Low image quality when browsing via Globe 3G / Globe Visibility / Globe HSDPA
The Webmechs Editor on Dec 18th 2008
When using Globe 3G to view websites, I was disturbed to find that so many web pages had very low image quality. Upon closer inspection, I was alarmed to see that the images were being loaded in from a numeric IP address (usually 62.0.5.135 62.0.5.133 or 62.0.5.134 ) rather than the website itself, and I thought that my computer had been infiltrated by spyware or or a trojan!! After further investigation, I realized that this was actually the ISP’s handiwork >:-( .
Apparently, Globe 3G passes all images (e.g. jpg, png or gif) through a compressing proxy first before serving it back to the visitor. This is apparently done to greatly minimize bandwidth consumption by visitors.
On the surface, one might be able to understand Globe’s justifications for such a scheme. The lower quality of images will not be that noticeable when browsing via tiny mobile phone screens and secondly, I have to say that Globe 3G is fairly consistently speedy whenever I use it so their bandwidth miserliness has at least some redeeming factors.
On the other hand, you should be aware that if you use Globe 3G as your primary internet connection on a notebook or desktop (as opposed to just using it for quick browsing on a mobile device) then this kind of proxying is non-transparent and will result in breakage of many sites. For instance, I have discovered that it breaks image handling via AJAX. An example would be when trying to upload images for your ad in Classifieds PH, which will not work for those who visit the site via Globe 3G.
If it were true that internet access quality via Globe 3G would be greatly slowed down if they did not use this image compression scheme, then this is a somewhat reasonable tradeoff for those who use Globe 3G as a backup form of internet access.
On the other hand, if Globe really intended for people to adopt their 3G service en masse, then this method of conserving bandwidth is terribly flawed both from a technical and end-user point of view. I think Globe is shooting themselves in the foot with this one.
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