In July, I bought the Huawei E585 in Hong Kong. This is a nifty device which allows me to have a mobile WiFi router that is battery operated and can be used with my WiFi enabled devices like my iPad. The purchase was timely because Smart has started to offer a SIM card only unlimited internet plan. This means that I do not have to pay extra for the Mobile broadband Dongle.
Prior to this purchase, I already have another Smart Bro line – this is the Smart Bro Share It. The E585 and the Share It devices do the same thing – they allow WiFi devices to connect to them and share internet service through a Mobile Service provider. I was happy with the Share It device ( which incidentally is also made by Huawei ). However – the device is not too portable and you always have to look for a power plug to make it work.
So I thought I will now be in internet heaven with the E585 and unlimited Smart Bro SIM only card. Apparently – I was wrong. Instead of paradise – I found myself mostly in Internet Limbo. That place when you see internet websites just clocking and never reaching its destination.
At first, I attributed this degradation of service to SMART’s Friday Freedays. These were two Fridays in July and August in which they offered unlimited internet service to anyone. This caused huge dissatisfaction to paying customers like me. However – I noticed – that after these Freedays – Smart didn’t seem to recover. The service speeds had just been unreliable. One brief moment, Speedtest on my iPad will register their promised 2 Mbps. But most of the time – the service is just too slow – reminding me of the speeds we have with dial-up. There are even times when I get zero speeds.
I know that this is not a question of signal availability. When I do these tests, I have a strong HSDPA or 3G signal. So this is about a clogged network. I don’t know why Smart’s internet network is clogged all of a sudden. Did they sell too much too soon? Note – that I am actually experiencing this on both the Share It and the E585. So I’m sure that it’s not the device causing it. Or is Smart a victim of a Degradation of Service (DoS) attack?
Whatever the reason for these problems, SMART better find a solution soon. Note that I am also an Infinity subscriber and I’m very close to loosing my patience and thinking of switching to Globe not just for my internet service but also for my Mobile Phone service.
Smart Bro – needs to be Smart about this – and show brotherly love to their customers and get me to the Internet heaven that I thought I signed up for.
The 2Mbps is the maximum speed advertised. When I hit 1 Mbps I’m happy
I’m still happy with these speeds. They’re decent speeds for Browsing.
Unfortunately – this is what I have been seeing mostly. This is Internet Limbo.
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