Moving from Thailand

[Tommy T.]

Just don't expect stellar internet service anywhere you settle... or am I wrong about this? Certainly, here in Davao - a very large city - the service is sometimes okay...sometimes glacial... Hopefully it is better elsewhere...

[adrian canuck]

3 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Just don't expect stellar internet service anywhere you settle... or am I wrong about this? Certainly, here in Davao - a very large city - the service is sometimes okay...sometimes glacial... Hopefully it is better elsewhere...

Is this a dedicated internet line - fibre or cable ?

How are speeds using you fone as a mobile hotspot ? Speeds better ?

[GeoffH]

34 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Just don't expect stellar internet service anywhere you settle... or am I wrong about this? Certainly, here in Davao - a very large city - the service is sometimes okay...sometimes glacial... Hopefully it is better elsewhere...

It's been my experience that the internet service in Manila near Makati area can be every bit as good as it is in Australia (with the right connection) but in CDO where our house is the service is sluggish and less reliable. 

It is my belief (from having done some testing) that there is significant congestion in peak periods in CDO, Illigan and Ozamiz and I'd be surprised if Davao was any different.  Given the wide spread nature of the congestion I suspect the limitation is the links between Mindanao and Cebu and onwards to Manila rather than the actual local connection but in practice it doesn't make a difference, congestion is congestion.

In our case local Globe at Home wireless struggles to get to 3MBps with a strong signal and similar performance is gotten from the cable link we had.

We switched to fibre (initially capped at 10MBps) and got 3Mbps again... upping the connection to 30MBps got us a varying connection of between 8 and 10MBps (100MBps isn't available at our location).

Performance at Illigan on Globe at Home was 3MBps, performance at Ozamiz on Globe at Home is 3MBps and cable is the same.  The latency is however worse at Illigan than at CDO and even worse again at Ozamiz which I put down to the fact that there is additional interlinking backhaul to traverse.

OTOH I normally get 40 to 50MBps when we're near Makati and latency is low.

Edited April 28, 2020 by GeoffH

[Tommy T.]

4 minutes ago, adrian canuck said:

Is this a dedicated internet line - fibre or cable ?

How are speeds using you fone as a mobile hotspot ? Speeds better ?

Personally, I use mostly the cell tower data internet connection. We do have a Globe wired (not fiber) connection but lately is a bit hit and miss. I am guessing that, with everyone idling at home, FaceBook and others are going crazy with messaging, video calls, etc. Our connection is not good enough to reliably download movies from Netflix or the like. But it could be because we do not pay for a faster connection? Not sure...

There is fiber available in some areas with either of the two carriers, but you should maybe check first. Even with fiber, you may still not get super service. I remember reading last year that there were issues with the sea-floor cable connections between Philippines and their best connections - Hong Kong? Singapore? I honestly forget which...

I have also read that the main providers - Smart and Globe intentionally slow down service somehow to try to reduce usage for phone and video calls using Viber, WhatsApp and other social media connections. But perhaps this is an urban myth? It will pay you to do some research. Plus, boots on the ground experience will also show you perhaps where it works and where it doesn't.

[Mick]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Just don't expect stellar internet service anywhere you settle... or am I wrong about this? Certainly, here in Davao - a very large city - the service is sometimes okay...sometimes glacial... Hopefully it is better elsewhere...

Hang in there, converge will start work in your neck of the woods once the quarantine is lifted, they should have started there 1st march, all material is ready to be shipped. 

[hk blues]

I'll throw Iloilo into the ring.  A reasonable size place with sufficient infrastructure.  For some, the lack of a visible sizeable ex-pat community may be downside.  Fast developing.  As for internet, fiber being rolled out but even without 10mbps speed is readily available unless you are moving a bit from the city.

A solid 8/10 for me

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Personally, I use mostly the cell tower data internet connection. We do have a Globe wired (not fiber) connection but lately is a bit hit and miss. I am guessing that, with everyone idling at home, FaceBook and others are going crazy with messaging, video calls, etc. Our connection is not good enough to reliably download movies from Netflix or the like. But it could be because we do not pay for a faster connection? Not sure...

There is fiber available in some areas with either of the two carriers, but you should maybe check first. Even with fiber, you may still not get super service. I remember reading last year that there were issues with the sea-floor cable connections between Philippines and their best connections - Hong Kong? Singapore? I honestly forget which...

I have also read that the main providers - Smart and Globe intentionally slow down service somehow to try to reduce usage for phone and video calls using Viber, WhatsApp and other social media connections. But perhaps this is an urban myth? It will pay you to do some research. Plus, boots on the ground experience will also show you perhaps where it works and where it doesn't.

What internet speed are you getting Tom?  For me, even when we had an issue and were downgraded to 5mbps - in reality about 4mbps - we were still able to watch Netflix with no buffering 95% of the time - exception being late at night,  Otherwise, fine.

[graham59]

If you like the ladies, a good choice of cheaper properties to rent, plenty of expats and 'expat services' generally, plus good internet connection.... maybe start your search and travels from a cheaper hotel in Angeles City....WHEN you can actually get on a plane and stay in a hotel.   

Edited April 28, 2020 by graham59
typo

[AusExpat]

19 hours ago, adrian canuck said:

Living in a village outside Chiang Mai.

Ride one of my bikes every day, and once established in PI will purchase a car, so out of the central area not a problem. Like to just get on and ride, see the area, multi day trips not a problem.

Decent internet appreciated, and as said above, still enjoy the company of the ladies.

Non smoker, non drinker.

Had a large garden in Thailand, so don't mind that, but hard to do in a condo.

From searching this - and other - PI forums it seems from other posters that if you want decent internet, live in Metro wherever. If you want a more  quiet, laid back existence you might have to put up with not so good speeds.

Would rent a house, but concerns about the security issue while away from home seems to dictate a condo until I know an area - and the people - well.

Living near Chiang Mai I'd likely go with Dumagette then for a similar experience though that's from research and talking to people I've been there - was going to go last month to look for myself.

I'd still say Subic is the easiest jump in point, bars, girls, lots of expats and its pretty safe there as there is a gaol, a detectives station and the police station and most importantly it is easy to get a month by month (starting from 12,000p/month) rental which can be difficult in other areas. A lot of guys there live in the surrounding areas, you'll get better info on the ground. though you may just want to go to Dumagette depending upon how you feel. You can rent  motorbikes in Subic though with the buses and jeepneys (baht bus) being so cheap I never did, plus the roads were terrible, under Duterte's "build, build,build" program the roads are being improved massively.

Phone internet sucks in Subic and Angeles City, though I believe the cabled internet is much better. Lots of Internet marketers of varying forms live in AC so it has to be ok. I don't like AC as it's a mini-Pattaya and attracts a lot of people you most likely don't want to meet, unless you like dramas. In suberban Manila I can watch full HD streaming video through the phone even through a VPN to the US or EU.

There are other enclaves of foreigners spread out through The Philippines though usually smaller and I've not found one I'd like to live in permanently though I do visit several places regularly. It is a big country but there are not too many places with large expat populations.

The other place similar to Chiang Mai would be Baguio in terms of weather, problem is the roads in and out are mountainous death traps, I really like it there but the population and car ownership has exploded so it's a constant traffic jam and no real way to mitigate it due to the terrain. I've also heard it's exceptionally dangerous gettign in and out in rainy season. I asked a fellow there why he retired there, his answer was interesting "I only need to shower once a day", though there are foreigners there they don't seem to have any places they congregate, which is also testament to the Filipinos there having very good English and lots of guys hang out with their Filipino friends from my understanding.

The only other thing I have to comment upon again is this is not Thailand, it took me some adjusting to, people here are generally nicer (hence I avoid AC, reminds me of Pattaya too much), I did miss thailand a lot coming here there are so many benefits there, but overall it is easier to live here, less daily stresses, a lot less racism - in 7 years I have only had two people tell me to go back to my country to which I told them to F right off - one of those ended up at the local barangay and upon hearing this the offical said sorry to me, and explained most Filipinos are not like this.

A small point of interest is we are not falangs, but Joe, as in thanks G.I. Joe for saving us from the Japanese, though I don't here Joe as much as I used to. It's not a derogatory term.

On language. most Filipinos speak enough English to do their jobs in English, they don't really speak English very well except in Baguio and up north from there were you can really have good in depth conversations on most topics in English. Cebu was pretty good too, AC and Subic are passable too of course due to the number of foreigners there.

As to the local language, Tagalog, I found in the Visayas and up North in Luzon they speak their own dialects then English as a second language and then tagalog third.

If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer having spent over 7 years in each country (and speaking conversational Thai) I might be able to give you some relevant answers.

Edited April 28, 2020 by AusExpat

[Arizona Kid]

7 hours ago, GeoffH said:

It's been my experience that the internet service in Manila near Makati area can be every bit as good as it is in Australia (with the right connection) but in CDO where our house is the service is sluggish and less reliable. 

It is my belief (from having done some testing) that there is significant congestion in peak periods in CDO, Illigan and Ozamiz and I'd be surprised if Davao was any different.  Given the wide spread nature of the congestion I suspect the limitation is the links between Mindanao and Cebu and onwards to Manila rather than the actual local connection but in practice it doesn't make a difference, congestion is congestion.

In our case local Globe at Home wireless struggles to get to 3MBps with a strong signal and similar performance is gotten from the cable link we had.

We switched to fibre (initially capped at 10MBps) and got 3Mbps again... upping the connection to 30MBps got us a varying connection of between 8 and 10MBps (100MBps isn't available at our location).

Performance at Illigan on Globe at Home was 3MBps, performance at Ozamiz on Globe at Home is 3MBps and cable is the same.  The latency is however worse at Illigan than at CDO and even worse again at Ozamiz which I put down to the fact that there is additional interlinking backhaul to traverse.

OTOH I normally get 40 to 50MBps when we're near Makati and latency is low.

I could give a fork less about the technical stuff that you are talking about. Just say if it works good or not. Isn't that the same thing?