GadgetByte Nepal

The craze and popularity of PUBG Mobile in Nepal in recent years simply cannot be understated. One can even argue that it is what’s responsible for putting Nepal on the map of the global eSports scene. And to ensure gamers have the best experience, Worldlink recently came up with an aptly named “PUBG Gamers Pack” that supposedly delivers the lowest latency among other things. So naturally, we tested it out to help you understand if this is actually any good or not. Let me share what we’ve found.

PUBG Mobile: Then and now

Before looking into all the data, allow me to talk about the history of PUBG Mobile in Nepal. Released in 2018, the game still remains a sensation among the gaming crowd. And these days, being able to run PUBG Mobile smoothly is even one of the things many youngsters consider before buying a phone. Plus, many Nepali PUBG teams have achieved remarkable feats in global events.

But a few years ago, the ping situation for Nepali PUBG players used to be pretty bad. In case you didn’t know, “ping” in video games refers to the amount of time taken for data to travel from your device to a server and then back to your device. Usually measured in milliseconds (ms), the lower it is the better.

So since there were no dedicated CDN servers in Nepal, players had to cope with unstable ping at the South East Asian lobby. Even 100ms ping was considered a charm for those rank pushers. Things began to change for good when Worldink finally brought CDN servers in Nepal for PUBG in July 2021. After that, gamers were finally able to breathe an air of relief as they were now getting around 50ms ping on average.

What is Worldlink PUBG Gamers Pack?

And recently, Worldink has introduced the “PUBG Gamers Pack” which supposedly lowers the ping even further for smooth gameplay. As you can see from the table below, the company claims that it can deliver as low as 20, 25, and 35ms latency in “Arena”, “Classic”, and other game modes, respectively.

As of now, the Worldlink PUBG Gamers Pack is available in two options: 250 Mbps and 300 Mbps. What’s interesting is that it costs the same as the regular residential internet packages. That means you’re not paying any extra to enjoy lower latency on PUBG Mobile and it’s just another value-added service. To provide you with a clear view, let’s have a look at the following table where we’ve listed VAT-exclusive prices of the two internet packages.

So, what’s the actual point of pricing both packages exactly the same? Are those subscribed to the residential plan getting deprived of the supposed low latency while playing PUBG Mobile?

Fear not, I tested the ping on both plans by playing the game in Classic and Arena mode on the “Asia” server to see if upgrading to or buying the PUBG Gamers Pack makes sense. And just so you know, all our tests were conducted with the 300 Mbps plan although there’s no reason to believe the results would be any different under the 250 Mbps package.

Our experience

Okay, first off, I tried out the Arena Team Deathmatch (TDM) mode in the residential plan where — funnily enough — the lowest ping I got was around 20ms. This was not consistent throughout the gameplay (even when I was the only one using the WiFi) but some 32ms average ping is still pretty good. Moving to the Classic Battle Royale (BR) mode, the ping went up to 50ms on average which is still pretty decent. To note, this was tested with the official 5GHz router provided by Worldlink.

PUBG Mobile ping test

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And then, I upgraded to the PUBG Gamers Pack. The upgrade process itself was pretty seamless but to my surprise, the game’s ping situation was actually quite similar. The TDM matches got me as low as 20ms ping with a 36ms average, while the Classic matches stayed at a 50ms average. So… I’m left wondering what’s the fuss behind a dedicated pack when you aren’t getting any notable improvements?

Contacting Worldlink officials

After finding little to no difference between the two internet plans, I tried contacting Worldlink officials to figure out what was going on. While I couldn’t get satisfactory answers from multiple customer care representatives, thankfully, a Worldlink marketing official provided the answers I was looking for.

As per him, this is currently the “Phase 1” test by Worldlink for PUBG Mobile. And during this period, the ping might not stay at around 20 – 25ms all the time. The technical aspect behind the curtain revolves around quick server re-routing in case of server issues, which seems to be not as refined for now. And he also assured me that Worldlink is directly working with the Tencent team to improve the PUBG Mobile experience in Nepal.

Worldlink PUBG Gamers Pack: Final thoughts

So, after all those tests and talks, I don’t think the PUBG Gamers Pack is worth it for now. If you are already using a residential Worldlink plan and the ping and latency performance are all good, you don’t need to switch things up anytime soon. At least Worldlink isn’t charging additional fees for this package, so that’s pretty good.

For other ISP users too, I would advise the same. But if you are too eager to try a gaming package and are thinking of moving to a different ISP, you might want to try Worldlink’s PUBG Gamers Pack.

But let me once again remind you that this is still in the trial phase. So, why hurry when you can wait for a stable phase? Because I believe ping in PUBG Mobile under this will get even better in the upcoming days. For now, if your current Worldlink internet package or ISP is doing fine, just sit back and enjoy the game. When this gets to a more competitive level, we’ll make sure to update this article with more details.

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