Letter From Manila - Reflections On Internet, Speed And Football

[havanatopia]

I read the other day that the Philippines and, in particular, Manila has an average internet speed of 3.55mb. That ranks the country at 155 out of 190 countries where data is gathered. This information was from a study by Ookla. However, more local studies have placed it as low as just 2mb. The higher figure ranks it lower than somewhat less developed nations such as Burma, nowadays referred to as Myanmar for rather convoluted tribal and cultural reasons and Laos. Overall, one must say, this is a pretty paltry number although it still surpasses Cuba where i remember, if only nostalgically, to that infamous dial up sound not so many moons ago. The UK average I believe is over 20mb these days and rising steadily.

 

These rather meaningless statistics make for rather 'boring' reading but, hopefully, they come very marginally alive when we incorporate the rather unenviable task and thought that non residents in far flung places, myself included, go to some lengths to listen to their beloved football team. It is all very well supporting one of the larger world brands of football knowing, perhaps rather smugly, that one can probably watch a live game at one or more times in a season and probably many more than that. However, supporting 'smaller teams' of whatever sport that takes your fancy is challenging verging on the painful especially if you simply must have your weekly fix.

 

Living overseas can have its benefits, one would not imagine how one could begin to deny that, but it also has its drawbacks. The rush to the supermarket on the penultimate day to stock up on brands either not available or exorbitantly priced overseas might sound trivial but weeks down the line and searching the cupboard for Colman's Mustard to accompany some local ham or a chocolate digestive to help wash down the local brewed coffee makes life just that little bit nicer.. small things go a long way to making home not feel so far away. Which brings me back to trying to listen in on a saturday to Adam Baker. He may not be the best supporting role of a summariser but its very warming to know he is there talking, if not animatedly but passionately, about a football team we follow through thick and thin and usually a lot more of the thin.

 

Internet connections, with all of the vagaries of 'snail like' speeds, often means suffering a 3-4 minute delay in the 'live' commentary or having to deal with a sudden wall of silence and is rather the norm in many overseas locales. Oh but how it was, not that long ago when, even before dial up, even before the onset of the Internet the little short wave radio where, somewhere, buried deep in one of the channels you might just find a radio commentary or a radio summariser of the game, the only game, that day that matters. Funny how that old technology at least would keep working even with all its crackles and foibles. Analogue short wave and old.

 

Tomorrow, here in Manila, a tropical storm will hit and the likelihood of a stable internet connection, even at 2mb, will be tested to the maximum. I just hope that the batteries in that short wave radio have not corroded.

Edited September 12, 2014 by havanatopia

[CodeRed]

Here in rural Gloucestershire we get 0.7mb !,

but of course we can get to the Gate.

Good luck listening tomorrow.

I remember , must be over 13 years ago, I was in the Bristol Oncology Hospital receiving chemotherapy and desperate to listen to City v Swindon, no RB commentary then as City were home so tried Wiltshire Sound on my walkman radio but could only get a signal on a window sill high up my room.....climbed up and lay on the sill and bingo got the game loud and clear ....just then a nurse came in and pressed the alarm thinking I was trying to throw myself out of the window ! The things we do......

Edited September 12, 2014 by CodeRed

[BRISTOL86]

I get 2.5mb on a good day and I'm 2 miles from Bristol City centre! Maybe I should move to the Philippines.

[New2City]

I'm lucky to get 1mb up here in the frozen north. The lag is insane, as I'll get fb messaged from a friend of mine in England that we've scored, but I won't hear it on player for at least a minute. 

 

Since it's a 6am game for me, most of the time I just stay in bed and listen to the game on my iphone. Occasionally, I'll get up and read along on OTIB, which is certainly more entertaining than the match commentary. 

[TRL]

yeah 20-50mb as advertised,  well it is all lies, I'm lucky if i get 5

[WhistleHappy]

yeah 20-50mb as advertised,  well it is all lies, I'm lucky if i get 5

The providers are all very clever in the use of one in particular magical advertised phrase - UP TO!

Yeah we know what they're ... up to ...alright - bleeding liars!

[RedM]

I am lucky enough to have a fibre to premis connection, they have wound down the speed recently so I 'only' get around 180mb, just tested currently 182.8mb. The best I've had is around 275mb. These are download speeds, upload is 21.1mb.

[Stephen Lewis]

1.27  here in a Melbourne suburb.

That must be fast enough though as our prime minister (Tony Abbott) has stopped  a fibre optic roll out claiming we don't need it.

Well up yours Abbott I do .

[Will Rollason]

in Winterbourne on virgin cable advertised as 50mb ..............checks in at 50.5mbps.... always been good tbh. upload pinged at 3.03mbps

[Robbored]

Desperately slow out here between Nailsea and Clevedon. 0.28mbps and ping of 49ms. Talktalk wifi but shared with three others in the house.

I was tempted by Sky's recent offer but Mrs Robbo wouldn't have it.

[SimplyRed]

The only way to have consistent internet speeds is to go with Virgin Media cable. ADSL (all the other providers) is a lucky bag of usage/line quality/and (in some cases) throttling.

 

My only beef is why the Monopolies Commission (or whatever its current incarnation is called) allows Virgin Media to have a national monopoly on cable broadband.  If Virgin Media were forced to compete with other providers, I'm sure their broadband prices would be much cheaper.

[Barrs Court Red]

150mbp/s. I can download a full blue ray in minutes.

Can't listen to games though, due to them not being on local radio online. So at least you can listen.

[havanatopia]

Very interesting replies. I had no idea the UK had patches of dire connection speeds. Still you would, surely, think that a city of some 16 odd million and being within a 10 minute walk of the CBD would have a decent speed no?

[Barrs Court Red]

Very interesting replies. I had no idea the UK had patches of dire connection speeds. Still you would, surely, think that a city of some 16 odd million and being within a 10 minute walk of the CBD would have a decent speed no?

The government is investing big money in improving the digital infrastructure for rural communities.

[wendyredredrobin]

Getting 5.93 mbps currently here in Stoke Gifford using SKY.  I don't think it's usually quite that good though.  between 2 and 3 on average usually and I've seen it below 1 on a bad day at peak time.

[Red]

in Winterbourne on virgin cable advertised as 50mb ..............checks in at 50.5mbps.... always been good tbh. upload pinged at 3.03mbps

On my virgin cable 54.4 mb        upload 3 .03mbps    in Clevedon

[The Red Planet]

I echo the comments of other Virgin cable broadband users. It really does what is advertised. My son can be downloading a film in his room whilst I am on line and it makes no difference to performance on my PC.

Of course, not everyone has fibre optic cable running past their house.