My take on Sky Cable’s ZPDee

I love it. Used to be a Destiny user, have also tried PLDT myDSL (both at home & office), SMART WiFi, and who could forget Sky Internet (Dial-Up, now that sucked at service and speed big time!)

But I’m sticking with ZPDee for now at least. We first switched to ZPDee from Destiny because at that time, Destiny was also providing our cable TV. But then they got wise and removed all the wonderful channels like STAR World, ESPN, etc., we decided to switch to Sky Cable and hence to avail of the discount for TV and Cable internet, we switched ISP’s as well. Not that Destiny’s cable internet was one to deserve my praise, I was surprised at how better ZPDee’s service was. And for them to match the downtrend of their competitors prices was a big plus for me. Now at an affordable Php 999 per month (384 kbps, their cheapest is Php 690 for 64 kbps), plus the 15% we get from being a Sky Cable subscriber, I would say their service and uptime is worth it. Our total downtime for 3 years is only around 6 days, 4 of which happened during my father’s death. Now who’s to say that was not my father taking away all possible distractions from us mourning him? I think so. Other than that, other downtimes are minimal would only last hours at a time.

29 thoughts on “My take on Sky Cable’s ZPDee”

  1. Service has deteriorated in the last month along with home customer service. Needed to use PLDT dialup about 25 pct of the time

  2. hi, im planning to have an internet connection here at my place. i was just wondering if you could give me some advice on which isp to choose. ZPDee, PLDT Dsl or Bayantel Sky DSL.

    thanks

  3. I don’t know where you got the idea that “they got wise and removed all the wonderful channels like STAR World, ESPN” thing but you are sadly mistaken my friend.

    The truth behind the loss of the channels from Destiny is that The Star group that owns all the channels you mentioned including Nat Geo and A1 was that Star already had equity in SkyCable and was essentially a partner of the Lopez group (the evil empire). This happened because of the huge debt that Sky incurred since it started buying programs from Star. Being already a part owner of Sky, Star is now allied with SkyCable against Destiny, one of only two other competitors.

    The Lim family refused to merge with Sky in 2004 when its Founder, industrialist Elena Lim (of Sony and Kia fame) realized that by doing so, Sky would have complete monopoly over the cable TV and Internet industry and that would not be good for the country. Atty. Lim and her children opted to merge with a Filipino-Taiwanese, Philip Chien of Global Cable, a medium sized cable company that although was not technically superior but had a good track record in management and fiscal controls.

    Star is a part of the Hutchison Group owned by the late media mogul Rupert Murdoch is now controlled and managed by his two children. It is based in Hong Kong and has its mass market in India.

    As for Destiny’s Internet Service, I personally would not subscribe yet at this time even if the service is improving. The group that handles the internet service has yet to be put under the management of Mr. Chien. I foresee improvement when that happens in the second half of the year.

    Destiny is still faster than ZPDee, PLDTDSL and GlobeDSL in a side by side comparison we did at a friend’s house in San Lo Makati. The problem with Destiny was that it was down at an average of two hours everyday! Most often in the mid-morning.

    Boyd

  4. @ elisa

    I’m really not in a position to endorse an ISP but from the time I posted this entry up to the present, I still have little or no complaints about Sky’s internet service. I suggest you read other blogs about PLDT and Bayantel and decide from there. Some things you can consider are price, availability, technical service availability, uptime and promos. Good luck!

    @ BOY DIEZ

    I apologize for mixing those words together, regarding the disappearance of the channels, and thank you for clearing that up. However, we probably spend 80% of our TV time in those channels, so the switch was an obvious choice, even if we were loyal to Destiny for a couple of years. I was merely talking to myself when I posted this entry, although I was and am still content with Sky’s service, so maybe I’ll clear up a couple of things in a new post.

    I hope Destiny’s service improves under Mr. Chien. You are right about Destiny’s speed, but in my needs and (I imagine) a majority of other people , a 2 hour daily downtime is unnaceptable. Thank you for dropping by.

  5. Star has equity in SkyCable. Is this true? There were no reports about that or they were just keeping it a secret.

  6. Is myDestiny Broadband Internet under Mr. Chien now coz I saw a lot of complaints currently with their subscribers? And I’ve read that myDestiny can’t provide a decent online gaming experience (eventhough it has supposed faster download speed), is this true?

  7. Philip Chien and the Lim family have some sort of feud. Philip was supposed to head myDestiny but it didn’t fly because Elena stepped in. The merger (Global Destiny Cable and myDestiny internet) fell through because Elena was never consulted regarding the merger. It was David and Susan (Elena’s children) who wanted Philip to head myDestiny. Elena was even quoted saying “It will take more than a Taiwanese military man to put me down.”

    During mid-2007, Elena was reported to have asked Global Destiny people to vacate the head end area to transfer them to a smaller area where the Solid House canteen once was. Global Destiny is actually paying rent pa rin sa Solid House.

    Philip Chien’s CEO-ship is actually contractual. He was tasked to bring in Star channels. Deadline: January 2008.

    I wonder how Global Destiny is now. Hmmmmm.

    Re: the terrible myDestiny service, I think it’s because the people there are too focused on their myPhone product. (Yup, it’s the same group)

  8. my thoughts in Zpdee that it is quite slow. im unable to play online games because its lagging. please improve your network services.

  9. User…guess u have to google it…there are lot of thngs that vary when it comes to speed of your internet..and PLUS..lagging from playng online games isnt always the liability of your internet provider thats a FACT. I my self is player. and even if youll take the highest speed available, when u game server is HIGHLY POPULATED, plus the game itself has to improved their game. then youll experience lag. your post is sooo BIAS, limited. and NARROW. thnx mate.

  10. thats jst one side of sooo many sides to look and investigate, LIKE maybe your PC is nt that OVERPOWERD =) plus, VIRUS/SPYWARE/ etc. try cleaning your PC and try all the GAMES, and finally! come and play with us, WORLD OF WARCRAFT! BLIZZARD! quality game man. and then once your done testing with all the games, and done with checking with viruses and spywares. NOW THATS THE TIME YOU CONCLUDE. thnx mate.

  11. response time is bad talking 5 secs for a google page to show but when the streaming eventualy kicks in its ok, every 3 or for weeks that response time moved ever bigger into larger tcp pauses and its worse then dial up i then ring for engineer and they reboot, Im paying for the 1MB option zpdee sucks, im beggining to think broadband in general in the philippines sucks

  12. i’d prefer to stick with PLDT myDSL…… saan ka pa edi sa sigurado… hey don’t get me wrong, we also have a sky cable here in our place in quezon city pero doon na ako sa sigurado, di ka pa nadidisconnect 😀 good luck zpdee users….

  13. Hi folks, zpdee got upgraded this month, check their website not it re-directs to skybroadband.com.ph… i got my 1.5mbps upgrade from 512kbps with same price, 999 per month.. they upgraded 3 times of my current subscription without changing my MSF.. and they even have 12mbps, but i can’t afford.. hehehe.. but zpdee is great or I may say skybroadband is great.

  14. yup-yup, zpdee is a great ISP, very reliable and consistent compared to the competition. now that they are being absorbed by Sky Broadband.. has anybody experienced sky broadband service? how is it?

    i REALLY hope it’ll be the same as ZPDEE or better..

  15. actually, skybroadband is still zpdee, they only changed their brand name.. i guess they pattern all their brand names into “sky” thing… SkyCable, SkyVoice, and SkyBroadband.. so no worries about reliability, consistency, since they are with same management, same network, only new are Brand Name, and new plans, and speed.. 🙂

  16. Just got a free 15 days trial period of skybroadband 1.5 mbps coz were sky cable subsscribers. I was very excited because I thought this would be an upgrade from PLDT myDSL 512 kbps I’m using to play online games. However when they hooked it up and I tried playing Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty 5 online, I lagged like hell. I didn’t have any lag problems while with PLDT. Going to call them tomorrow and hope this is just temporary. If not, guess back to PLDT I go.

  17. @ Boy Diez

    You put up a lot of information which is mostly incorrect. Worst of which is killing off Rupert Murdoch. He is alive and well. Your style of name dropping makes it look like your post is fact, when it is not.

  18. ZPDee is a very good provider, to be honest the it is pretty decent but.. ever since they changed their brand name to SkyBroadband, I’ve been experiencing terrible lag problems in all of my online games and a little downtime while browsing, and it’s been happening for a month now, and I’ve been calling their tech support each week and they only instruct me to unplug the cables at the back of the modem etc. etc. that’s why I’ve decided to change my provider. Such a waste, I really liked the old ZPDee waay better.

  19. You know what hanga rin ako sa professionlism nang mga taga ZPdeeZZZzzzZzZZZZZzzzzz, Sayang I used to think na ok cla sa service and reliability. Ngayon instead of improving their service, they are deliberately fucking me up! if they want it this way so be it

  20. I’ve been using SkyBroadband since February, and since March i’ve had problems with it. More than two months na akong walang service, or if there is, it’s slow and way lower than the 1.5MBPS i’m supposed to be paying for. I’m so frustrated, wala naman magawa ang technical and support staff nila. It’s costing me a lot of money coz i have to go to an internet cafe to work (i’m supposed to work from home). Since i’m the only subscriber in my area in QC, walang ibang nagcocomplaim so they’re apparently not giving my calls the attention it deserves. Anyone wants to give me an idea who i can contact to complain about them? I’m ready to sue them, and i think i would be justified!

  21. Camica, I have the same problems. I even upgraded this month to their 6MB service thinking it would solve the slow upload speeds and terrible latency. It apparently got worse since aside from the slow connection, I can’t even get an internet signal (either the modem “cable” light is flickering or I can’t get an IP address). This has gone on for two weeks and they keep on insisting that the problem is not on their end. Calling customer service is nearly impossible. When you do get an agent on the other end, they give you inane recommendations on what to do (unplug this and that, all useless).

    While I give you props for considering legal action. Note that I actually have a friend at Skycable and asking him for help only got me a “case study” from their team with the end conclusion that nothing is wrong on their end. So in order to end this frustration, I’m simply going to have my service disconnected as soon as the period I already paid for expires.

    I am waiting for my PLDT application – taking a while since I needed to have the landline installed. While I have also seen the same complaints against PLDT, I am more than willing to give them a try since in my experience (we had PLDT in my parent’s house), they at least respond to complaints and never had this long a downtime. Itong Sky, super dedma.

  22. @tups
    I have PLDT my DSL…and it SUCKS! your experience w/ Sky is the same experience i have w/ PLDT. ever since the dial-up days, their service has already sucked…i remembered getting a speed of even less than 10 kbps during those days, thus i switched to tri-isys.

    when we upgraded our internet from dial-up to broadband, i was reluctant to go w/ pldt at first. i asked Globe, Sky, i-manila (their cable), etc… but since they didn’t have services in Cainta during the time i was looking for internet providers, i was stuck with PLDT.

    it was okay during the first year…and then lo and behold, you get to experience problems after problems. They said that w/ Destiny you have a 2 hour downtime, i’d rather have a 2 hour downtime than one that lasts for DAYS! Just to illustrate, we haven’t had any INTERNET CONNECTION (none at all!) from the last week of July, up until now, August 04, 2009. Right now I’m using Dial-up because i desperately need to go online to do things for school. The speed is not so great either…i mean isp Bonanza even matches the speed of PLDT, imagine that! dial-up and broadband internet having the same speed…just last summer, i called them because our internet connection was slow. and then they asked me to do some diagnostics to my computer, w/c of course worked to no avail because nothing was wrong w/ my computer…i knew that it was on their end. So after ~3 weeks of complaining and them insisting that it was my computer, they finally had a technician come over. And guess what the technician said: “Ahh, kasi ma’am noong mga panahon na iyon may inaayos kami eh. pero okay na po ngayon ayos na.” That made me nuts! Because why can’t they just tell me that they were troubleshooting something? And honestly, everytime i call their customer service i get STRESSED!
    PLDT has failed me yet again…from the dial-up days to the now broadband days, and we’re paying each month. this is what i don’t like about companies who almost monopolize businesses. because you have to rely on them, they just really don’t care. makes me feel bad because mr MVP of PLDT comes from the same college as I…where’s the “man for others” in this type of business that doesn’t care about customers?
    I even had this classmate during college..when we were making our thesis, his PLDT never functioned normally, so he never got the updates from our group. He called PLDT and of course they keep on telling him his computer was the one w/ the problem. He then complained for weeks, no proper response from PLDT, and then one day he called and said that he’s going to be switching. He’s now on Globe, and he loves it.
    One time, last June lang… our internet went berserk (but just for a day), and i texted him and asked how Globe was…and he said: “i love it”. i just don’t like the fact of having another phone though…w/c is what’s stopping me from getting globe. my friend has ZPDee and she likes it…but i’m also afraid that it’ll have a lot of downtime, and reading some of the comments here, i’m afraid i might have the same experience as my PLDT experience…w/c i don’t want to happen. Why can’t we just have a good internet provider =(
    Well that’s my experience w/ PLDT…maybe it’s just my experience that sucks, but just a little 2cents. 🙂

  23. i subscribed to zpdee last year and the signal and service were superb. but for the last 4mos. the signal deteriorated. during peak hours 30% of my ping are dropped. during offpeak hours 5% are dropped. their tech support came to our house twice and found no problem. i guess the problem is caused by the traffic in their network. cable internet is only good as long as the number of subscribers in your area is within a certain limit. i guess they accepted too many subscribers. i’m planning to transfer to another provider nxt month.

  24. SKY CABLE PHILIPPINES, SKY CABLE MANILA, SKY BROADBAND, SKY CABLE CUSTOMER SERVICES. SKY BROAD BAND INTERNET.

    I have got to the end of my tether with this company. from start to finish ive received nothing but the poorest service and the slowest connection speeds i have ever come accross in my life!! yet to say the most expensive ive ever known.

    do you know that sky are not actually providing the internet? all they are doing is selling on the line from another service provider and this goes on and on through around 5 companies which is why all of our connections are so slow.

    If you are able to complete a ping test you can clearly see all connections go through atleast five other companies, this alone is enough to sue the absolute ass out of this rip off company!

    If i were you i would screen print all connection speeds, video record the times when the internet is even too slow to complete the speed test, record all emails sent and cc them to yourself for future refference, record all phone calls ensuring you explain to the customer service rep you are recording for your own purposes and then approach your family lawyer to take their advice.

    The truth is, sky cable are run really badly from the top down!

    i would never ever ever recommend sky cable to my worst enemy!

    poor service absolutey disgraceful connection speeds, false advertising, extremeley expensive monthly costs and generally unknowledgable customer service staff. STAY CLEAR!

    the phillipines has some of the slowest internet connections in the world! why?

  25. Skycable of the Lopez family should refund the 500,000 customers who gets occasional stoppage on their cable service due to their inefficiency. What’s worse is they only provide one number to call which is always busy. Sometimes I wonder if Ferdinand Marcos had known long before what the Lopez monopoly is doing the Filipino people. Please Mr. Pangilinan, Save us from this monopoly.

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