I thought üMobile had forgotten about me. I applied for it over a month ago but never received word back until a few days ago, when someone texted me she would be delivering my SIM on my doorstep.

üMobile is a new mobile service in the Philippines, capital of mobile text messaging. It’s free for the first six months of usage. üMobile will give you P100 ($2) worth of text credits a month for their right to send you sponsored text messages. A peso is worth a text message so that’s a hundred free messages a month.

Personally, I think the mobile user pays too big a price for free load here, especially with another competing carrier Sun Cellular giving unlimited text and calls (Sun-to-Sun only though) for less than P500 a month ($11), no ads of course. I really hate advertisements coming though my email, and I probably will appreciate them less on my mobile phone.

But obviously there’s a market that’s willing to try this, and I’m sure people will want to use it, maybe as their third line. It’s free and that’s always an attractive option. Many people here already have at least two lines, with their main line being either Globe or Smart, and their second line Sun. Some people have all three. So they’ll probably adopt this line too when it goes on the market.

What can I say, Filipinos just love to communicate! Hehehe.

Anyway, I had to try this service, see how many ads I get and how reliable the system is. Here are some pics of the SIM package I received yesterday.  

 

  

  

  

The first message I got from this SIM was a welcome message. The second was an offer to receive their MMS (multimedia messages) settings, which I promptly replied to with a YES. Recieved the settings and installed them.

The third message was the WAP settings, and I installed those too. Got a couple of help messages too. So far, no ads yet. Will use it for a few days and I’ll update you on whatever ads I get. :-)

I’ve got 9 invites to give away. All it takes is a blogroll link on your blog (Please? I need to build up some rank here hehe!). Then comment here with your email address, mobile phone number and I’ll give them to you. If you want the codes for free, go do a search, I’m sure there are still lots of invites available. :-)

I am astounded at how many Filipinos are active in the blogging community. I was browsing BlogCatalag a few days ago, and I found there were 3272 Filipino blogs registered, placing the country at the #4 spot of all the countries with most blogs (registered with BlogCatalog)! India is at #3 with 4786, Canada is at #2 with 4814, while the UK reigns at #1 with 7257 blogs total.

Wow. Even online I’m surrounded by my kababayan (countrymen)! Hehehe.

I suppose the reason that Filipinos love blogging is because we’re very socially-oriented as a people (and blogging is a social pursuit, wouldn’t you say?).

I mean, there’s no concept of a “nuclear family” here because under one roof, you often have the mama, the papa, the children, the lola (grandmother), the lolo (grandfather), even yayas (nannies) and helpers, and sometimes other relatives, all living together as one family.

We are not comfortable being alone. Take for example eating. I often see American shows where people enjoy eating alone in a restaurant. In the Philippines, that would feel extremely uncomfortable. Eating is often a social event. When someone is eating (or is about to eat) and sees someone without food, it is customary to say “Kain tayo!” or “Let’s eat!”, an invitation. (If you don’t say it, you will look rude.)

Filipinos always actively seek company, and love to share stories and chika (gossip). Thus the concept of a barkada, or a circle of best friends.

So the social nature of Filipinos complements the social nature of blogging. Plus, English being one of the Philippines’ two official languages, I guess it’s no wonder why Filipinos love to blog. It’s easy, it’s natural and it’s what we’ve always been used to, just on a different platform.

Are you a Pinoy blogger? Do you think we’re taking over?

Detox Tip #3: Find Freebies on the Internet

SMS or texting in the Philippines is as much a way of life as wearing clothes. Everybody does it. There are three major cellphone carriers, Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular. Each text message normally costs Php1, but promos routinely crop up to minimize fees and entice new subscribers.

But I hate paying for anything, especially for something I believe should be free – such as the ability to send a meager 150 characters of data to another phone when you regularly pay for call credits. So I love finding freebies over the Internet.

I was one of the first subscribers to Chikka, an Internet service that allows Filipinos (and now, foreigners, too) to send free text messages from their PCs to cellphones in the Philippines (and now, to other selected countries, too). But it’s a limited service, it allows a user to send only 3 messages to any single number. I get around that by having multiple accounts, but it’s such a hassle. Oh, and sometimes the messages are delayed by a few hours.

I’ve tried another fairly new service, Wapot. There are no limits to sending messages, but it’s quite unreliable. Sometimes the message gets sent, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the service is fast, sometimes it’s not.

Recently, I’ve come across another free texting service online, and it’s Callwave. It’s easy enough to use, but it’s a widget which means you have to attach it somewhere like your personalized Google homepage, as you see in my screenshot. But as soon as it’s up, it’s a real breeze to use. Registering your number takes a second and then you can send messages to anyone, anywhere in the world. I tried it and there are no delays in receiving messages. Unfortunately, the number of messages you can send per day is limited. I was only able to send around 5 messages before it told me to “please try again tomorrow.” So I guess this is a good service to use if you’re in a hurry, but I wouldn’t advise you to uninstall your Chikka program just yet.

I don’t often find the need to call or text anybody so I don’t load my phone much. Except nowadays, when Gim is in Dapitan and there’s no other way to contact him during the day (at night when nobody’s using their boarding house phone, we call each other through PLDT NDD), I do load about Php100 everyday. Still, it’s heavy on my pocket since I’m saving for PIDC and since I don’t have any incoming salary on the 15th (waaaahh, it’s school policy for non-permanents). Every cent counts, so free texting is extremely helpful, hehe.

Hope this post is helpful, too, for financially-challenged texters out there like me. Tell me if you guys find any other SMS freebies out there. :)