What you need to know about 10GBe home broadband

More ISPs are offering 10 Gbps fiber home broadband at pretty affordable prices ($189-$199) but before you sign up, the following are what you need to take note of

1. Most networking products like routers, desktops and notebooks currently support only up to 1 Gbps therefore if you do not upgrade them, 1 Gbps will the maximum speed you will be getting.

2. While you can upgrade your desktop by buying a 10Gbe NIC like the Intel X540 series, you can't do so with your notebook or routers

3. There are very limited number of routers that do support 10Gbe WAN port and they are very very expensive.

So until most end user products make 10 Gbps mainstream, it is not really advisable to sign up now. Price will also be much lower later as compared to what is available now.

Latest fiber broadband promotion by Singapore ISPs

StarHub's current 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion at $49.90 per month for 24 months comes with

- Free Wireless AC Dual-band Router DIR-850L (Upgrade to DIR-868L at $120.)

- Free Fibre Termination Point installation

- Free Service installation

- Free Unlimited streaming entertainment with StarHub Go Basic and Go Premium Packs

- Free $150 Shopping Voucher.

Home phone line at $2.10 per month.

http://www.starhub.com/personal/promotions/broadband/unbeatable-home-broadband-deals.html

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M1's current 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion at $39.90 per month for 24 months comes with

- FREE 24 mths 300Mbps Mobile Broadband (1GB)

- FREE Home Fixed Voice Service

- FREE ONT Activation

- FREE Sentosa Islander Family Membership (worth $50. Valid for up to five (5) immediate family members)

There will be, however, a one-time registration charge of $48.15 (inclusive of GST).
Top up $5/month for a Asus RT-AC56S

https://www.m1.com.sg/Personal/BUNDLES%20AND%20PROMOTIONS/Promotions/Bundle%20Promotion/PKG100391

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SingTel's 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion is currently at $50 per month for 24 months and comes with

- Free Fibre Termination Point installation

- Free Optical Network Terminal installation

- Home Digital Line with free unlimited local calls

- 10% off Mobile subscription
- Online Exclusive waiver of registration fee worth $53.50

https://www.singtelshop.com/shop/fibre-broadband/plan-details.jsf

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MyRepublic current fiber broadband promotion is currently at $49.90 per month for 24 months and comes with

- Free ASUS N56 Router or ASUS AC56U (or ASUS AC87U with $99 Top-Up)

- FREE Home Voice with Unlimited Local Calls

There will be. however. a $58 Service Installation Fee

https://myrepublic.com.sg/pricing/#300-discount

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ViewQuest current 1Gbps fiber broadband promo is currently at $65 per month with free

- ViewQuest TV

Residential Voice is at $3.95 per month

Setup Fee is $79.25.

http://www.viewqwest.com/vqlp/cny2016/index.html

Delayed Atrix

Just ordered the Motorola Atrix online from StarHub yesterday. Today the called me up to tell me it is out of stock.

Why didn't they update their website is beyond me. And when I check today, it is still available online!

Now they cannot even give me a date as to when the new stocks will arrive and I am supposed to wait for their call.

I reserved the right to cancel the order if it takes too long.

Huawei E1762 on Linux

You'll need two packages and a configuration file

usb-modeswitch version => 1.07
usb-modeswitch-data file dated => 10 Jan 2010
usb_modeswitch.conf => 2010-03-09

Note: The above package links are for Debian based distribution like Ubuntu. If you are using 10.04 Lucid, use the Ubuntu Software Center to install both usb-modeswitch and usb-modeswitch-data.

Install the packages at the same time

Place the configuration file in /etc directory. To check if you have place the configuration file at the right place just type

# usb_modeswitch

and it should not give you a 'file not found error'.

To check if your stick is correctly detected as a modem, give the command

# lsusb

you should see something like this

Bus 002 Device 009: ID 12d1:1003 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E220 HSDPA Modem / E270 HSDPA/HSUPA Modem
usb

If you see something like this

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 12d1:1446 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

edit the configuration file by giving the command

# sudo gedit /etc/usb-modeswitch.conf

and find the lines that says 'E7162' and uncomment the 5 lines that follows. There are two instances of 'E1762'. Either one will work. Save the edited file, and give the command

# sudo usb_modeswitch -H -v 12d1 -p 1446 -c /etc/usb-modeswitch.conf

Now check if the dongle is detected correctly by giving the 'lsusb' command again and you should the stick is now detected as a modem.

If you are using on a 64-bit architecture, you can download them here

If you are not using a Debian based distribution, you can download the files below

usb-modeswitch-1.1.0.tar.bz2
usb-modeswitch-data-20100203.tar.bz2

Sharing Starhub digital voice

Your Starhub digital voice is working fine but only the phone in the same room can be used?

If you want all the telephone points in the house to be able to use the service, what you need to do simply place a splitter on the modem where one line goes to a phone in the same room and the other to the nearest telephone point in the room

Pick It, Pack It, Watch It. For real, please

Starhub should be applauded for starting off a lot of services that benefits subscribers like per second billing, free broadband and free phone line etc. If not for them, we might still see a rigid competition with providers bullying subscribers as they like.

Recently they launched the Pick It Pack It Watch It ads that centers around the message that more choices equal more entertainment. While it sounds good, it is pretty much the same as before.

Bottom line here is profits and anyone can understand that clearly hence the need for rigid T&C. Question is, can they actually do better by seemingly losing at first but gaining in the end?

When they launched their mobile service with free incoming calls, the other players, even subscribers themselves thought they were crazy. See who is laughing now?

So if they were daring with their mobile services, why are they chickening out with their cable TV?

Starhub can actually get more subscribers by giving them more real choices. A lot of potential subscribers were put off by the way the price plans are packaged. Take for example soccer fans. If these group of people just want to watch soccer and nothing else, why force them to subscribe to Hallmark channel with the mandatory basics group?

From a business point of view, it is understandable that they need to have a minimum subscription plan just like every other service. They can, in my opinion, still achieve that by allowing subscribers to subscribe to any channels as long as they meet the minimum amount.

Currently, the minimum channels you have to subscribe to are 3 basic groups that cost $24. Why can't they allow subscribers to choose any channels as long as the total cost meets the minimum requirement of $24? Even if a subscriber fails to meet the minimum amount, they will still be charged $24.

This way, subscribers feel that they have total control of what they want to watch. They will not feel short changed for having forced to subscribe to channels they will never watch.

Take for example again the soccer fans. The sports group cost $25 packed together with golf channels that most soccer fans might never watch. Many felt short changed.

Another example would be those subscribers who want entertainment channels only. To get the SCI FI channel which is now under basic plus groups, a subscriber have no choice but to subscribe to other channels like basic education or news. Again, short changed.

If Starhub foresees administration issue or abuse, charge subscribers administrative fee if they are fickle minded and want to subscribe to different channels frequently. If they can provide VOD service at a press of a button, why can't they provide such service when it comes to subscribing to different channels.

Starhub free broaband with HubStation

Starhub TV now allows renting of HubStation which comes with a free 1Mbps Broadband Internet Access till 31 December 2009. They'll extend it for sure, just like the free incoming calls for their mobile service.

The rent may $4 more than the standard digital set up box (or $6 more than analog set up box although soon there will no more of those) but for a few dollars more, it comes with free broadband. So the total minimum cost to subscribe to their TV service with the HubStation now is $32 before GST.

So if you are not a heavy user which means you just browse, check email, watch videos on YouTube, listen to mp3 on imeem etc, 1Mbps should be more sufficient.

Official details here