Saturday, February 13, 2010

Connected In The Philippines

As I have mentioned before I have a Filipina fiancée that is currently still in the Philippines. Our main source of communication is the internet. We mostly use Yahoo Messenger but we also sometimes communicate through Facebook chat. She will often buy little cheap phone cards or “loads” as they are called in the Philippines so we can talk for just a few minutes on the phone. For the majority of Filipinos to get online they have to go to Internet Cafes where they pay for internet access by the hour. Most internet plans are just too expensive for most of them. As you can guess internet cafes get a lot of business. From students to people contacting loved ones. In the Philippines internet cafes are truly a way of life there.

Recently it was decided that we were going to get my Filipina fiancée internet service in her home and I would pay for it. There are a few different Internet Service Providers to choose from; Globe, PLDT, and Smart. We decided to choose Smart since they offer the type of service we are looking for and they are quite well known. The plan we have decided to go with is the Plan 999 “Unlimited” with the Plug-it modem at 2 mbps speed at a cost of 999 PHP per month. 999 PHP is a little less than $20.00 a month, less than most broadband services in America. It does come with a 2 year lock in which I am not all that happy about but even after my fiancée is here in America with me we will continue to pay for it for her family to use so that she can contact them as often as she would like.

The Plug-it modem is actually a USB device just a little bigger than a normal flash drive. You can get internet service anywhere there is a Smart signal which should be a large area in Bacolod where she is located. Smart also offers the in home set up but we decided that with a 2 year lock in contract that it would be best to be able to connect in many places in case she or her family decides to move somewhere else in Negros Occidental. The only thing we are unsure about is that there will be coverage in other areas of Negros Occidental. It is just a chance we will have to take.

My fiancée went to a Smart office located at the SM Mall in Bacolod with all the information she needed to get the plan we wanted. The employee there stated that they didn’t carry the Plug-it modems there and tried to sell her the at home setup which we do not want. She let him know that it was the Plug-it modem or nothing. She was then told she needed to go to their main office in Robinson Mall to get everything setup. One thing they mentioned to her that was not mentioned online is that she would need a pay stub from her job as part of the application process. Online it states that all that is needed is Subscriber Application Form, Proof of Identification, and an initial 999 PHP payment. She did not have a recent pay stub so she had to contact her main office of her company to get one. She went to an internet café to update me with what was happening and that she was going to go get a recent pay stub from her company.

At the moment she is still waiting to hear back from Smart if her application has been accepted. I have read some reviews online that this could take a few days, a week, and in one instance it took over 2 weeks although they stated they will contact her in 24 hours. In the instance where it took 2 weeks the customer didn’t even get the service they wanted because Smart was out of the Share-It router they wanted. I will update this blog as soon as we hear back from Smart. I will have her call the office today if they haven’t called her as it has been 3 days already. Does anybody else have any stories about Smart to share whether good or bad?

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    Please let us know if you have received feedback on your SmartBro application. Should you need assistance, please contact us through our Twitter account.

    Thank you.

    Social Media Services

    ReplyDelete