How slow (or fast) is your Internet connection? This was the predominant question among my friends and family over the last weekend. I bet, you also encountered the same question more than what you normally would daily.
With local Internet Service Providers (ISP) PLDT and SKY issuing customer advisories related to the AAG (Asia-America Gateway) submarine cable emergency maintenance from 26 to 30 September 2020, the impact of slow Internet connectivity is felt more now that most are staying at home during the community quarantine in the Philippines. The advisories from the ISPs were taken so seriously that some private schools suspended their online classes from Friday last week until Wednesday this week.
As some of my friends asked the same question to me, thankfully we only experienced some slowdown from our current ISP – not the normal speed that we are getting based on our subscription – but at least we have a stable connection.
During a conversation with a colleague, my son learned a new term from me this weekend: LieFi – something I heard from my Silicon Valley colleagues during my recent visit (pre-COVID-19). LieFi refers to a WiFi network that only seems to be available, but won’t connect to any Internet services.
Making myself productive with some free time at hand, I started a weekend project asking friends and the interwebs through social media to participate in an informal survey about their current connection speeds. Here’s a graph based on the said survey as of this afternoon:
Later this week, I will write something related to that survey. Stay tuned for that. You may still participate in this informal survey via https://bit.ly/2S53bIc.
So, how slow or fast was your Internet connection last weekend? Let us know.