Roaming SMS set to become a rage

Ever heard of or used text roaming?

If you haven't, and you're a Filipino, you're lagging behind the times and wasting money too. Global roaming enables users of short messaging system (SMS)-enabled mobile phones in the Philippines to "text" relatives or friends overseas for just one peso (seven fils) per 160-character message.

The key is to activate your subscriber identity module (SIM) card before boarding the plane bound for any of the 100 countries to which Globe Telecom or Smart Communications have tie-ups.
That list includes the UAE and most Gulf countries.

How to activate the SIM? Subscribers of Smart, one of Manila's two leading mobile phone operators, just have to type "ROAM ON" in the message composer and send it to 333 an hour before the flight. Globe users can do it with similar ease (using a different number).

The Philippine islands is the world's de-facto texting capital today as text-savvy Filipinos send an average 100 million messages daily.

Overseas cellular phone operators linked to Smart or Globe also win: roaming encourages Filipinos to use their network more, paying existing rates to reply to messages from the Philippines.

Etisalat, UAE's sole carrier, charges 90 fils per message sent to any overseas mobile phone number.

In Saudi Arabia, global roaming-enabled SIMs are now sold in the grey market for SR65, making it an instant hit among Filipinos there.

"The use of dual-SIM phones have become a rave here," a Filipino engineer in Riyadh told Gulf News.

The roaming SIM card is used to receive while the local card is used to send messages. This system is not glitch-free, though. The same message sent from a Globe phone in Manila is sometimes received up to 10 times in Jeddah.

And users of Smart roaming SIM may lack signal even when one stands next to a cell site, according to a subscriber in Jeddah.

In the UAE, the service is gathering steam as more people learn about the service. A key factor behind SMS' success has been the seamless roaming across borders.

When a roaming SIM runs out of credit, it can still receive text messages. It can also be reloaded over-the-air (OTA) from Manila (through a relative) or directly via credit card on the Internet.

Though many people find SMS to be a clumsy way of communicating, many Filipinos overseas have become dependent on texting, because it is instant and cheap.

"I have gotten used to living with daily texting back and forth to friends in Manila. I was depressed when the service failed. It was like returning to the pre-historic age of having no electricity or television," said Rashid, a Saudi journalist based in Jeddah.

Some cell phone users in the Philippines complain of dropped calls, calls that never get through and text messages lost when sent overseas.

Nevertheless, many have relied on it as a vital link to friends and loved ones overseas and at home.

"My day isn't complete without texting my daughter in Rizal province. My niece texts me regularly, too," said Cerilla Monghit, from Southern Leyte in eastern Philippines, who works as a housemaid for an American family in Dubai's Jumeirah district.

"On special occasions, I get more text messages than usual. I text them regularly, and if they don't respond, I call."

"I don't know what I would do without it. E-mail? No, too slow. Call? No, too expensive. I really don't know how I used to live without it..." said Rashid.

Gartner Dataquest sees worldwide revenues from all forms of mobile messaging to double to $22.3 billion by 2006. By the same year, the Yankee Group predicted that the next-generation multimedia messaging system (MMS) market will reach $10 billion.

MMS allows the wireless transmission of moving and still images, audio and text, made possible via general packet radio service (GPRS).

Smart has already made GPRS roaming agreements with partners in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Finland. By December, it seeks to have a total of 10 GPRS roaming deals.