Babelmachine

Mobility and family

May 25, 2006 13:43

Mabuhay!

That's the universal Filipino greeting, which literally translates to "Live!" and is the equivalent of "Welcome!" and "Long live!" (or "May you have a long life!") when we say it--with a smile, of course--to visitors. So let me welcome you all as we begin our virtual tour of tech developments in the Philippines and the digital lifestyle of Filipinos with the debut of my Babelmachine blog on CNET Asia.

I just got back from Bangkok where I covered the Juniper Networks APAC Carrier Partner Summit 2006 for INQ7.net, representing the Philippines together with my fellow tech journalist Lawrence Casiraya of Computerworld Philippines.

Before I left for Bangkok over the weekend, I noticed that one of the promo materials which the biggest Philippine telco, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., regularly sends via direct mail to its subscribers, had been slipped under the door of our condo unit. That's how the guards here deliver bills and snail mail.

I didn't check it out then but now I'd like to share it with you because it's a very good example of how we Filipinos place a lot of value on family ties and use technology to keep in touch with our loved ones.


Here's the cover of the folder PLDT sent:

I heard it on the telephone.

The text above the people shown on the cover says: "Mas masaya ang pamilya kung lahat ay sama-sama." This translates to "the family is happier when everyone is together".

Open the folder and you'll see that this is about Filipino families celebrating birthdays and other special occasions together.

What PLDT is promoting is its Unlimited Call Service, which allows postpaid landline subscribers to call other PLDT subscribers via NDD, or Smart and Talk and Text mobile telephone users (Smart Communications Inc. is the cellular mobile telephone service company of the PLDT Group, while Talk and Text is a sub-brand that was formerly a separate mobile telephone company) for just 10 pesos a call.

In fact, the PLDT folder included a complimentary Smart Buddy prepaid SIM that comes with 50 free text messages (Short Message Service).

Yup, prepaid rules in the Philippines.

The idea is for you to give this prepaid SIM to one of your loved ones so you can make unlimited calls at the flat rate to his or her mobile, after enrolling your PLDT landline in the Unlimited Call Service program.

This is a flat rate of 10 pesos per call, so you no longer have to worry about how many minutes you're on the phone. Ten Philippine pesos would be equivalent to about 19 US cents or 30 Singapore cents. I'm basing this on my favorite free universal currency converter from XE.com, which shows that 10 Philippine pesos would equal 0.189107 US dollars and 0.300392 Singapore dollars.

The thing about Filipinos is that many of us have family members scattered all over the Philippines, which has 7,107 islands--of which about 700 are inhabited.

(Incidentally, this reminds me of a famous quip by our Miss Philippines candidate Charlene Gonzalez in the 1994 Miss Universe beauty pageant held in Manila. When the host asked Ms Gonzalez, "so how many islands are there in your country?" our candidate replied: "High tide or low tide?" You can imagine how this broke the ice and subsequently became a catchphrase in the Philippines where Charlene is still very much a celebrity. She is a TV host married to one of our most popular actors).

Not only that, but many of us have family and friends who are working abroad or have relocated for good to other countries. The Philippines has over 8 million people overseas, ranging from manual laborers to professionals, to knowledge workers.

Wherever we may be physically, however, most Filipinos want regularly to keep in touch with other members of their family. That's why special occasions such as birthday celebrations involve not only the people who are physically present at the party, but relatives calling in from the provinces or other countries, whether via landline or mobile phone, just to greet the celebrant and make that day even more memorable. Well, in theory, at least, because sometimes you do find relatives too nosy, heh.

With the advent of new technology, Filipinos are also finding more ways to keep in touch apart from phone calls, SMS and of course email. Voice-over-Internet protocol is starting to take off. Now it's not just individual geeks like us who are using Skype or Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. The National Telecommunications Commission passed the implementing rules and regulations for VoIP last year.

In fact, among the marketing collateral included in the PLDT folder was a pitch for its PLDT Budget Card, which allows you to make inexpensive calls to different destinations, including 5 pesos (about 9 US cents or 15 Singapore cents) per minute to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, China and Taiwan via VoIP.

3G is now also commercially available in the Philippines through the two leading cellular mobile telephone service providers, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.

Smart introduced 3G in the Philippines with a free trial that began on February 14 (yup, it was an interesting Valentine's Day gift), before launching the commercial service on May 1 (Labor Day--hmm, are they trying to tell us something?).

Meanwhile, Globe was the first to introduce a commercial 3.5G service in Asia Pacific by launching HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), which is an upgraded version of 3G.

I'm now subscribed to the Smart 3G service using my Nokia N90 handset, and while I'm still disappointed with the content that's already available on 3G here, I do recognize how big the potential market is for overseas Filipinos who would like to make video calls to their loved ones.

Sure, some of us have already been keeping in touch via video through our Webcams, but mobility is of course a plus factor. For Filipinos who miss seeing their loved ones and the familiar sights of home, video calls could be a compelling reason to jump onto the 3G bandwagon.

Here's hoping though that Smart and Globe can make their 3G rates more reasonable and offer more content soon. They can engage in their never-ending game of one-upmanship for all I care.

Just make sure that we consumers will actually benefit from the arms race.

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