Browse > Home / Mobile, Telecom / ümobile the only ad-funded telco in the Philippines

ümobile the only ad-funded telco in the Philippines

July 15, 2008

ümobileI was very lucky to be in invited to try and use ümobile, the new TELCO in the Philippines. ümobile is the first ad-funded mobile service provider in Asia. According to their website’s FAQ section, ümobile is a brand owned by Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise, Inc. CURE belongs to the family of the 2 leading telecommunication giants, PLDT and SMART. ümobile maintains their independence as far as strategic business decisions and day-to-day operations are concerned. SMART supports them in their needs especially on network complement.

Ad-funded? Meaning, a user can gain load credits by viewing and receiving targeted advertisements. The service is exclusively open to 15-35 years old. In addition, the service is by invitation only. Therefore, one needs to have an invite code to be able to apply for the said service. You don’t have to worry about insignificant advertisements popping out of your cellphones. Why? During the application process, you will be asked to answer a lengthy questionnaire about your lifestyle and interests. It is where ümobile will base the ads that would be sent to you. Well, if you don’t want to view ads but would want to use their service, you can easily buy load credits from their website and other affiliate stores. As a ümobile user, can enjoy the following benefits and features:

  • Free P100 load every month for the first 6 months
  • Enhanced communication with fring™ (mobile VoIP)
  • Nationwide coverage
  • Earn rewards with every ad you see
  • Mobile broadband surfing
  • PC calling with Virtual Phone (coming soon)

ümobile’s access number is +63999 (0999). So, your number would be like +63999XXXXXXX. Isn’t it cool to have that +63999 number?

Upon trying out their service here are my experiences:

  1. Network coverage is very good – I live in Caloocan City and the signal is very good.
  2. ümobile cannot send SMS to Globe and Sun users and vice versa – I also get the “Message Sending Failed” error whenever I try to send SMS to Globe and Sun users. It is also the same when Globe and Sun users are trying to send me SMS.
  3. Globe and Sun cannot identify ümobile numbers – I tried calling Globe and Sun numbers using my ümobile sim but my number won’t reflect on the caller ID. It would just display a “NO NUMBER” or an “UNKNOWN” message.
  4. Globe and Sun users cannot call ümobile users – I would hear a “the number you dialed is incorrect” error when calling ümobile users.
  5. No connectivity problems with Smart – SMS and Calls from ümobile to SMART and vice versa are fine. I think it is very obvious because ümobile belongs to Smart and PLDT.
  6. ümobile won’t work with the iPhone – I tried inserting my ümobile sim card on my iPhone but it won’t work. Other iPhone users have pointed this out already.

I believe that ümobile should iron out the connectivity problems with Globe and Sun. Otherwise, ümobile would be very useless since you can only communicate with SMART and ümobile users. I haven’t tried the 3G service of ümobile because I don’t have a 3G phone available. In fact, I’m just using a Nokia 3200 to test it out.

If you want to receive ümobile invites, just e-mail your full name, mobile number and e-mail address to jeric.pena [at] brinknotes.org. Since I can only invite a few, only the first five e-mail senders will receive the ümobile invite code.

Tags: , , , , ,

Written by Jeric Peña · Jeric is a 17 year old blogger and podcaster from Manila, Philippines. He currently blogs at My Boring Life... Now A Blog! about entertainment, technology, music and his personal life. He started blogging since 2003 and currently maintains a couple of blogs discussing different topics. Aside from blogging and podcasting, he is also a freelance web designer.

Share/Save/Bookmark Subscribe

Comments