[Background]
I subscribed to Viewqwest “Fibernet-Residential 100 Mbps + OneVoice + IPTV” from Sep 2012 to Mar 2014 (18 months). I recently moved to M1 fiber plan. I thought it will be good to share my experience so that others may benefit.
[Summary] – C
All in all, I do not find Viewqwest offer compelling. At S$65/month I expect premium service. What I had was a mixed bag of experience at best. Below are the details.
[Speed/Performance] – B+
Speed is generally good. Speed test does indicate very high speed (for Singapore servers, in excess of 100Mbps) but really those are more marketing than anything else. What I want to caution though is not to split hair over speed because in real life actual speed is tampered by many factors such as location of remote server (if you are accessing something in USA, the round trip time will slow things down no matter what), whether you are using Wifi etc.
Note: I am not a gamer, so low millisecond latency is not a concern for me. I do not know how Viewqwest fare in this area.
[Downtime] – B
I don’t track the downtime but I probably had around 5 downtimes (maybe slightly more?) during the 18 months. I remembered a couple of them lasted quite long (several hours). So I can only give a B grade here.
[NOC] – B+
NOC by phone is generally contactable, even in the wee hours (there was once my fiber went down 2am). You are not forced to wade through a long automated voice response system before you finally get to speak to a real human.
On the other hand the NOC staff are not as competent as I would like, contributing to extended downtime in some cases.
[ONT/Router] – C-
Viewqwest uses Zhone 2426 modem. It is both an ONT as well as a Wifi router.
The modem is remotely configured and controlled by Viewqwest. The end user can only access the non-critical portion of the modem configuration. In other words, the modem has limited functionalities. I relegated the modem to become a basic DHCP/NAT router and use my own Wifi router instead.
[MediaPlayer] – D
A Western Digital media player was provided. I tried for about an hour and gave up. I have not used it since then. (But continue to pay for the bundled price). My advice is: Don’t bother with the IPTV. If you really want to watch Netflix etc, go direct and save on the subscription fee.
[Price] – D
At S$65/month, Viewqwest was definitely on the high end.
[Contract] – D-
Viewqwest has several customer unfriendly practices.
- You need to pay your subscription in advance. E.g. you will be paying for March subscription in Feb. This is an unfair practice that Viewqwest imposes through its legal fineprint.
- You need to give 1 month advance notice for termination (assuming you have no more contractual obligation). I was caught on this when I switch to M1. So for those who are thinking of switching out, please take note of this or else you will be paying 1 month for nothing.
I subscribed to Viewqwest “Fibernet-Residential 100 Mbps + OneVoice + IPTV” from Sep 2012 to Mar 2014 (18 months). I recently moved to M1 fiber plan. I thought it will be good to share my experience so that others may benefit.
[Summary] – C
All in all, I do not find Viewqwest offer compelling. At S$65/month I expect premium service. What I had was a mixed bag of experience at best. Below are the details.
[Speed/Performance] – B+
Speed is generally good. Speed test does indicate very high speed (for Singapore servers, in excess of 100Mbps) but really those are more marketing than anything else. What I want to caution though is not to split hair over speed because in real life actual speed is tampered by many factors such as location of remote server (if you are accessing something in USA, the round trip time will slow things down no matter what), whether you are using Wifi etc.
Note: I am not a gamer, so low millisecond latency is not a concern for me. I do not know how Viewqwest fare in this area.
[Downtime] – B
I don’t track the downtime but I probably had around 5 downtimes (maybe slightly more?) during the 18 months. I remembered a couple of them lasted quite long (several hours). So I can only give a B grade here.
[NOC] – B+
NOC by phone is generally contactable, even in the wee hours (there was once my fiber went down 2am). You are not forced to wade through a long automated voice response system before you finally get to speak to a real human.
On the other hand the NOC staff are not as competent as I would like, contributing to extended downtime in some cases.
[ONT/Router] – C-
Viewqwest uses Zhone 2426 modem. It is both an ONT as well as a Wifi router.
The modem is remotely configured and controlled by Viewqwest. The end user can only access the non-critical portion of the modem configuration. In other words, the modem has limited functionalities. I relegated the modem to become a basic DHCP/NAT router and use my own Wifi router instead.
[MediaPlayer] – D
A Western Digital media player was provided. I tried for about an hour and gave up. I have not used it since then. (But continue to pay for the bundled price). My advice is: Don’t bother with the IPTV. If you really want to watch Netflix etc, go direct and save on the subscription fee.
[Price] – D
At S$65/month, Viewqwest was definitely on the high end.
[Contract] – D-
Viewqwest has several customer unfriendly practices.
- You need to pay your subscription in advance. E.g. you will be paying for March subscription in Feb. This is an unfair practice that Viewqwest imposes through its legal fineprint.
- You need to give 1 month advance notice for termination (assuming you have no more contractual obligation). I was caught on this when I switch to M1. So for those who are thinking of switching out, please take note of this or else you will be paying 1 month for nothing.
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