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Im leaving in a few hours so i double checked my roaming services. Smart and sun bills you about 20 pesos per text back to manila. Both lets you receive messages for free. Globe... charges you 25 to send back and 15 PESOS for EACH MESSAGE you receive!! So, to those who know me, my globe phone is staying while smart and sun goes gallivanting in Cali.

Nokia is replacing problematic BL-5C batteries that are made by a specific manufacturer and made at a certain date. Please check the link below to get instructions on how to check your battery if it needs to be replaced. It also has a serial number checker to see if it is specifically one of those that they need to replace. http://batteryreplacement.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/ Sadly, 2 of my phones use that battery and one needs to be replaced.

Details are in the article i posted called Per Second Calls. Anyway, it is irritating that they keep coming up with promos that may seem nice but mistakes will get costly. At least with smart and bayantel, it is all unlimited. Speaking of which, i'll write about bayantel here soon.

My friend had her cell stolen last saturday. It got snatched. She had a prepaid smart sim on her phone in that bag. We know that it is possible to have a sim programmed with the old number and even the existing load through smart (globe prepaid users do not get this privilege). We got the affidavit but we failed to get a replacement because we couldn't find a proof of ownership. She has lost her PUK unblock code slips or the card that came with the sim. Moral of the story is: keep those sim packs and PUK codes.

When globe doubled their rates for unlimited text, i decided to just select days when i will use it. The first time i tried it, they only activated it at midnight, 6 hours after i wanted to use it. They did change it though. Now it is 24 hours as soon as an hour after requesting. However, i didnt know that the unlimited text day and the nighttime thing was only for prepaid! Post paid users are only allowed the unlimitxt 20/40/80 which was for 24 hours. I dont intend to send all day. Why are they being nasty to post paid users? Is it because were stuck with you till the contract expires?!? For prepaid, use unlitxtd15, unlitxtn10 and send to 2870. Everybody can avail of the 24 hour thing by sending unlitxt20 or 40 or 80 to the same number.

We got a smart multi line sim to figure out where a person harassing us is getting our number. One number was given to office people and another was given to family and friends. Anyway, we had trouble with the prepaid line. We could not pasa load the account. After 4 visits to a smart wireless center, they were able to figure things out. The multi-line sims cant be switched by, in cases of Nokia phones, pressing the # key for a long time. You have to dial in to a number to switch and dial to another number to check which line is active. Easy enough to program into a phone but a little bit of a hassle as compared to long pressing a key. Still, the trick worked. We localized the leak and in the process of tracing the S.O.B.

Just got off the phone from talking to the Smart Customer Service Hotline. There were a few things i learned. Messages will only get through if there is at least a 3 bar signal. If you dont have it and a message comes in, goodbye message. Sad to say, its not like globe who will somehow try to keep it in their servers until it does get sent. If you have leftover credits and it is about to expire, forget loading a new load in an attempt to extend your credits. It wont work. Your leftover credits will still expire at the set date despite your new load. You should just use up everything or pasaload everything to another sim but that will only be good for 3 days and you either use it up or pass it again. Side note, a friend, a smart reseller, went to smart to buy a 300 peso load in an emergency. They said if it is just for personal use, they would rather that you dont use your reseller status to get a discount. Sheesh! I know business is business but if you cant even treat your resellers we...

An alert sent by Txtpower is that there is a consolidated bill on telecoms being drafted. The title is: An Act to Regulate the Operation of Telecommunication Sevices to Protect the Rights of Celluar Phone Subscribers. This is the consolidated bill from HB 3407, 2654 & 1485. However, they say that only the telecom people were invited while the bill was being drafted. Being in the Philippines, i suspect that some pockets were lined and only the Telecom's interest will be served. I hope and pray that i am wrong.

Some people in an egroup of mine suddenly discovered that Globe was charging them for balance checks when they call 222. No notice was sent until today. Here's an email from mike: ---- Looks like Globe just wised up: I got an advisory just a few minutes ago - "Starting May 13, balance inquiry by dialing 222 will be charged P1. To inquire balance for FREE, text BAL and send to 222. Thank you." Mike ---- Im sure millions have been charged from people's accounts for the late announcement. I wonder what the Globe Management are thinking. Im sure people will soon realize what this company is doing. I hope they do shape up though, for the sake of the Filipinos who are still with them.

5 days ago, i checked my smart load and got a confirmation message of having 244.50 pesos in credit. Since then i sent, at most, about 30 messages. Last night, i encountered the dreaded Check Operator Services error. It seems that Since my 500 peso load 2 months ago, i should have either used it all up or reloaded so i could have saved my 200 peso credit. No wonder these telecom companies are so rich. Goodness. 200 pesos straight to their pockets without even lifting a finger. Lesson learned.

A Filipino-owned company, D3 Systems Inc., has produced a GPRS application that allows for person to person communication via a cellphone with GPRS. They are aiming to make 'texting' cheaper since a 160 character message costs only 14 centavos to send as compared to the 1 peso of a regular SMS message. The software needs a series 60 or series 80 phone which means that even the nokia 3200 cant run it. The nokia 3650's and equally high tech phones can. So far, there are no ads on the software but eventually that will change because it is where the company will get their money. I have yet to try it. Im not sure if it can run in the background while i let my phone do its regular thing or i have to check the application every so often for messages. I'll keep you updated ;)

After my initial billing fiasco years ago, im happy to say that Smart Communications has shaped up. Signals and services are just as good as that of Globe. Smart's Customer service people were efficient, informative and very helpful. When we needed assistance with a stalker, Globe just said, "Sorry, cant help you there." The Smart people also said that they cant help BUT they gave us the numbers for the NTC department that can help us. When we got a new phone, they took the time to get us a very good number and not just any random number that the computer would generate. Kudos to the Staff in Ali Mall and Podium (Gibs Calalay). I have not tried the 25/8 because i already have a sun. I use the Smart account for business and for emergencies because it is more reliable than sun connection-wise. It is a prepaid account but i am not afraid of losing it because Smart can replace a lost or stolen prepaid sim and reinstate the old number. This is a policy that i value that Globe ...

Getting that Sun Cellular is one of the smartest moves i made. True that i will have to start bringing around 2 phones but i saved so much. I used to load 300 a week in my globe but since i used the Sun to talk (mostly talk) and text to my girlfriend and close friends, the last time i loaded my main phone (the smart with the amazing number) was over a month ago and i still have about half that load still unused. The connection rate at nights is pretty low for calls but the text messages are fast and without problems. I need to redial from 2-9 times before connecting after 7pm. During the day, i connect on the first try. The customer service people in Sun are very helpful and friendly. When they made a mistake of telling me a different price for the service i was interested in, they immediately called me back and corrected it. Sun's IDD is cheaper by $0.10 and GPRS is also cheaper by Php 0.15/kb. Considering everything, i think im getting much more from my money with this company. I...

My stay with Globe telecom was pleasant for years. Emphasis on the term 'was'. I was a strong advocate of that service company. To be honest, i like the innovations like the very informative balance check sms messages and the call back alerts. The signal was not as good as smart in the provinces but i think they are catching up. My discontent started when i left for the states last year. Before leaving, i went to their business office and inquired about the costs involved when roaming abroad. I did not consider bringing my postpaid sim because, with the taxes and added charges, it would be too expensive. With the prepaid, i was "supposed" to just pay Php 15.00 per text back to the Philippines. I confirmed this with their Customer Service staff and it was even printed in their roaming brochures. I even went to a different Business center and asked if it really was just Php 15.00. I figured that since two offices and a printed brochure indicated it, that it was what i w...

In 1994, my father decided that it was worth the expense to have the security of having a phone while travelling. It was then that the shoulder bag with a wired handset came into our lives. That thing was huge. He did get one for me a few months later that was much smaller, the smart slim phone. The slim phone was... slim. The battery had to be recharged everyday given minimal usage. Then the bill problems came. We were being charged for calls we didnt make. The threat of a cloner came in to mind. Despite measures, there were still some billing discrepancies so we decided to quit subscribing with smart and in 1995, my adventures with the wonderful world of cloneless GSM began with my 0915-704-1814 Islacom motorola microtac unit that looked like a small clothes iron. Text messaging was done through an operator, much like my pager that time. Signals were erratic but it was still the coolest thing to have. Then came globe and smart GSM networks. I basically stuck with Islacom until the fa...