PLDT Home BRO/Ultera Review

Written By Roi Plata on Thursday, August 20, 2015 | 11:40:00 PM

I have been a subscriber of PLDT Home Bro for several months now and thinking to upgrade my plan or change my ISP right after my contract with them end, but before I do that let me have a review for this ISP.

Home BRO was previously known as Smart Bro, it is a wireless canopy-based broadband by PLDT and Smart. For 990/Month with free installation you can have a 2mbps wireless connection at your home.

If you will visit PLDT website today, you will notice that once you click the Home bro link it will just redirect you to their new product, the Ultera. It is because PLDT started killing off its Canopy and expanding its new wireless service using LTE, which is currenltly the most advance wireless technology today.

If you're also a home bro subscribers like me, I guess you too have received some phone calls from their representatives offering you a free upgrade to their Ultera. The first time they call, I said that I will think about it, when I surf the net for reviews about their experience with ultera I haven't read anything positive. Their main complain is the maximum data usage per month, you can have a 30gb per month at their plan 990 and once you reach the maximum usage per day, your speed will drop to 256kbps.

Ultera Plans - Screenshot from PLDT Website

My cousin is been a subscriber of Ultera for quite some time now. He said that the data usage allowance is not only the problem, but also the speed reliability. Ultera is offering 3 plans. 3mbps for 990, 5mbps for 1599 and 10mbps for 1999. Yes, you cannot expect that you can always have the speed you ask and they offered for, but at least the 50 percent of the speed you paid for? My cousin said that speed he experiencing right now is like he's already reach the maximum usage per day.

FUN PLAN  999

And what if he reach the maximum usage per day? His facebook loads like forever, He get always disconnected on Clash of clans and in some online game. Youtube automatically set its video quality to 144p. Ouch.

Base on my research on some reviews, some people also get reliable speed fom their Ultera. For the first 2 months or less and after that the speed drops and some are close or within the LTE coverage in their areas. But I will not risk my 36 months lock-in period because a very few people experience a 'reliable' speed.

So when they called again, I decline for upgrade and said that I'm planning to upgrade for a DSL broadband.

My first month as a Home BRO user was just like hell. websites are just keep loading. Images and links are always broken. But when I called their customer service and fix my canopy everything turn fine. I get an average speed of 0.7 mbps to 1.3 mbps for my plan 990. The only thing I notice that every time the month is about to end my speed always drops at 0.22 Mbps, this is when I found out that they also have a maximum data usage per month. I ask them what is their monthly allowance for canopy user but they told me that they don't have the information regarding the maximum data allowance on Home Bro, I read on some website that it's 30gb to 50gb per month.

Home Bro Speed Test - 2015

Another thing that I hate about PLDT is their customer care, I'm also a subscriber of Globe postpaid and Sky Cable but I don't experience any problem with them. Yes they do respond on my Facebook messages but it will took days for them to respond. When I'm calling their customer hotlines, my average waiting time for just to connect me to one of they're agents is 15 minutes. Unlike with Sky Cable, I even have a long conversation with one of their agents in Facebook about my inquiry about their broadband.

That's it, And my final words are that before you subscribes to any internet plan available in our country research for some reviews first, we cannot trust their advertisements anymore. It is best to ask your neighbor or anyone near your location what is their ISP and their experience with it. Because yes, location matters, even if the Globe is the worst internet provider here in the Philippines, there are still some place experience a reliable speed from them. It's still up to you and your knowledge where you will invest your money.