Hello,

I'm new to Lamma and to this forum.

I recently moved in Ko Long Village and I am looking for the internet plans proposed by the different providers.

After reading the discussions on this forum, I checked out PCCW/Netvigator, HGC/3 and PACNET.

For example, this is what I got at PCCW:
218 HKD / month for a 3 Mb plan + 13 HKD / month (WiFi), 24 month contract.
No Now TV ("not available in this area").

I am wondering if this is the standard price in Lamma. I've seen cheaper offers being discussed in the forum, but I can't find them online.

I am looking for a 'not too slow' connection, with WiFi in my apartment + possibly hotspot access elsewhere in HK.
Also, one concern is that everyone seems to be offering only 24 month (or longer) contracts, with no way of cancelling them without paying for the whole 24 month fees. I would like to get shorter contracts (or contracts coming with a reasonable cancellation fee) since I would like to be free to cancel my contract if I don't like it / move out.

Any feedback about this ?
Thank you

You can bargain with PCCW for a 18 months contract but I don't think they will agree for anything less than that. And you can also move your account to another location in Hong Kong for free.

Other than that you can ask your neighbours to share their wi-fi with you for half the fee, buy a 3G modem or use your mobile phone by connecting it to your computer.

The "special offers" often aren't documented online. Especially PCCW, which only has the "normal" rates shown.

Frequently there are sales blitzes in YSW, usually they set up a booth near the pier.
Some salesmen may promise services we can't get on Lamma, so make sure you get it in writing.

Thank you for the replies.

So I settled for the 'standard' offer:
18-month contract
218$ / month for 3 MB service
+13$ for WiFi service
+48$ (per device) for free access to hotspots in HK

I am concerned by a couple of things:

- According to the PCCW guy, if I pay by cash I need to make a 800$ prepayment

- installation is free of charge, so is contract cancellation after the 18 months. Relocating within 18 months is free, but after that it costs 300$ ? I don't get the logic. (PCCW guy couldn't undertand when I asked him)

I guess I could find something better, but let's just try this one for a start. Anyway that's still cheaper than what I was paying in Japan & France. So we'll see.

Joji

I'm about to move to Lamma as well and wondering about the Internet service on the island. I've contacted PCCW and they offer me 3M plus nowTV for $238 a month with a 24-month contract.

I want to know how the 3M speed is doing? Would the connection be very slow during peak time? Is that sufficient for a Skype-type video conferencing call? Would a mobile 3G works as good?

Thanks for any info on this!!

Cheers,
Sola

I use 3G mobile broadband (first with SmarTone and then with CSL 1010) but tried using PCCW's 3M fixed line Internet.

The Internet is definitely slower on Lamma no matter what. However, I find that 3G mobile broadband (no matter the company) is consistently slower than the PCCW service. Videos on YouTube load faster. I work in computer related stuff, and even text-only terminals are slower.

In the more esoteric, I suspect that the slowness is especially true for stuff where you need interaction, like in a text terminal (which most people probably won't ever touch). Streaming music has been alright on mobile broadband.

So if downloading, lots of video watching is needed, you may need PCCW.

Otherwise, try mobile broadband first by tethering from your smartphone, if you have one... Canceling a plan for mobile broadband tethering from a phone costs a minimal fee (~500hkd).

So, all the other service providers have chosen to stop taking in new residential customers and PCCW really are the only company offering landline broadband on Lamma?

For some strange reason I can't see there being any more "special offers" under the current state of affairs.

But aren't many people here still using providers other than PCCW? I wonder what those other companies gain by refusing to sign up new customers since it basically only involves the same old procedure of having the PCCW tech set up the 'modem' and watching automatic monthly billing do the rest??

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"Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!"

Yes.
I was paying $168/month to Pacnet.
They are terminating their service in December.

The only DSL ISP here now is PCCW. And so they don't even have to pretend to be competitive.

I'm going to have to pay 50% more, $238, for the same service 50% more than Netvigator was offering a year ago. No discounts, no offers.

And I'm also going to have to pay $380 for a "connection fee' even though I have perfectly working DSL connection now and only need a new password for PCCW. Even though until a few months ago this fee was notional and always waived.

And I have to sign up for 24 months, and you can terminate it only by paying the FULL AMOUNT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE TERM. Even if I move somewhere civilised where they have a choice of ISPs, I'm still going to have to pay those bloodsucking bastards $238/month until 2015.

Of course, I have a choice, I can use dial up. Or do without. So, it's all perfectly fine and above board.

That's a seriously sweet deal, Alan! Just not sweet for you...

I just heard about similar "offer you can't refuse", except even worse: well over $250 a month with full 30 months lock-in.

One friendly salesdroid from a competing firm claimed they'd love to sign me up, but PCCW is no longer willing to share their pipes under new deals. Well, this despite us having everything already set up at our end with just the provider changing.

Of course this stinks, <cough, cough> but we're just expected to suck it up. Besides, Richie Li really needs our cash...

_________________
"Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!"

This topic is becoming more of an issue than the cycle parking at the pier!!

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Sabe 1

What company is that?


I'm now talking to Netfront. They're $248/month, $10 more than Netvigator, but they still waive the installation fee and have a commitment of only six months. So since I'm being evicted in 6 months, that's a much better deal for me. Also, If I'm still around on Lamma, I can switch to HGC at short notice if those bastards ever light up their fibre.

Alan, that was New World Telecom.

Apparently to qualify for their residential broadband these days the location must support "NWT self block wiring". Why that has become a requirement beats me. For whatever reason PCCW isn't flipping their switches on NWT's behalf any longer.

Netfront does sound interesting under the circumstances. Best of all, they're not PCCW (or are they?? ) and secondly a contract with 6-months of chain-and-ball and inst. fee waived sounds comparatively reasonable today.

Surely that $248/month is for a 1000M (1Gbps) connection, like the $199 deals just across the East Lamma Channel?

Seriously though, 1.8M, 3.0M or 6.0M?

_________________
"Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!"

$248 is their 1.8 M. $268 for 3.8 M. Paying for 6M on Lamma is just pissing money away. I'll go for the cheaper option, they say I can upgrade later, but I doubt it would make any practical difference here. I only absolutely need reliable email, and access to information like Wikipedia, the rest is dispensible.

I don't think that it's actually PCCW that's blocking the other ISPs, that would be pretty illegal, more that all the ISPs are going for fibre and 4G, and the little pockets of HK like Lamma that are stuck with DSL broadband aren't worth the hassle.

But PCCW is certainly taking full advantage and putting our balls in a vice to maximise their return now there is almost no alternative. The salesmen were very cheerful when I told them I was on Lamma, they knew they didn't need to give me any concessions. I wonder if they'll screw existing subscribers when their contracts are up.

Waah, I was afraid of that. 1.8M can barely accomodate a single medium quality video stream and 3M(+) is IMHO the practical minimum for doing anything else in addition to that single stream.

My current 6M link, admittedly only meters from a switchbox, has on rare occasions toyed with the magical 4mbps limit under the best of conditions.



" ... the authority has received complaints from operators that have been unable to reach commercial arrangements for access to blockwiring systems. There are often valid reasons for this: there may be a lack of blockwiring facilities or the provider may have a genuine need to retain the facilities for itself. However, the authority notes that in many cases there is no valid reason for refusing access."

I think I was born (sometimes too) curious.



Didn't PCCW announce a price hike around the time PacNet announced they were quitting the residential market?

With PCCW the price will go up the second any temporary concessionary deal expires, guaranteed.

Personally I believe that, in return for receiving their operating license, the service providers ought to be required to serve the public in a non-discriminatory manner regardless of their location and under uniform pricing.

And Santa Claus really does live in Lapland. (think about it: there are no reindeers in the north pole, and the place is melting away anyway!)

_________________
"Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!"

This is what I get now, despite being on a "3M" plan: [


So, why pay for a service I can't get.

I don't think there is any "block wiring" here at all, if I understand the term correctly.

There's just a plastic pipe with a bunch of wires in it that comes out in a box outside, and each flat's wires are connected to it. Anyone can access it. There is no common wiring inside the building.

Anyway, they don't need to run any new wires to install DSL, the whole point is that it uses existing circuits. You just put a filter in the socket to separate digital signals. Originally I got the filter and modem in the post and set it up myself.

Netfront insists on sending a serviceman, but he's only going to give me a modem and confirm that it works. I will be very surprised if he needs to use a screwdriver.



In general the govt has created competition in telecoms and created better, cheaper services. If you remember back when HKT was the only phone company, it was a completely different story. But even though it was expensive and inflexible, at least they acted more like a public utility than the rapacious scumbags that they are since Richard Lee took it over and changed its name a few times.

Probably 90% of HK has a good choice of phone and internet services. It's just those in the peripheral areas who get shafted.

1-2 years ago there were a half dozen choices of broadband here, and you could pay as little as $120/month. Now there is basically just PCCW, and the price has doubled, while service is getting steadily worse as demand increases but the uplink is the same.

But eventually, HGC has to activate their fibre and then DSL will be gone. Except for all the people who have unbreakable 24 or 30 month contracts, to squeeze the last blood from the stone.

I don't believe HGC has any intention of activating their fibre. It was a tax dodge all along!

The high speed cable seems to be running now - at least for TV. The hair dresser is getting the new TV service. He said he paid just over 2k for the box up front and then pays 800 a year after that. It has loads of channels that come through crystal clear and has about 2,500 movies that you can instantly download and watch, with the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind at will. Don't know if the net is running or not but you would think so. The 21st century has finally arrived on Lamma. Well... in terms of technology at least.

Please tell us more!!!

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Sabe 1

I did a bit of enquiry into this. My local TV satellite expert told me this:

This is using the IPTV box from China. The IPTV box costs about $2,500-3,000 and is only 1280x720p, unlike cheaper satellite HD TV boxes at 1920x1080i.

It's got 200 channels but needs the full maximum 3-6Mb speed of your PCCW Broadband line. So you need to test your line speed first as it usually slows down dramatically in the evening and at night, right when you might want to watch TV. During the daytime, it might be OK as we've recently been getting about 5Mb sustained downloading speed during daytime. But how long this OK speed is going to last is anyone's guess.

But while this IPTV box is running you can hardly use Internet at the same time at all as there's no bandwidth left. Many people have used it already and complained about this, so my satellite TV guy is not recommending it and is not selling and installing it on Lamma.

IF you're OK with not using the Internet at the same time as watching TV, like the hairdresser, and
IF you are willing to pay $3,000+ for the setup, and
IF you're prepared that it all will only work for a few months before going offline completely (like all the other China-based TV options I've tried over the years),
then this might be an OK-for-now and quite low-cost solution, cheaper than any satellite TV option for now.

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Most set top boxes seem to be able to record to a hard disk. So you could set it to record programs in the daytime and watch them at night. But you could just torrent files for free and watch them later if that's what you want.

A bunch of people using these and we'd end up with dead slow Internet for everyone all day. every day.

I can't even listen to internet radio streams in the evening, 48kbps AAC without it dropping out all the time.

There are software (Chinese) streaming TV solutions, eg PPStream. Don't know what resolution it offers though.