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

I am a pioneer Sun Cellular subscriber.

When Digitel (Sun’s parent company) offered cellular services, I was one of those who signed up under their “Pioneer” program, where they boasted of rock-bottom rates for intra-network calls (PhP 2/min or about US$ 0.04 at the current exchange rate). In short, I was a crash-test dummy, a de facto beta-tester. The network had quirks at that time, being in soft-launch stage, in particular the lack of coverage in areas that are too remote or densely populated (i.e. either too far from the cellsites or too many buildings blocking the signal). I had no qualms about this service inefficiency, because the rates were cheap, and I maintained another line anyway—using the Globe nework.

But that was almost two years ago.

Come October 2004, a year and a half into Sun’s operations, the telco stirs up the market with its 24/7 call-and-text unlimited plan, which allowed subscribers just that: unlimited calling and texting within the Sun network. Very good, I thought. We’re finally making progress in terms of pricing competition among mobile telcos. This would surely wake up the two other major telcos, with the message that they could do better with their pricing.

But then came quality of service (QOS). Subscribers experienced degraded QOS even a few days into the start of the 24/7 scheme. The lower-tier market flocked under Sun’s fold, switching from their existing networks. Higher-end users acquired Sun mobiles as alternate/extra phones. The network began to congest.

“Network busy.” Or in technical terms, “Release: CC42” (according to my Siemens phone)

Sun subscribers are very much familiar with these notifications when trying to place calls. Other problems include dropped calls and lagged SMS receipt. And as of today, voice calls are unavailable with Sun’s prepaid service, a fact I had confirmed with Sun Customer Service Reps after I repeatedly tried calling myself with my globe line throughout the day only to hear the Sun Cellular SIM Pack welcome message (which only NEW prepaid subscribers are supposed to hear after their first call)! Talk about bugs and system glitches!

The sun doesn’t shine on this side of the world anymore!

Perhaps Sun should consider a refund scheme, whereby a user’s used-up prepaid credit (or 24/7 registration) is rolled-back/refunded into his/her account upon system downtime, something like the 99.5% uptime guarantee offered by dotPH for its services.

Come to think of it, all service providers, mobile or otherwise, should undertake such a commitment. After all, a paying user is entitled to enjoy services paid for.

So here we are, Sun subscribers, paying PhP 250/mo or PhP 100/ten days ( US$ 4.55 or 1.82, respectively), but we cannot maximize use of the service due to downtimes! I think Sun should either focus on improving their services or give refunds to their inconvenienced customers. Otherwise, subscribers would realize that the service is crappy and would consider other providers.

Sayang (too bad)! The service should have worked well, especially with the intent of sparking competition in the market and ultimately lowering prices, which should be beneficial to customers. To date Touch Mobile, a brand reselling Globe services, is also offering a similar service; Smart is also planning the same.

But alas! Things may have gone unplanned, since Sun’s got too many subscribers for their own good.

Now I couldn’t even place calls even when my life depended on it. I guess I’ll hold off completely entrusting my life to Sun until the time that they can guarantee me that 95.5% uptime!

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