No. The idea is to remask as foreign ip. Even if u connect locally. The speed is reduce to 1-2 mbps same as you connect to other asian vpns. I did some speed test climbing
I also just tried PIA. It is much slower than Windscribe. I was using Astrill until last Saturday when my subscription expired. haha.
To me, speed from fastest to slowest, whether it is SG or USA servers: Windscribe Pro -> Astrill -> PIA.
And for windscribe to offer lifetime subscription at such low price, no brainer to go with it.
think about it, the core purpose of a VPN is to mask your IP, DNS, ISP details. so there is no reason to connect to a server that is physically further away unless dont even trust that they are able to perform those main tasks properly.
to be honest i have been using PIA for about 2 years and its possible to achieve climb rates of 15-30 MB/s when connected to SG server. 30MB/s is about the max it will go since the max speed that i get when running speed test on PIA is about 250mbps, which calculates to about 30MB/s.
too bad PIA's sg server doesnt provide port forwarding, i sometimes have to climb bukit timah with private trackers and seed as much as possible, i would also have to connect to their canada or germany servers that provides me with a port number to forward to. but even then, the speed is not 1-2mbps like you've quoted. 1-2mbps i think if i really go and climb the actual bukit timah and come home the file still havent climb finish.
i turned off my PIA VPNclient on my router last night and have been switching around the two VPNs' desktop clients and ran speed tests on them. strangely i am having very different results from what you guys have shared about PIA. for me i get very inconsistent speeds with Windscribe, including sometimes getting higher speed than PIA. Sadly, those high speeds isnt consistent, but it's high latency when connected to SG server is consistent. just another random test i did a few moments ago to compare. maybe my devices too used to PIA so now let them try whatever other VPN they just dont perform. lol.
(anyways these are wireless speed and not ethernet)
i think eventually whats important is that you find sometime that achieves your objectives for getting a VPN service. in which for me would still be PIA.
BUT i did not regret one bit about buying this 3 year subscription for windscribe VPN at us$14.40. i must admit it have a few features which i felt are really effective and useful.
geo-unblocking US and UK Netflix contents. simple, easy, it works, and able to sustain speeds of around 10-20 mbps which is sufficient to stream in 1080p resolution. i tried installing their android app on my Android TV OS as well, and it actually worked and was able to unblock Netflix with US contents as well.
unlimited simultaneous connections means you can give your login details to your close friends and relatives for them to view Netflix with US contents as well.
their ad and tracker and social media blocker is quite good and effective compared to PIA's MACE
Seems that not many talk abt ExpressVPN or NordVPN? Is it cos it's more costly and many features are not needed?
used both before and refunded both before they refund policy window was over. too overpriced for my usage i think it's also overpriced for the performance that i'm seeing. if i had to made a choice of signing up for a costly VPN, i would go for VyprVPN instead. i used their app's free trial and was quite impress with the performance and features. but there were some articles online where people wrote about the parent company (goldenfrog) security and privacy policy and advised people to avoid them for the time being.