Philippine Cell Phones

Nearly six million Filipinos now use mobile telephones to move electronic cash, a leader among developing countries in the brave new world of e-wallets. - AHN

There are more cellphones  here than bank accounts and Filipinos do not need a bank account in mobile banking. Money transfer is as simple as an SMS message.

The problem with this technology, however, is that there is no verification process. If users accidentally send cash to a unintended cellphone recipient, there is no way to get the money back. There isn’t even any fraud mediation.

Wow six million. Now we just have to figure out a way to truly and easily integrate mobile and online cash technology and with more security features.

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True dual sim phones are now available in the Philippines:

With the recent introduction of MyPhone T22 Duo, the first dual active SIM mobile phone in the Philippines, one can move seamlessly from one line to another without a hitch.

What’s great about this phones is that it can access two cell phone networks. Why is this important? Many Filipinos now usually carry either a Smart/Globe cellphone and then a Sun Cell phone.   They Sun cell phones typically allow unlimited calls and SMS messages. Families now have Sun phones to regularly communicate with each other. Yet, people still keep their old Smart/Globe lines for business or personal use.

I’ve seen one of the dual phones around and it shows two active bars for the two sim networks. They also have two different address books for the sims. Expect a lot of Pinoys to begin using these gadgets.

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You know MMORPG, right? Like Ragnarok? You remember, playing online with friends, chatting with them, defeating monsters and generally trying to reach level 99 or whatever..

Well, Smart and Level UP games are taking MMORPGs to the next level.  It’s called Level Up! Mobile. No, you don’t get to play using your cellphone.  You just get to control your account. From  m-ph.com:

JC Medina, Level Up! New Media Director explains this latest serviceIt provides the avid Level Up! gamer with the necessary tools to be in complete control over his/her Level Up! account regardless of whether he/she is in front of the computer or on the road. In just a matter of a few steps, one can easily download the Level Up! menu to your Smart SIM and link it to a Level Up! account so that one can manage it while on the go and lock it for peace of mind against potential hackers. No need to memorize keywords because all the service options will be available in the downloaded menu that’ll be saved on your SIM.

Hurray for all Level Up! gamers. Just hope no one steals your cell phone just to hack your account, okey?

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Some exciting news! Smart Communications has finally launched the first commercially available Mobile TV service in the Philippines. This  new service is called MyTV.

So how is Mobile TV different from the existing mobile video services?  The technologies used totally different from one another in the sense that one makes use of 3G to stream the broadcast while the other uses DVB-H to broadcast the video. According to wikipedia:

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to handheld receivers. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. DVB-H is officially endorsed by the European Union.The major competitor of this technology is Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB).

3G streamed media is low in quality and allots a lot of buffering so it isn’t exactly smooth. DVB-H broadcasts, on the other hand, are crisp and clear and almost no buffering is done since it’s a live feed. Think of it as watching a movie through the Internet (3G streamed) and on TV (DVB-H).

You need, however, a DVB-H enabled phone like  the Nokia 92 for this.

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If you don’t know yet, the Philippines is considered as the `SMS capital of the world.’ This little distinction gives us Pinoys some insight on cell phones. We’ve had quite a number of advanced value-added mobile services like G-cash or Smart Money. We buy and sell cell phones like candy.

My opinion: The iPhone is not for Pinoys.

1. It’s too expensive. US$499 and US$499 (somewhere around Php30k & Php40k) is too much for a lot of Filipinos. The fact is, you hardly see people with Treos, N90s or blackberries here. The price range is exclusively for the high end market.
2. It doesn’t have 3G.  I am told that 3G is not prevalent in the US. Here, my tech buddies rely on it for mobile Internet. They usually use a bluetooth-enabled laptop that connects to a bluetooth cellphone with 3G. The internet experience has been pretty good and is much more practical than PLDT weRoam or Globe Visibility. You get 30 minutes of decent Internet connectivity for 10 pesos (20 US cents).
3. It will take too long to be released here. The iPhone is slated for release in Asia in 2008. That’s one whole year of waiting. I’m pretty sure that by that time Sony-Ericsson and Nokia while have released more affordable alternative devices. Their goal would be to beat the iPhone before it comes out. With an established distribution network here, Nokia, SE and the other companies already have an enormous advantage.

No, I don’t think the iPhone will sell here. Not yet. Unfortunately, the Philippines is simply not Apple’s target market. I give it probably 2-3 years before I’ll see it amongst ordinary Pinoys.

Add a comment | IPhone, P10,000 - P20,000, P20,000-P30,000

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I loved my Nokia E61. It had 3G, wifi, bluetooth… the works! It was very useful for internet surfer and email checking anywhere in Manila. With Smart’s 10 Pesos for every 30 minutes of internet time, you could surf the web at 30 minute intervals anywhere with this device.  At the office, I use the office wifi for it.
The new E61i upgrade introduces a camera to it. Although I don’t need it, I find it a useful enhancement. I’d personally recommend the E61i to tech geeks who love to be always online - like me.

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Sony Ericsson’s latest cellphone, the W710i clamshell, combines your typical Walkman phone functions with fitness applications that include a pedometer, calorie counter and a timer that records your run’s lap times and average speed. The pedometer, once started, works in the background and discretely displays the number of steps you’ve taken in the external LCD. You can fire it up in the morning, slip this compact clamshell in your pocket, and go about your day’s business. When you finally get home, you can check how far you’ve walked during the day, as well the number of calories you’ve burnt.

The outer display also displays the tracks currently playing when in Walkman mode. Surrounding it are rubberized buttons to control the player’s functions. Sound quality was excellent via the slightly uncomfortable earphones. The W710i also supports A2DP via Bluetooth – so this should work perfectly with most Bluetooth stereo headsets. It’s a good thing Sony Ericsson ships the handset with a 512MB M2 stick – as the 16MB of internal memory just isn’t enough.

The other nit of the phone includes a 2-megapixel snapper . While pics look great on the sharp 262k-color display, once transferred to a PC, image noise becomes evident. This is further exacerbated when shooting indoors, or in low light.

That’s not to say that the W710i is a bad phone. On the contrary, it’s a good – but not great – phone. While multimedia performance is up to par with the rest of the Walkman phone range, it’s just a shame the W710i’s camera can’t quite keep in step.

Current Price: P16,700

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It is interesting how the cell phone is now used by groups to monitor the upcoming elections. There is a new group that aims to conduct an Elections audit:

The Filipino voters—and that should naturally include all political parties—should uphold Halalang Marangal, the general slogan of the organization of the Network of Citizens for Honest Elections and Truthful Statistics whose acronym is NoCheats. The objective of this group is laudable. It aims to insure that the May election is fair and honest, insure through an audit system created by this group of upright people.

It’s successful implementation tough is still subject to the veracity of people’s reporting. We just hope they succeed somehow - for the good of all Filipinos.

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ABS-CBN’s Halalan 2007 Philippine election’s coverage invites Filipinos with camera cell phones to document the election process and send their videos/images to the website. It is another call to vigilance as the election season goes into high gear. There are no specific details on how to do this on the website but the radio stations constantly air guidelines for Pinoy Poll watchers.

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