racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

To continue my saga on trying out prepaid wireless landlines, I had recently activated Super Duo on my main Globe prepaid subscription. I was very pleased that I could easily call Bayantel lines (which we have at home), in stark contrast to my PLDT Wireless landline, which can rarely connect with my home residence.

But the big issue here is interconnectivity with several networks. For one, I can rarely connect to PLDT landline numbers. This can be very debilitating, since calling PLDT landlines was okay before activation of Super Duo (since this is billed as a regular call from one’s Globe number). But after activation, you effectively lose calling capability to PLDT landlines. Rare exceptions include midnight to the wee hours of the morning. Calling during daytime? Forget it.

Another small issue is calling from Bayantel phones. You get a busy tone, and you get connected after two to three tries. No big issue if you only expect personal calls, but to business users, this can be a deal breaker.

Now I’m not sure if this is only isolated to prepaid subscriptions. I hear that postpaid users are not as badly affected. Maybe that’s the premium one gets with a postpaid subscription. But with Globe heavily marketing their prepaid services such as Tattoo, SuperDuo and the like, they better be sure they have the capacity to service demand.

The bigger issue here is interconnection among the networks. I’m aware that telcos charge each other for each SMS or voice minute. But the charging framework has changed dramatically with the introduction of “unlimited” calling schemes, like the so-called “wireless landline” capability of mobile phones. If we’re going back to the dark ages of walled-garden communications, then we’re screwed. Remember the olden days when Smart subscribers could only text to Smart, and Globe within Globe?

Maybe this is just a honeymoon phase, and things will turn out better. I’m hoping that in the long run, interconnection among telcos would normalize. Things are getting cheaper and cheaper, anyway, and maybe they need to look for alternative business models (rather than charge interconnection fees), in line with the changing trends.

The term “wireless landline” is now in vogue among Philippine telcos. While it’s certainly a nifty idea to bring your landline anywhere, it’s mostly a marketing gimmick for me. Isn’t it just a glorified unlimited calling scheme? But instead of being able to call phones within your own network only, you get to call landline phones within the same locality.

I, myself, use PLDT Landline Plus, which I keep plugged into my trusty ol’ Nokia 1112, and which I use for calling fixed lines while on the move.

But I think I may be switching to Globe’s Super DUO soon. It’s probably more practical, since I use Globe prepaid as my primary mobile number. Globe also upgraded DUO to Super Duo with one great feature. Instead of giving you unlimited calling capability only to landlines within your locality, you can also call other Globe and Touch Mobile phones anywhere in the country with no extra per-minute charge.

Wha’ts even better is that Super DUO is now available to all Globe subscribers, postpaid or prepaid. Previously, when the original DUO was introduced as a prepaid service, it was a bit expensive (P700 per 28 days), and was only available to DUO-enabled SIMs, which you had to purchase. Now anyone can sign up just by texting SUPERDUO (plus some keywords) to 8888. It’s also more affordable at P599 for 30 days.

To activate the service, you would have to text the following keywords to 8888.

SUPERDUO [area] [plan]

Areas include the following:

• MM for Metro Manila
• CEB for Cebu
• TAG for Bohol
• ROX for Capiz

You have two choices for a plan:

• 35 for P35, which is good for one day
• 599 for P599, which is good for 30 days.

I’ll be trying out this service soon. My primary concern is whether it interconnects well with other networks like Bayantel, PLDT, and the like. That’s one of my biggest gripes with my PLDT Wireless landline. I can’t seem to make outgoing calls to Bayantel.

I’ll post a preview and a review soon.

Inq7.net picks up Migs’ story on the 3G battle between two of the Philippines’ major mobile providers, Globe and Smart.

I’m not really as excited about 3G as others are. 3G was the buzzword in the European and developed Asian markets two to three years ago, and what happened? It flopped, except in Korea and Japan, which went straight to 3G types of networks anyway, as opposed to the wide adoption of GSM elsewhere. Or at least it didn’t grow to be as economically viable as expected–perhaps the time was not ripe for such a technology.

I don’t know how successful Philippine telcos will be in their marketing of 3G in the country. Do they expect video telephony to be 3G’s killer app? That’s so 2003!

I don’t think we can expect a critical mass of Filipino mobile users who can afford high data rates, much lesss 3G-enabled handsets. Perhaps the higher-end consumers can afford the services and hardware, but will the prospective revenue stream from the high-end market be enough to cover for the high costs of investing in a 3G infrastructure?

And with all the marketing hoopla, are the networks even considering what exact 3G standard to implement? There are at least four of them, most, I think, already existent in some iteration since the turn of the century, but we haven’t seen a unification of standards. This could be 3G’s bane. The reason GSM has been successful and widely-implemented (even if it is technologically inferior to CDMA-type standards) is because the standard used is the same everywhere.

I wouldn’t want to waste my money buying a 3G handset that will only work with certain countries or networks. I want something that will work everywhere!

(more 3G news and insights at Pinoy.tech.blog)