COMMUN ICATION

Keeping in touch

From time to time, we get asked as to how we communicate out here. We don’t, as yet, have regular phone lines here at Ponderosa; the phone company tells us there are not enough customers to warrant the installation of lines.


The alternative is the cellphone. There are two major companies providing cellphone service – Globe and Smart. While in Manila, we relied on Globe to keep in touch. However, when we moved to Silang, we soon found out that Globe coverage in this area is less than perfect. To overcome this problem, I got myself a dual-sim phone – one that receives messages from both Globe and Smart; works well. Within the Philippines, probably 90 percent of the communication is via cellphone texting; few people seem to use the cellphone for phone calls. After a while, you get the hand of texting – but none of us can keep up with some of these Filipino kids who seem to set all sorts of speed records.


For the internet connection for the computer, I first acquired SmartBro – a small gadget that connects to a of the UBS port. This seemed to work only part of the time and reception was less than desirable. I now have a SmartBro antenna – gives much better reception and we are connected to the internet 24/7..



Since we don’t have a regular phone line, communication via phone was often a problem – especially overseas calls via cellphone … also a bit expensive.


I had read about something called MagicJack and decided to give that a try. Asked a friend in California, who was coming to Manila, to get me the hardware – around $35. Came with the necessary software – it gives you the option of a local phone number anywhere in the States. Since my family members live in California, I opted for a California number. The service only cost $70 for five years and allows you free calls. We now have a California number so anyone in the States can call us that number – and we can use that number to call anyone in the States – all thanks to the internet. I’ve used it a number of times and reception is great. It also has a built answering machine so you can leave messages – MagicJack also sends me an email to let me know that I have a phone message waiting.

Another way we keep in touch is via skype, another internet system that allows you to talk and see a person via webcam; it works well but only with friends who also have skype. It can get a bit confusing – the other day, while talking on MagicJack, another friend called via Skype – kinda hard to keep the conversations apart .. but it works.

We have a satellite dish for our TV. The first one we got, via a friend, was very inexpensive but then did not work anymore when the satellite company changed access codes. We opted for a “legit” dish and that works fine. The major problem is that it does not offer all that many channels – for example, we can’t see major tennis tournaments – very frustrating.

Oh well, you can’t have everything.