April 7, 2006
Gamers upset about StarHub's sluggish broadband speeds
Firm denies this and suggests they switch to more costly plan
By Chua Hian Hou
GAMERS are complaining that sluggish StarHub broadband speeds are turning fleet-footed virtual commandos into zombie-like cannon fodder.
In online shooting games like CounterStrike and Battlefield2, players win by shooting other players while avoiding their return fire. All this action is tracked by a central game server, which receives and sends data from a gamer's computer. Delays in the transmission of this data - or 'lag' in Internet parlance - curbs a player's ability to win.
Complaints about Singapore's largest broadband Internet service provider (ISP), which serves 51 per cent of residential broadband subscribers, have surfaced at popular online hangouts like GameAxis and sgForums, and in interviews with gamers.
The Straits Times found significantly fewer complaints about SingNet, and none about Pacific Internet on these sites.
At GameAxis, a thread sarcastically titled 'StarHub is good for your gaming experience' has ballooned to 20 pages, filled with complaints about 'LagOnline' - a play on the name of StarHub's broadband service, MaxOnline.
Rival SingNet had previously highlighted this thread on its website.
One unhappy gamer is polytechnic student Eugene Sng, 20, who is upset that 'the hobby I love has become so frustrating.'
The MaxOnline 6500 subscriber who pays 'about $70' a month said he did not have lag problems when he used SingNet's broadband service previously.
'I've made 15 complaints to StarHub in the past four months, and each time they said they will do something about it. But there has been no improvement, and I can't do anything except 'tong' (Hokkien slang for suffer stoically) until my contract is up in five months.'
StarHub senior vice-president for IP services Thomas Ee dismissed complaints like Mr Sng's as 'few and far between', adding that 'speed can be subjective and we do not agree our connection is slower'.
The problem, he said, is likely to be the game server's inability to cope with the game's demands. Most game servers are run by individuals or gaming industry organisations, not by ISPs like StarHub.
No way, said commercial pilot and gamer Kenneth Tan, 34, who also heard this reply when he complained. 'How can this be true when SingNet or PacNet users don't face problems with the game server?' countered the MaxOnline 6500 user, who declined to take up StarHub's suggested solution to his woes: switching to a more expensive plan.
An expert familiar with Internet networking technology, Juniper Networks chief technology officer for Asia Pacific Andrew Coward, said StarHub's problem is network congestion, a common occurrence when there is insufficient bandwidth or hardware to cope with demand.
When too many users try to send data simultaneously in a congested network, some data will be delayed or even dropped, much like the problem gamers face.
'Congestion won't affect activities like surfing the Internet or movie downloads, but it is a problem for lag-sensitive activities like gaming,' he said.
This is borne out by the many subscribers drawn by StarHub's fast download speeds. Even as the gamers grouse, some admit they will stick with StarHub for its fantastic movie, music and software download capabilities.
What Mr Coward describes is the situation gamers face with StarHub, said Mr Reuben Conceicao, manager of World Cyber Games (WCG) Singapore CounterStrike champion Team Titans.
'The gaming community's issue with StarHub is that its connection speeds lack reliability and consistency, not the amount of data a StarHub user can download.'
The Titans are sponsored by SingNet, which also sponsors about 20 other WCG winners.
Mr Coward believes a solution is for StarHub to buy more hardware and provide more bandwidth, rather than for gamers to upgrade to one of its faster, more expensive plans.
Since upgrades cost money, this will happen only when the ISP feels compelled to do so - for example, if it starts losing large numbers of subscribers.
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