[ontheroad]

My so called "6/8M" contract with PCCW has finally come to an end and I'm looking for a new internet provider...
Can someone tell me who else has (reliable) fast(er) internet service? For HK island south...
Thanks!

[PDLM]

Faster to where? No ISP in Hong Kong has control over bandwidth beyond its connection to the next carrier, so there are no guarantees of speed to anywhere outside the ISPs own network.

I fairly reliably get 6MB/s downloads from various sites on PCCW, so there' s nothing inherently wrong with the bits of the service that they control as far as I see. They can have absolutely no control at all over the speed at which, say, a server in the UK can stream data to you, nor over any bottlenecks in any of the networks it passes through on the way to Hong Kong.

The only ISP which publishes target latencies (how long it takes a packet of data to get there and back) to any sites is HGC, which publishes a target for Youtube and a couple of other places. But even that just says how fast one packet can get there and back - it says nothing about Youtube's servers to deliver a sustained data stream of xMB.

[ontheroad]

I've lived all around the world, and never have I had constant disconnects, often lasting hours, and such snail-like speeds- that I've had with PCCW.
I need it to work, for my work! And so if I can, I want a better option! Obviously, if there's no alternative, I'll sign up again...
Unfortunately it's so complicated to find any alternative info on the internet (in English) about different service plans and different (local, yes I understand this part) speeds offered; I was hoping someone could share their own personal light on this.
I've had the HKB guys on the phone and they can't seem to be able to tell me if my building can get their service...

[PDLM]

If your service constantly disconnects and slow speeds then you have a fault - have you asked PCCW to fix it? It can sometimes take some persistence - the problem is generally that the building wiring (i.e. the wires from your apartment to the nearest PCCW network equipment, often in the basement for big apartment blocks) is not always of high quality and you get interference between the wires used for your apartment and those used for a neighbour's. There isn't always an easy fix for this (the building wiring is normally provided by the developer, not by any one carrier/ISP) but often the problem will go away if PCCW change the individual wires used to your apartment (there are often 4 or 6 wires to each apartment, not all used).

If other people in your building are experiencing similar problems then it may be that the problem is a little further away and that PCCW needs to be pressured to bring optical fibre closer to your apartment rather than running over copper wires that are too long or too old to do the job properly. I had this problem (although perhaps not as bad as you describe) in my previous apartment and after a couple of months concerted effort by a number of residents PCCW brought fibre to the basement of the building. After that everything was rock solid.

If you have problems like you describe they will almost certainly also be impacting NOW TV transmission, so if you want that you really don't have much choice but to hassle PCCW.

By the way, it can help to copy the PCWW Chief Technical Officer on emails to PCCW Customer Service. I find that gets a very quick and effective response provided that you have a reasonable case and can show that you have made efforts to get the problem fixed by contacting Customer Service previously. I probably shouldn't post his email here, but his name is easy to find with Google and PCCW staff email addresses are of the form <firstname>.<secondname><at>pccw.com

[ontheroad]

Thanks a lot for all of that. Yes the PCCW people have come about a dozen times in the past 18 months, every time they change something different, the modem, etc, nothing seems to work, so I've given up!
But after looking around today it seems I won't have much of a choice because they're the only ones that can get a connexion in my building... Ah well.
The internet here just sums up the whole schizophrenic aspect of HK: super modern for some things, completely old-and-crappy for some others. I guess no place on earth is perfect.

[PDLM]

It's ridiculous to generalise your experience (which could simply be due to one failure of cable pressurisation) to the rest of Hong Kong. For most people in Hong Kong their broadband connection is absolutely solid and much better than in many other countries. For example, in the UK the definition of "broadband" starts at 256kbps. Hong Kong has one of the highest rates of broadband (defined here I guess at 2Mb/s upwards) in the world.

If they have been a dozen times and it still doesn't work then escalate to Mr Berriman as I suggested. It will probably be fixed pretty quickly. This is China - knowing the right people (or at least their name) is key.

[Boris]

I am getting nothing of the problems you say is causing you grief and I live in a very remote area with only the PCCW option available to me. I also don't think its happing very much on the system as a whole.

Maybe you should look more towards yous system than outside of it.

[KnowItAll]

HGC (Hutchison) - ROCK solid connectivity across Asia and to the US.

They'll hopefully be the connectivity provider soon when we move all our servers from the US to HK.

[KnowItAll]

( HGCbroadband.com )

While the residential guys at PCCW might care... I've completely given up on them for corporate use. The last person I recommended to HGC Broadband moved from Pacific Net and is happy.

[sp1key]

PCCW user here last year...

signed up with HGC this year...

verdict: had no problems with PCCW connectivity and no problems with HGC either...

HGC is cheaper therefore my choice