If you find yourself in a Victory Liner bus and you have a complaint ….

Like, for example, an in-appropriate stupid violent horror movie being broadcasted in a bus with kids …

Try contacting the Victory Liner hotline at 0917-Vicline (0917-8425463).

I filed my complaint via SMS and via phone call, and Victory Liner corrected the situation.

This is one example of how cellphones/SMS in the Philippines have helped improve public services. Open communication empowers people.

Thanks Sol Laxa of Victory Liner for the immediate action. Next step: more permanent action, ensuring that passengers are no longer subjected to in-appropriate, offensive media.

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for world peace

“Plug it!”, the ad says.

“Magaling!” That’s what I can say about Smart Bro’s latest Internet connectivity solution.

ANYWHERE BROADBAND!

It’s the new SMART BRO PLAN 799 – the plug-it anywhere broadband!

The newest plan from Smart BRO – Plan 799, allows you to surf the net anywhere there’s a PC! The Smart BRO USB modem is a small, palm-sized device that you can carry with you wherever you go. And anytime you need to surf, just plug it into the USB port of your PC, and you’ll get connected in a flash!

40 HOURS FREE per MONTH!

• Initial Payment – P1,999 (upon subscription)

• Monthly Fee – P799 only

*In excess of 40 hours will be charged P10 per block of 30 minutes.

As for quality of service, that has yet to be discovered. As I’ve said before, I really don’t expect 5-star service (low expectations keeps me sane) from new services like this. What I DO like are the possibilities! This service extends Internet connectivity further, allows subscribers to be more mobile, not tying-down the internet connection to just one PC in just one location!

This service is perfect for students, for the travelling worker, for entrepreneurs on the move.

I wonder if this will work in a remote places like Barrio Napag-iwanan or Cuyo. Possible bottleneck is the “activation” of a cellsite to be able to accommodate this kind of service. I wonder.

Some additional info I gathered from Smart Wireless Center (Added 20 Dec 2007):

• Lock-in period: 24 months
• USB Modem can connect to Internet anywhere there is a Smart cellphone signal
• USB Modem can connect using 2G, 3G or “3.5G” or HSDPA depending on what service is available in the area
• Promo price good until February 2008

Visit Smart Bro website or call tel (02) 6727277 for details.

Magaling! Ma-bright!

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Ayos clap!

A friend from way back in highschool and college recently released her book. Catch it and get a perspective of telecommunications liberalization in Malaysia (btw, I’m in Malaysia now) and in the Philippines (btw, my heart is in the Philippines now).

GETTING A DIAL TONE
Telecommunications Liberalization in
Malaysia and the Philippines
By Lorraine Carlos Salazar

“Ninety-nine percent of Filipinos are waiting for a telephone and the other one percent for a dial tone …”
Lee Kuan Yew, November 1992

A decade after the above quote, far-reaching reforms in the telecommunications sector has dramatically changed the situation in both the Philippines and Malaysia. By looking at the institutions and actors that drove these changes, this book examines state capacity, market reform, and rent-seeking in the two countries. In doing so, the study challenges conventional depictions of the Malaysian and Philippine states.

It contends that despite the weakness of the Philippine state, reform occurred through a coalition that outmanoeuvred vested interests. In Malaysia, although considered a strong state, patronage and rent-seeking played key roles in policy adoption and implementation. The study also demonstrates how the nature of groups supporting reform shapes policy implementation and its outcomes. Finally, while liberalization removes monopoly rent, this book shows that it can also create other types of rents.

Flyer: Dial_Tone_flyer.pdf 

E-book & single chapters available
at http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg

I couldn’t load the link to the online bookshop, though. . Go for Google …

Got this from colleague Erwin Alampay ….

SMS Competition for NGOs

kiwanja.net have just launched their latest mobile initiative – nGOmobile ?
a competition which encourages grassroots NGOs in developing countries to
submit ideas on ways they could use text messaging in their work. The best
four entries will win laptop computers, Nokia phones, GSM modems and $1,000
in cash, courtesy of a range of sponsors which include Hewlett Packard,
Nokia and Wieden+Kennedy.

The competition is open from now until 14th December. Full details, and
links to the entry form, are available on the competition website at
http://www.ngomobile.org

Colleague John Owens from RBAP MABS keeps me attuned with developments in their mobile phone banking solutions for Rural Banks.

John’s group has a website ( Mobile Phone Banking for clients of Rural Banks – http://mobilephonebanking.rbap.org/ ) that brings together information about Mobile Phone banking solutions for Rural Banks.

They have information about the different services they offer, list of merchants accepting mobile payments, and a directory of points-of-presence of users all around the Philippines.

For a quick and easy overview of what RBAP MABS does, checkout their videos on mobile phone banking.

Always good to know we have partners who are pushing similar initiatives in m-commerce for the Philippines.

Keep it up, RBAP MABS!

My brother, Elmer, was on the Inquirer front-page with a story on how to spread e-learning through the “tsinelas-net”.

Here’s an excerpt:

BAGUIO CITY—Educators can learn a thing or two from their friendly neighborhood DVD pirates, according to an information technology company (IT) based here.

With the shortage of classrooms, teachers could record and distribute their lectures on DVD or transmit quizzes through the Internet, said Elmer Soriano, president of ThinkLab Solutions Inc.

The success of pirated DVDs should make educators realize that materials solicited through the Internet can be distributed faster and cheaper using this “pipeline,” he added.

Most DVD pirates access movies through the Internet, so the same underground traders could be tapped to replicate information material for distribution through the same network.

Read more at the Inquirer: Educators can learn from DVD pirates

I wrote a book for an e-Primers project with my former office, Digital Philippines Foundation in partnership with UNDP-APDIP.

A few weeks ago, I received an email informing me that my book entitled “Nets, Webs and Information Infrastructure” is on wikibooks.org.

Wikibooks is a platform for the collaborative development of free instructional books. The website is a wiki that allows anyone with a web browser, even if they are not logged into Wikibooks, to edit and update the books. Wikibooks have placed your book on their Information Technology bookshelf http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Information_technology_bookshelf and classified it in the ICT4D Books subheading http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:ICT4D_Books

This is waaaay cool for me because technology changes and my book’s information is slowly (quickly, really) becoming out-dated. Wikibooks allows the general public to edit my book. I’m all for that!

Check it out, see if you have updates you’d like to include in the wikibook.

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i left, i write

PLDT and Smart are aggressively marketing their Internet shop franchise packages at the malls.

The Internet shop franchise packages include:

• PLDT myDSL Internetcafe+
• Smart Bro computer station
• Smart Click Internet & more
• Netopia

(For a quick rundown, see Internet Cafe franchises on eOFW)

I like these developments in Internet shop franchising. I like it because there is value-added when PLDT/Smart spends corporate funds on marketing, on building a franchise, on building a brand, on providing the service. From an entrepreneur’s perspective, I think that as long as there’s a good location, the PLDT/Smart internet shop franchise will prosper.

From a ICT development perspective, I like it because the business model allows proliferation of Internet access points around the country at a sustainable rate — at least more sustainable than government PC/Internet connectivity programs. I like it because it helps make Internet access pervasive even in the rural areas of the Philippines.

My friend Nelly attended an orientation for a myPLDT Internet shop franchise. She’s interested in it because it offers financing for her business — not necessarily an Internet shop, but a business that needs multiple computers). Instead of shelling out a huge capital expense for her computers, she could apply for the franchise, get financing for the computers and spread the cost of hardware over 12 months.

On another note, Nelly mentions that 75% of the orientation participants were OFW returnees from Lebanon! Looks like this franchise is also being marketed to OFWs.

It’s still a young franchise with all the flashy presentations. Who knows whether it will prosper or flop? I hope it doesn’t go the way of Zagu’s hyper-growth … where after the initial hype, only a few of Gagus are afloat.

For inquiries, call 101-888 (PLDT/Smart phones or cellphones) or visit www.mypad.net . 

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gagu naut

So reads the title of an article on BusinessMirror. The Philippine Center of Entrepreneurship is inviting investors to setup Internet café businesses in the 90% of barangays in the Philippines (45,000 barangays) that are “waiting to be tapped for Internet-based businesses.”

This is one thrust of the TechnoNegosyo technology entrepreneurship expo on September 14 and 15 at the World Trade Center.

This is an interesting development. When I was connected with Digital Philippines Foundation and Foundation for IT Education and Development back in 2001-2004, the franchising model for Internet café’s hadn’t developed enough to be marketed for the barangay level.

At that time, we were still struggling with the question of how to increase PC/Internet penetration and usage especially in the rural areas.

Now, we’re seeing Smart Click being specially packaged for remote areas in the Philippines. And it’s not just a “grant” or “goodwill” project. It has a business model where entrepreneurs are expected to invest their own money and sweat to make this business work.

I guess it just took some time for the market and the industry to mature. PCs are cheaper now, there are more Internet users now, the cities are saturated and the rural areas are today’s greenfields.

The time is right for entrepreneurs to go to the rural areas, bring in the benefits of the Internet, provide services and at the same time make a profit that will sustain the business.

Read:

• Internet Cafe Franchises on eOFW.edongskey.com
• Smart WiFi in Barrio Napag-iwanan

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dreaming awake

On the Living Asia Channel last night, there was a feature story about a high school in a remote island in Bohol that has a Solar Powered Internet Cafe. How kewl is that?

First Solar powered Internet Café in the Philippines
Talisay, Cabilao Island, Loon, Bohol

Solar power is used to store electricity in batteries and provide power to the computers in the classroom. Internet is accessed through a satellite dish (or at least that’s what I saw in the background). They could have very well used Smart WiFi, but perhaps the service wasn’t available yet when they set-up this Internet center.

Some highlights:

1. A school administrator claims a stark improvement in college entrance exam results after the establishment of the solar powered internet center.
2. The school opens up the Internet center to the community so they can communicate with relatives in other parts of the country and the world.
3. Tourists are also allowed to use the Internet classroom for a resonable fee.

The first solar-powere internet center in the Philippines is a project by a German group a local technical education institute (Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise) and the community members of Loon, Bohol.

It was fun seeing old friend and colleague Roy Zapata in all his school-boy look glory .
The film-maker, by the way, is my childhood buddy, Kidlat de Guia. Nice work, Kidlat and Roy!

Hey, if they pulled it off at Talisay, Cabilao Island, Loon, Bohol, they can pull it off in other parts of the country too!

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solamente