Sky Cable Broadband Test Results and Review
I’ve been thinking about switching ISPs now since there’s 5 of us using the internet at home and 5mbps won’t cut it anymore. Sky Broadband intrigued me a lot because they offered 50mbps for just P2899/month. I’m currently paying more or less P2400 for 5mbps and switching over makes a lot of sense. The thing is I’ve read a lot of negative reviews and complaints online. To allay or at least lessen my worries, I talked to someone from their Engineering department and asked questions about their infrastructure and service in my area. After our talk, it looks like the area I live in (San Pedro, Laguna) does not have much problems like in other areas.
So to cut the story short, I bit the bullet, switched to Sky Cable Broadband and availed of their 50mbps plan and so far so good! However, it’s not as stable as my former ISP (Globelines). It’s just been a few days but I noticed that it goes down randomly at certain times of the day. Thus, I decided I will do speed tests regularly so that others looking for Sky Broadband reviews will benefit as well.
UPDATES 2020
A few months after May, I’ve bitten the bullet and switched over to Converge. Check out my converge review over here to see how it fares.
Update (May 22)
Still the same. Very disappointed, especially now since everyone is required to stay home due to the quarantine (CoViD19). A good internet connection is crucial in these times and Sky fails to deliver.
Update (May 12)
Slightly better, but still underperforming. Minimum speed is supposed to be 40% of subscribed speed which is 20Mbps. But as whon below, it’s just 7.44 Mbps as of today.
Update (May 9)
Slow internet today. I called tech support last week and their technician came to fix it. They had to adjust something from the post outside, something related to the signal. It was okay 1-2 days after that but now it’s back to being slow again. I must say I’m not surprised at all. Here is my speed test:
I’m seriously contemplating moving to another ISP – C*******. But it’s not available yet.
Will update again the next few days.
UPDATES 2018
Update (January 10)
I see ads on FB about Sky’s new Internet plans. However, due to my bad connection recently and the relative popularity of this post, I feel obliged to give a quick update on this.
My internet connection is very intermittent like it was before. And by that I mean, it’s fast when it’s fast but a lot of times, either there’s no connection or it’s slow. You see, while updating this post, my FB chat has changed to this:
And now it’s back up again but still quite slow. So for anyone asking if this is good for gaming, my answer is NO, it’s not good for gaming. If you are a light internet surfer then yeah probably this is okay for you. But if you are into games, then this won’t be good for you.
If you still want to get any of their plans though, I suggest you get a backup ISP. You can use your phone’s data plan as back-up or get a new wired one like I did before (I got Globe). That way, you’d have no problems if one of them goes down.
UPDATES
Updates-2 (May 2)
Spoke too soon. It’s bad again. I’m very decided now. Will shift to a different ISP.
Update (May 2)
Funny update. I posted this blog post link on the SkyBroadband FB page yesterday and today, the connection is much much better. So I guess a bit of media exposure is what’s needed to get better service (after a month of bad service). Let’s see how this holds up.
Update (Apr 29)
The internet today is very very very unstable. It’s fast then it’s slow then it’s gone, repeatedly, throughout the whole day, and I’m fed up with having to go through this almost every single day. I’ve decided to terminate the account even if I have to pay the 3000 pesos fee.
Update (Apr 27)
According to the speed test below for today, the internet looks and is supposed to be fast – but it is not. Pages do load but media (images and videos) within those pages loads slowly.
Update (Apr 15)
Another day, another rant.
Today is bad internet day – again. Yes, below you see that I have decent internet speeds BUT it’s not like that all the time. I get good speeds one minute and then no internet connection next. This happens in spurts of say 20 minutes and this is getting very irritating.
Like I mentioned, I have a backup internet connection (SmartBro prepaid) and I’m updating this blog using that connection.
Update (Apr 13)
Sorry another rant.
I created an account last month over at http://www.mysky.com.ph/ so that I will be able to get my billing statement online. When I signed-up, I didn’t get any statement and I thought that was because I was new and therefore no statement has been issued yet. But it has been a month now and I’ve received my paper billing statement but the online equivalent is still non-existent!! I’ve texted them today about this issue since I cannot get a hold of them on the phone (which is another rant because I called them on their hotline (02) 381 0000, got through the automated stuff but in the end when I was supposed to speak to an agent, no one answered the phone!!!).
Anyway, to be fair, as seen in the speed test below, the internet is quite good at this time of the day. Let’s see if it holds up.
Update (Apr 12)
This is the worst day. The internet was fine during lunch, but it went down the drain in the afternoon. Intermittent internet up until now (11:03PM). And this is not an isolated case either. I’ve been having this problem the past few days and it’s only now that I’m able to blog about it.
It’s been almost a month now and I can categorize the speed of my internet subscription into 4:
- Fast – 30-45+ mbps
- Okay – 10-20+ mbps
- Slow – 0.1-8+ mbps
- Very Slow – don’t know what the speed is since I can’t even measure it
Type 1 seldom happens. And when it does, most of the time you get it at midnight or later. Type 2 is most frequent type of speed I get (10 to less than 20 range). Although the past few days, it’s been alternating between Type 2 and Type 3. Today, it’s mostly Type 4.
I’m very disappointed with the service so far because it always slows down when I need it the most (which is during work)! It’s like having a sports car which breaks down frequently.
If you’re looking for a reliable internet connection, do not get SkyCable at all. I actually miss my Globe connection. Though it was only 5mbps, it was very reliable. But if you can do with not reliable, you can do what I do – have a secondary internet connection. I use my tablet’s ability to tether internet as my backup internet. As always, I recommend getting a Smart Bro sim. Why? The reason is Smart has the widest coverage of the 3 major telcos – Smart, Globe, Sun. I traveled Luzon from Apari to Matnog and so far Smart has the most coverage.
But I digress. If you use your internet for work and don’t have a backup connection, again don’t get SkyCable! Another thing, the upload speed is intermittent as well and slow most of the time. If you do lots of uploading, then again find another internet provider!
Another reason why is with a fast internet and good data plan now you can access your personal online work space remotely on your preferred device with safe and secure virtual PCs from CloudDesktopOnline powered by one of the best DaaS providers – www.Apps4Rent.com.
Update (Apr 5)
I’m going to be slightly changing how I do speed tests. Starting today, I’ll do sets of 3 each time I have a testing session. This way, I can see how stable(or unstable) the connection is.
Update (Apr 3)
Looks like I’m having slow internet before midnight. Not even reaching 1mbps! I hope this gets fixed by the time I wake up. It’s been almost a month since I first signed up and here’s what I have to say about Sky Cable. When it’s fast, it’s blazing fast but when it’s slow it’s very slow. I guess what I’m saying is my connection is not as stable as I want it to be.
Update (Mar 24)
I must say the internet has been pretty stable the past couple of days. I was expecting it to slow down a bit during the holidays but no it’s quite good actually. I hope it stays that way.
Update (Mar 20)
It looks like internet is good the past couple of days. The only thing is the Upload speed fluctuates and is poor most of the time. This is bad for me as I usually upload things as part of my work. Anyway, at least it’s not zero. If you’re wondering why I always use Skybroadband as the server, I just want to be fair to them and want to be consistent at the same time. The only time I don’t use their server for testing is when it’s not available. Just to make sure that the speed result is correct, I manually do a download from somewhere else and the download rate I get is commensurate with the one I get from the speed result.
UPDATE (Mar 17)
Looks like the connection’s getting better now since yesterday PM. Hope it stays that way.
UPDATE (Mar 16)
It’s been a few days straight since March 14 that I’ve had bad internet. So it was only 1 week of good internet. Is Sky Broadband showing it’s true colors now? We’ll see.
UPDATE (Mar 14):
Looks like March 14 is a bad day. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
SPEED TEST RESULTS
May 7, 2016 12:59-1:20PM
May 3 2016 11:09-11:34AM
May 2 4:56-5:02PM
DOWNLOAD TEST ERROR
May 1, 2016 9:12-9:25PM
April 29, 2016 4:39-4:43PM
April 29, 2016 2:43-2:47PM
April 27, 2016 2:04-2:06PM
April 27, 2016 12:24-12:37PM
April 25, 2016 2:59-3:04PM
April 24, 2016 1:48-1:50PM
April 22, 2016 5:39-5:56PM
April 22, 2016 8:54-9AM
April 21 2016 11:42-11:51AM
April 20 6:16-6:31PM
April 20, 2016 2:22-2:25PM
April 19, 2016 7:30-7:35PM
April 19, 2016 11AM-1:30PM
No Internet
April 18, 2016 4:53-5:19PM
April 15, 2016 2:45-2:48PM
April 14, 2016 3:22-3:25PM
April 13, 2016 1:31-1:37PM
April 12, 2016 11:30-11:35PM
April 10, 2016 11:14-11:PM
April 7, 2016 11:48-11:54PM
April 5, 2016 8:03-8:31PM
April 5, 2016 2:15-2:20PM
April 4, 2016 12:46PM
April 3, 2016 11:25PM
March 29, 2016 5:09PM
March 27, 2016 11:47AM
March 24, 2016 5:09PM
March 24, 2016 11:42AM
March 21, 2016 11:01AM
March 20, 2016 12:31PM
March 19, 2016 3:35PM
March 18, 2016 2:18PM
March 17, 2016 10:56PM
March 17, 2016 12:51PM
March 16, 2016 8:27PM
March 16, 2016 3:19PM
March 16, 2016 1:48PM
March 15, 2016 8:26PM
No internet
March 15, 2016 7:01PM
March 15, 2016 4:50PM
March 15, 2016 3:22PM
March 15, 2016 2:56PM
March 15, 2016 1:07PM
March 14, 2016 7:36PM
March 14, 2016 5:53PM
March 14, 2016 4:30PM – 5:50PM
Internet is down
March 14, 2016 2:33PM
March 14, 2016 11:57AM
No internet.
March 13, 2016 11:02AM
March 12, 10:44PM
March 11, 2016 11:07PM
March 11, 2016 4:08PM
March 11, 2016 3:17PM
March 11, 2016 1PM
Internet was down.
March 7 (first test)
How is your connection now? Ganun pa din ba?
It’s actually much better. The infrastructure upgrade they mentioned before must have come to fruition.
Hows your connection at this day sir? Planning to avail the lower 1899 25mbps plan. Thanks 🙂
Ok lang, medyo mabagal today.
Sir okay po ba to sa gaming like dota2 or cs go ? thanks in advance and consistent po ba yun internet?
Pag mabilis sya mabilis tlga. Yun nga lng hindi consistent.
Ok prn po ngaun? kasi balak ko lipat ng 25mbps for gaming
Kung gaming, wag na lang. Madidismaya ka lang.
ah ok po, san area po ba kayo sir?
San Pedro Laguna
I am moving into a new townhouse in Clemente Subd in San Agustin, Novaliches. I was looking at PLDT’s 20Mbps/1899 vs Sky’s 25Mbps/1899 package. Should I go for Sky or PLDT? Your story scares me about Sky.
My suggestion is to walk around your subdivision then ask around whether their PLDT/Sky connection is good or not. Get the one which has the better service in your area.
We applied for sky 1899 25mbps. Is it really that bad? We kept getting really slow speed with globe so we opted to shift. Did sky give you a reason for their unreliable and bad signal? Thank you
If you depend on your internet connection for work or something else important, I suggest you get 2 lines, 1 Globe and 1 Sky. That’s what I did. So whenever one is down, I still have the other.
Hi Paolo,
Am planning to subscribe to Sky’s 5mbps plan. My current ISP (P…) really sucks bigtime. Any thoughts on this? My plan is 5 mbps with P.
Thanks!
I wouldn’t recommend Sky to you right now based on its current performance.
Glad that I found your site in time. Sky is coming tomorrow to check if 64 mbps is possible here in QC. Their Cable TV never gave us problems but I had better ask them if there’s anybody with Sky’s Internet in this area.
Had PLDT DSL for years too. PLDT is tops in service when you already have a connection. 100% of promised speed (10mbps) and they used to come even during storms. But no FIBR here.
Have Globe now– 80% of promised speed, but their Customer Service is a Disservice. They will eat up your time yet do nothing. Guess I’ll look up Converge reviews too.
Yup ask around first!
Thank you for this blog.
I really wanted to subscribe to skycable because of the speed it advertised but after seeing your post. I decided not to.
Keep updating!!! 🙂
Hi Paolo, Just came across your review… How’s your connection right now? My current ISP (P*%#) sucks big time with no customer support available because of their issue with labor something…huhu! I wanna die..I’m also from San Pedro Laguna, and looking for an alternative ISP.. too bad Converge is not yet availbale here..
Right now it’s fine. Where in San Pedro are you from?
Well, like I said you can have 2 connections, 1 main, 1 backup.
Planning to avail plan 999 5/mbps just for browsing. You think it’s enough by just watching video online and downloads?
Surfing yes, watching videos probably not.
Hey there, planning to avail the 1899 plan… is it still like your previous post…. internet connection still not stable?? I’m also from San Perdro, Laguna… just behind the new Munisipyo…
Today it’s fine. Past few weeks is fine too.
hi Paolo. im from pasig and i want to upgrade my plan to fiber 1899. that is 25 mbps. i will use it for gaming, 5 person will use this. 1 pc 1 laptop 3 cp. do you recommeded this plan? as of now they improved their internet right?
I’m not recommending it for gaming.
Hi Paolo, we are in commercial in mandaluyong area, we are planning to apply skycable plan 50mbps, do you recommeded this plan? we need a fast internet which our company is more in digital. pls advise. thank you
Not sure if they treat businesses differently but personally using the plan in a residential area, I would not recommend it. If internet is crucial to your business then all the more not so.
I am using Sky internet and cable for a year now and its been better then PLDT. Di pa naman ako naka experience ng problem with sky internet, only sa Cable lang.
Best padin ang Sky. with cable na kc
What plan are you using? Im also from San Pedro, and notice they are upgrading to fiber optics. Will you recommend me to switch ISP? Im planning on getting fiber with HD cable.
I’m using Plan 2899. They are fiber “powered”. Meaning the main lines are fiber but the line to our homes are copper.
If it’s for entertainment, then yeah sure. If for work or business, sure you can but better have a backup connection too.
i have fiber broadband 1399 plan for 10mbps here in QC and it’s doing great so far. they have replaced all DSL copper wires with all fiber. i’m sure eventually they’ll get rid of copper in your area.
Thanks for sharing your reviews, it’s really helpful. I’m on PLDT DSL for 3 years. Before, they used to have lots of problems but I observed recently it improved but I’m sure if it’s consistent. There’s a new installed Sky Broadband in our area in Brgy Pason Tamo Tandang Sora, would you recommend Sky? I work as an online English teacher. With this, I need a reliable ISP but I also want to have cable TV for the kids but I’m worried if I switch to Sky, what if it’s not stable, my job will suffer. I appreciate your advice.
Hi, any updates on the internet so far? I applied a while back and initially once the installers came they told us that it could not be installed as the line was too far but we supposedly just got an update from them that they’ll be able to install it now (guess they have a closer box or extended the line) but I was wondering if I should push through with it. I’m currently stuck with PLDT’s 10Mbps DSL connection since they don’t have enough ports on their box along our street and haven’t added another box yet either. There are times the internet is very slow and sometimes go down, but I want to know if Sky is much worse or on par with it as well. We’re currently paying the same price as Sky’s 50Mbps so even if it were slower than advertised, do you think it’s worth it to go to Sky over staying with PLDT?
I don’t recommend it. Right now I’m running on fumes!! 0.57 Mbps
If you use it for work, better have a backup connection. Don’t fully rely on one.
I hope so, or else I’ll be moving to other pure fiber broadband services!
Depends on your area.
Really depends on your area.
Buti nakita ko ito. Currently naka 5mbps kami sa sky taga san pedro din. So far 95% reliable siya this year compared sa previous years. May promo kasi si sky for loyal customers 50% off for 3 months +499 na install. Di na kasi sapat yung 5mbps sa bahay.
hai. 10mbps inavail namin (new customer). dito sa Davao area. First few week : almost 3days downtime immediately after a day and a half ng installation date. Succeeding weeks after, almost a month na, instead of getting better, their connection becomes weaker and unreliable; 2nd week : only few minutes downtime. 3rd week : 1-2hrs. and now mag4th week na: halos more than 3hours total downtime, unreliable stability. and way too many chipchops sa connection. magugulat ka na lang biglang magno NO internet. Taragis. Ganto ba talaga basta new lines? ha? fiber ba tlga tong inoffer nila sa area namin? Plan 1,399 10Mbps broadband service lng. Please reply po especially sa mga customers na malapit sa aming area.
Hindi talaga sya reliable.
glad i read your page, i am frustrated with my PLDT and looking for alternative. I guess I should stay and wait for the next telco player. 🙁 Thanks for the info!
I’ve been a Skybroadband subscriber for the past 2 years, currently subscribed to their 50Mbps plan, and I can say it has been very stable in our village (Las Pinas area) – I guess it really depends on the area. There were hiccups during the first 2 weeks upon installation but it was resolved by fixing something (splitter, if I remember correctly) and has been performing well ever since. There were instances when the connection was intermittent but that was only a couple of times and it wasn’t that long. I’d either wait it out to become stable or call up their hotline and they’d act on it (if the usual “unplug your router for 10 seconds plug it back on” solution doesn’t work) by sending technicians over. Btw, I play battlefield 1 and The Division had stable connection 95% of the time. I’d say my experience is much better comparing it to my previous ISP (ticker code TEL in PSEI). I like their customer service – they answer their phones. I also have quirks though, one is that their DL and UL speeds are not symmetric and two, there are times of slowdown during strong typhoons lol.
They say Converge is good. Haven’t tried them though.
Good for you.
As for their customer service, that’s not always the case. They’ve never answered my calls (sometimes I stay up to an hour on the phone waiting for a customer rep but nothing!!)
They’re not pure fiber so DL and UL are not the same.
i’ve been using sky broadband for almost 2 years. we subscribed for 5mps worth 1k a. month the service is good and the connection is stable. now i am planning to get fiber on sky but its not available to our location in taguig.. i just upgraded it to 10mbps instead of fiber.. all i can say is sky is goob i think still depends on your location to have stable internet connection. im just lucky that my connection is fit to our location… anyways sky is good depends on your location.. better to look and find some reviews same as your location before you subscribe.. hehe