I know .... "If you don't like it here, go back to your own country"! And I just may very well do that in November .... Anyway, this is a rant concerning the substandard cellphone service that exists all over the Philippines. 1. "Buying Loads" ... I am so tired of buying a load every couple of days. In most of the rest of the 'civilized' world, a person will select a cell phone provider (ie: Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, etc) and then select the service that suites them best. In most cases, this will include unlimited text, and in many plans, unlimited calls within the US ... all for a fixed monthly charge ... no running around every couple of days finding some Sari-Sari store to buy a "load" from. This is 2015, and people should not have to deal with these silly "loads" that seem to be a way of life here in the Philippines. 2. "Poor Cell Tower Signal Coverage" ... For as many Filipino's that are attached to there cell phone via there "Umbilical Cord", you would think that Smart and Globe would provide for a better signal within this country. 3. "Dropped Calls" ... This is another problem Smart and Globe can't seem to get right. "Hello, Hello, Are You There, Hello .... Jeeze, sometimes I feel like a little kid again and trying to talk to my friend using a couple of tin cans attached with a long piece of string! 4. "Unlimited Calling (Filipino Style)" ... Once I purchased an 'unlimited calls for a certain amount of days'. Can't remember if it was Globe or Smart, but there was a catch .... You could call as much as you wanted, but it would cut you off after about 3 minutes, so you had to re-dial your number again and again. This became very very annoying, so I never tried going that route again. Anyway, I am done with my rant .... You know, I lived here in the Philippines full time from 2006-2011. I then came back to the PI 4 years later (2015) .... The cell phone situation here has not changed one bit since I lived here 4 years ago. Out of Stock Sir !
I feel your frustration. I solved the pain in the butt "load issue" by signing up for a Globe post paid plan, paying a flat monthly fee for which ever package I signed for. I have never experienced a signal problem with Globe post paid.. I am not sure of the prerequisites for getting a post plan, maybe you have to sign up for 2 years which doesn't work for every one. One thing you can be sure of here, there are many perturbations here that test our living in paradise happiness.
We have a post paid number and 2 prepaid numbers in addition my daughter and I have smart prepaid accounts too. Have to agree that the post paid account whilst can be a little dearer, we have very few problems with. Cheap as they say is not, always good, going on the lines of you get what you pay for. Ooooooops did I just say that. Hope it has not ruined our connection. JP
1. They do have post paid services in the Philippines. Personally I prefer the no-contract prepaid SIM cards. I get what I pay for and nothing more. I load my phones online so I don't have to worry about going out and looking for load. 2. I've only noticed bad signal in places I would expect to have bad signal. No problems within the city limits. 3. I hate making voice calls anywhere in the world. If I am forced to do it in the Philippines I have my gf make the calls to talk to them in their native language. I won't even try. If I call someone it is because I'm frustrated that they are ignoring my texts. 4. The unlimited calling packages are pretty straight forward with their rules. It is pretty stupid how they go about making those rules though.
