Globe is a cellular phone service provider in the Philippines who started offering a service called Super US Direct a little over a month ago to it’s customers. One of my other long time friends in the Philippines turned me on to it. The service allows people with Globe mobile phones to get a domestic US telephone number that goes directly to their cell phone for about $15 a month and no “per minute” fees. Now, thanks to Globe, we have been able to talk reliably and cost effectively. Additionaly, I’m able to manage the phone service online from here. So I purchased a dual-SIM phone for my girlfriend so she could keep her normal number and had her pick up a Globe SIM card. I signed her number up for the service online and we started using it immediatly.

Even though the number was primarily for us, we later shared the new number with her sister in Georgia so she could talk to her mom and other members of the family. Everyone was happy about the new service.

For the first month, the service was fantastic. We where able to talk to each other no matter where we were. I could call her on break from work. I could talk to her on my way to work in the morning. When she wanted to talk to me, she would give me a short call and I would call her back on the local number. We could easily discuss our plans and even work out details of our trips to visit each other while we were making them. It was a great service and relieved an amazing amount of stress on us due to communication costs, schedules, and bad connections. I was starting to become a big advocate of Globe to all my Filipino friends.

There was a small catch to the service. You could not renew for the next month until the current month expired and was deactivated. Once that happened, you had 5 days to renew to keep your US phone number.

So one month to the day, the service expired and I got online and renewed the service with my credit card (like I did when we got the service). I got a notification via email that the order would be processed within 24 hours.

24 hours later, I didn’t hear a thing. So I got online and chose to use the chat service with customer service. I had used it before get information on the service and since I’m an internet professional, this was very convenient for me. It seems the chat window was being rebuilt and was unavailable. They also offered support via Facebook and Twitter. But the Facebook site has a security warning and lets face it a twitter feed is simply too public. Their phone service had no way to reach a person so I was left only with email to handle the problem.

I started thinking that maybe my charge didn’t make it through, so I placed the order a second time and then after thinking about it, sent an email to Globe to make sure they got it and to see what the status was. I got an automated response almost right away that said the message would be reviewed within 24 hours.

A day later I got a response via email from a person that asked for more information about both me and my girlfriends location and phone numbers so they could look into the issue in more detail. I provided the inforamtion and got another automated message that said my message would be replied to in 24 hours.

Another day later, I got another email that said my order was being processed and should be activated within 24 hours.

Yet another day later, the service was still not activated, I called my girlfriend using Skype and asked if there was something she could do localy. She called Globe using her Globe phone and was able to get a human being to talk to. They said that the order was being processed and should be activated withing 24 hours (a very familiar response). So we decided to wait yet one more day.

A day went by and the phone STILL was not activated. Becuase you can subscribe to the service, I sent her a load for her phone that was enough to subscribe. When she tried, a message came back that said she was already subscribed to the service. But the service did not work. She called again and they told her that it would be activated withing 24 hours. She ran into the same problem I was running into here.

At this point, almost 5 days have passed and we still do not have the Super US Direct service. Tomorrow, if we do not get activated, we will loose the phone number we had that both me and her sister in Georgia use regularly. We will loose the number not because we did not do what we were supposed to to. But because the people at Globe didn’t do what they where supposed to

It seems to me that even though the customer support personel are “superficialy” polite and freindly, they seem to lack any ability to think beyond the script they are given to say. The default response to everything is “wait 24 hours”, yet nothing is ever done. If you explain the situation, they do not seem to track with the situation at all and just keep saying the same thing over and over. they clearly do not know how to listen and problem solve and they make no attempt to provide a REAL solution to the issue and if they do not know, they do not take any initiative on their own to find out or get someone to fix the problem.

In my opinion, this is one of the worst costumer service experiences I have ever had. I will update this page as things develop with this issue.

Over the last 2 to 3 weeks, my internet has become almost unusable. It has been running very slow due to lots of packet loss and frequently looses all connectivity altogether. Sometimes the connection seems fine and other times, I can’t do a thing. Comcast has been out many time and has reported the problem resolved following a number of those occasions. But alas, I’m still having the same issue. I’ve been running a ping tester I wrote some time back for the last 24 hours. This is a graph shows all the dropout today from 12:36 – 6:36pm.

NOTE: the times when the lines go off the graph is when I have no internet service.

Update – Monday – 9/19

Comcast came out today. The service tech who came out is the same one that has been here every other time. He is seeing the same line problems and has reported it again. He took some reading outside and said the signal was still not to specification. What I found interesting is that after he left, the connection was perfect for about an hour and a half. I’m wondering if something was not shaken when he did the check and then went back to it’s original state. Unfortunatly, the bad connection is back again and I’m getting this post in between bad moments.

I’ve now been running the ping tester for two days and have a full history. Here is the most recent ping snapshot showing the improved connection following the comcast visit. The ping tester is currently logging continuous pings to two Comcast IP addresses and one Google IP address. This report is for the Google IP address.

Another interesting thing I noted was that even though there has been problems constantly, things where much worse today as compared to yesterday. The biggest difference between the two days is the weather. Yesterday, it was a sunny day. Today, it has been raining all day.

The following two reports are from the exact same times for both yesterday and today.

Sunny Day - Snapshot from 9/18/2011 between 1:55pm and 4:55pm

Rainy Day - Snapshot from 9/19/2011 between 1:55pm and 4:55pm

Update – Tuesday – 9/20 – Morning

I woke up this morning and checked the ping logger. I was amazed to see there where no interruptions at night after a little before 11pm. There was a small bump around 6:40 this morning. But other than that, it seems like a perfect connection.

4-6am - No problems at all

The last 2 hours - There was a brief moment with high packet response times but no packet loss at all.

Update – Wednesday – 9/21 – Morning

Well, there still have been some problems. But not like before. There were some short outages throughout the evening last night and then long stretches of a good signal. After midnight, the signal was fantastic with only a single dropped packet from midnight until now. But clearly, the problem is not completly resolved. I’m continuing to monitor and collect data.

Period from 10pm - midnight on 9/20 showing the problems times.

Update – Wednesday – 9/21 – Evening

OK, this is crazy. I got here about 8pm and was having problems again. I looked at the report and saw that the signal was good for most of the afternoon. But then at around 7pm got bad and has been degrading ever since. I have projects I must get done tonight and I can’t even get online for more than a few minutes at a time. I also have not been able to webcam with my girlfriend overseas in days because of this problem. This needs to be resolved immediately as it has been going on for weeks now. I have numerous tickets and visits from Comcast. NOTHING has been resolved! There is absolutly no excuse for this to go on as long as it has.

Here is a snapshot of the last two hours. How can anyone work online with this kind of situation. As an internet developer, this has put me dead in the water and is costing me with clients and the people I work with.

Report from 9/21/2011 between 6:06pm and 8:06pm.

Update – Thursday – 9/22 – Evening

Well, here it is Thursday evening and the problems are still persisiting. I must admit that it was not a really that bad today. There were some clear problems between 1:30 and 1:45pm today but most of the the day seem to have been pretty good.

Snapshot on 9/22/2011 between 1:53pm - 3:53pm

On a related note, I called Comcast yet again last night. I was told that they were escalating the ticket to the “Pretention” department (whatever that is). I ws told someone would be calling me back about these issues. I’ve heard that before. In perfect form, I never heard back from anyone. In the last week, I have called Comcast at least 5 time, had one missed service call,  and had a service tech come out on Monday only to see the same problem he has seen here all the many times he has been here before. He reported the problem again.

I have lost count how many times I have called in the last 3 weeks. I have started logging calls and ticket numbers. It seems that all I get is a lot of talk and absolutely no REAL action. This is crazy.

As the local “computer guy” and block club facilitator, I have been hearing from other neighbors about this problem as well. Everyone is extreamly frustrated about this situation.

Update – Friday – 9/23 – Morning

It seems there was a full blown outage from about 1:10am – 6: 40am. I called to talk about my ticket and get the status of this outage. The tech I talked to said it was listed as a “Maintenance Repair”. He had no idea if it was related to my problem or the problems in the area but assumed it was. I only hope that this assumption is correct.

It seems strange to me that the people I talk to at Comcast never seem to have a line on what is going on with a repair and frequently have no way of finding out. It really seems that many times one hand does not know what the other is doing where Comcast is concerned and there is no way of finding out either.

Snapshot of Service Maintenance Window Outage1:00am - 6:45am

I understand the logistics of having to notify every customer in an area about what they are doing for a region. However, they can post it in a general area for customers to see. Like an online network status report for customers. This is what many other companies do and it helps customers feel like there is awareness of their problem.

Update – Saturday- 9/24 – Morning

Well, that bump early Friday morning must have been the repair crew. According to my ping logger, there has not been any problems at all in over 24 hours. There was only 2 lost packets in all that time which is quite acceptable. I also discovered that there was a call Thursday afternoon to notify me that there would be mantainance on the line.

It looks like they finanaly got it. I will keep monitoring the connection for the next few days just to make sure but I can say right now, this is the best connection I have had in quite a long time. I will be checking with my neighbors as well.

Snapshot of a good connection 9/23/2011 between 9am - 11am

Update – Saturday- 9/24 – Afternoon

It seems I spoke too quick. I just got a call from my neighbor (who lives at the other end of my block) asking about my internet connection. I checked the ping log and sure enough the problem has returned. My neighbor works online from home and needs the internet for work as I do.  She has not been able to do any real work since she switched over to Comcast this last week.

The problem returns on 9/24. Snapshot between approximately noon to 2pm

I also heard from my next door neighbors today who had both internet and phone service through Comcast. they told me that they have not had reliable service for over a month and have not been able to get any resolution to the problem. They have not been able to use their phone and their internet. They said that their phone service constantly disconnected and they could not use it at all. They just switched back to AT&T because they can not deal with this anymore. Even talking about the problem got then very upset and they told me that they have no faith in Comcast at all and will never use them again.

Update – Sunday – 9/25 – Morning

Well, it looks like the issue yesterday lasted about an hour and then resolved itself. I’m almost afraid to say it is looking better because everytime I do, something happens. But the connection seems to have been dropout free for the last 20 hours. However, the response times seem a but more volatile than usual. The good thing at this point is no lost packets. We will see how things go throughout the day today.

Update – Wednesday – 10/5 – Evening

Well I it has been 10 days since my last post. I have had the ping logger going the whole time. I have not been checking the connection constantly. But I have done samples of every day over the last 10. It seems the problem is resolved. I have a solid connection and my neighbor down the street is very happy with the connection they have too. Unfortunately for Comcast, this issue has cost them at least two customers on my block that I know of and one of them never wants to deal with Comcast again no matter how good things are now. It’s quite unfortunate that things went this far. But I’m happy I have a good connection now.

I’m sure many folks that received the eBay message may have thought that it is just some more political propaganda and not take much interest in it. But in reality, it is something that affects all of us who use the internet on a daily basis and is being viciously debated in legislative circles. There are some very heavy hitters lobbying our legislators on this topic and because of its rather abstract nature, we all could seriously loose out if we don’t get up to speed and voice our concerns.

Network Neutrality is a set of principles that the internet has operated under since its inception. The idea is that any internet traffic transferred across an “internet” connection provider’s network is given the same priority as any other internet traffic (regardless of where it comes from).This principle is what allows “Joe’s Recipe Website” and “Yahoo.com” to pop up in your browser at relatively the same speed.

There are companies that provide the bulk of our internet connections (like AT&T, Comcast and Time-Warner) who would like to be able to charge content, service, and software providers a fee to get an accelerated or preferred feed to it’s internet connection subscribers while leaving others (who don’t or can’t pay) with a limited or blocked feed.

As a consumer, this means that the speed you get your content will be determined by how much your content provider pays the various internet connection providers (like Comcast and AT&T). It would effectively build a significant barrier to developing online services for small startup companies, non-profit organizations, private publishers, or others that will be based on financial ability rather than creative and original ideas.

Don’t misunderstand this; we are not talking about preventing spam blocking, parental controls, hacker filters, or allowing illegal activity. We are also not talking about preventing a company from charging for its service, bandwidth, or infrastructure. However, we are talking about censorship of internet content and services to end users based on the financial ability of the content or service provider to pay the various connection providers.

The principle of Network Neutrality allows the small guy with their own websites, personal blogs, internet software product, small business, small online publication, personal server, and more to be accessed as easily as the big guys. It allows those who develop new internet technology and software on a shoestring budget to provide those services and products to the public as easily as anyone else. It allows the average person to be innovative, develop new technologies, and cost-effectively build a business around their efforts that can be accessed (without limitation) by anyone with an internet connection.

I urge anyone who uses the internet and relies on its dynamic and open nature to get informed on this issue by visiting any of the following links:

Save the Internet
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
A grass roots organization designed to preserve Network Neutrality

Latest News @ It’s Our Net
http://www.itsournet.org/News.php
This page is a complete list of articles published in major publication as well as current activity reguarding Network Neutrality.

Net Neutrality Blog @ It’s Our Net
http://www.itsournet.org/Blog.php
This blog is very informative and is good for keeping up to date on activisim activities reguarding Network Neutality

Wikipedia Aritcle on Network Neutrality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
This is a very comprehensive aritcle on Network Neutrality.

We Are The Web – Video
http://wearetheweb.org
This is more for entertainment purposes but still a good site. They created a site to inform about Net Neutrality and made their own crazy music video to promote awareness on the issue. When you get to the site, click on the link to the video on the left.

And of cource, do a Google search on “Network Neutrality” .
There are plenty of websites and online articles regarding this topic. I have found savetheinternet.com to be one of the best. It provides a good starting point that is quite helpful and informative.

There are currently a couple hotly debated bills in the US Senate that relate to Network Neutrality. They are:

Internet Freedom Preservation Act (bill number: S 2917).
This bill should be supported!
This bill is an amendment to the Communications Act and is a short, reasonable, and straight forward bill (as bills go). Its purpose is the ensure network neutrality. It will insure that we will continue to have the same access to information that many of us rely on and have grown so accustom to.

Senator Stevens’ telecommunications bill (bill number: S 2686)
This bill should not be supported without revision.
Unless real Net Neutrality language is added, it could open up the flood gates for many Broadband Service Providers to discriminate against content and create a tiered Internet. It is best to ask your legislators to vote “NO” on this unless Solid Network Neutrality language is added.

You can read both these bills on THOMAS at the Library of Congress (http://thomas.loc.gov/). When you get there, enter a search for the bill number.

It’s time to get informed, get involved, write your legislators on this issue, and express your support of continued Network Neutrality.