Globe Telecoms Speak and Surf Wireless Broadband Speed Review

September 5, 2007 · Filed Under Technology

I recently had the chance to finally check out Globe’s Speak and Surf wireless broadband. The service comes with a “wireless” landline device which is separate from the wireless broadband modem, and is priced at 999pesos per month.

According to various forums around the net, Speak and Surf now comes in two versions, which are aptly called SNS1 and SNS2. SNS1, which we will test today, comes with axess.tel CDMA 1xEV-DO wireless modem. SNS2, rumor has it, operates on the 3G band and is faster.

The wireless modem has four indicator lights, and the most important of them is the “connect” light. This LED indicator should stay green for a good link indication. The modem can be connected to the PC via USB or UTP connection, and has built-in routing capabilities. Modem menu can be accessed by connecting via http://192.168.1.1.

Some pictures of the wireless modem and speedtest results:

axess.tel CDMA 1xEV-DO wireless modem:

Test #1 Test #1

Test #2 Test #2

Test #3 Test #3

As you can see, the upload and download speeds vary, while the latency stays constant at 999ms (which is not good for online games). This high latency value also accounts to sluggish web browsing. Speed is decent for direct HTTP downloading, but for torrents, you might as well forget it.

For rapidshare users, you will definitely have a hard time downloading stuff from the net. Most of the time, you will have to wait long hours to be able to get your download slot. This maybe due to limited or shared IP addresses among Speak and Surf subscribers.

Byteburn’s verdict: get a wired DSL instead. For the same price, Globe is offering 1.5Mbps speed wired DSL.

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