn't bother, you're likely paying too much if it's still priced as a 3-4 year old contract.

    You have plenty of options on the island, shop around.
    Thank you. Do most ISP provide router/modem or it’s often to the customer to buy the equipment separately?

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    3,886
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRoadAhead:
    Thank you. Do most ISP provide router/modem or it’s often to the customer to buy the equipment separately?
    I got a new I-cable contract a few months back. 200mbs and I get about 120mbs actual. I pay $126 per month and get some TV channels thrown in. They also supply the modem/router (gave me the router, so if it breaks I guess it's down to me to replace).

    With a PCCW new 1000mbs plan I also got a few months back - pay $228, router hire was way expensive, so I bought my own in wanchai for $560. I get about 550mb/s actual.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    258
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRoadAhead:
    Thank you. Do most ISP provide router/modem or it’s often to the customer to buy the equipment separately?
    Up to you. You can rent it from the ISP or buy your own separately. ISP won't help you set it up if you buy your own, but they'll help you fix issues with it if you rented theirs. Depends on your needs also. If you want specific features (super strong wifi, wifi mesh ability, VPN options, etc), go get one yourself that better fits your needs. If you want simplicity and don't need anything fancy, consider renting one.

    PCCW do a router trade in for your current one, maybe the others do too, I don't know. I used HKBN on the island, they were fantastic. Their shop wasn't in a convenient spot but I only needed to go for signup and handing in the router when I cancelled, so no big deal.

  7. #7