Getting Tattooed

Well, more like Globe’s wireless broadband, Globe Tattoo…

In any case, let’s get down to it…

The first thing that the people at Globe asked me is that where am I located.  Since I live in Naga City, I thought, there will be no problem… But when I told them I lived in the subdivisions, they said that there might be problems with the signal. I gave it some thought and realized that yes, I do have problems with Globe’s signal at home.  If there are problems with the phone’s signal, then there’s a high chance that there will be problems with the internet’s signal. specially since I only have a desktop at home.

I originally intended to use the prepaid wireless broadband as a replacement to dial-up, but with that revelation, I was having second thoughts. I could end up with a connection worse than dial-up, but more costly.

They told me that if I had a laptop, wherever I live would be no problem for I can transfer location – such as the city center, and surf there.  The city center is a 3G area, so there is a faster connection there.  Frankly, I still would have prefered being able to surf at home… but since it was stated that “it is not a replacement for wired internet” I had no choice…

They recommended that I find a friend who has Tattoo, and try it out at home.  If I am satisfied with the connection, then I can get my own.

I left the center a bit down-heated… I have no known friend who has Tattoo, or any other wireless broadband…

I talked about it with Jean, and since they are unsure when they will have their DSL connection set-up, and she wanted to have internet, we decided to split the bill for the internet kit.  Since it’s prepaid, whoever will be using it will be the one who have to load it.

Minutes later, I returned to the center, bought the kit – – and for the love of internets, they only got one design available… a purple one! How very unmanly… Jean meanwhile snickered.  It was the design she wanted. Bah!

Anyway, when we tried the connection at their apartment in the heart of Naga City, it turned out that the connection was slow… terribly slow even.  Worse than dial-up, hitting around 0-20kbps… Lame!

Then I realized that we were surfing on a Saturday and on peak hours too… not only for internet, but for the entire network. Darn.

We tried the connection the next day, after lunch.  It was not bad.  The connection averaged around 50-80 kbps, but it was terribly unstable.  It would peak to around 180kbps, and drop to zero in a few seconds.

We were not able to connect to a site which makes use of a flash-based chat, but were able to view other sites well.  Like I said, it bordered between dial-up and DSL… but if you’re unlucky, you could end up with something worse than dial-up. ^_^;

From the looks of things, I don’t think I’ll be able to make use of it at home, but I still plan to.

The result:

• Naga City is a 3G area, not a HSPDA. Expect slow connections.
• Globe Tattoo has unstable connection, and a snail’s pace during peak hours.
• It’s good that you can use it both as a wireless internet SIM, and a phone SIM.
• Loading is as easy as loading your cellphone.
• The USB stick is larger than the tiny Flash Drives that we have now, and the design that you get is dependent on stock.  Check out what they have available first.  You don’t want to end up having a chick-looking design, when you’re a manly guy.
• The design is just sticker, by the way.
• The interface of the Globe broadband program is very useful.  You can monitor your hours connected (or minutes if you are budgeting the P5 per 15 minute connection), the statistics of your connection, the current speed of connection, and even a log of the times you connected.
• It’s not a bad idea to have one of these things if you do not plan on sitting in a free WiFI spot all day – like the malls, schools and food joints.  But if you’re on a tight budget, free internet is the best. XD