Viva Las Vegas!*

This is what I came home to last night: my little angel asleep on her bed and my wife, wide-awake, talking to her netbook. She was using Gmail’s voice chat to call her aunt, who lives in Vegas, on her mobile phone. Uninitiated, I was immediately concerned about the costs. She told me to relax, because calls to the US and Canada are free. Phew.

It wasn’t entirely free, of course. There’s still the P995 monthly for internet. But consider this: for a 3-hour call on Google, we’d have spent about 4 pesos; while the same call on PLDT landline would have been $72, or over P3000!

P4 v. P3000. Wow, P3000 JUST for VOICE. With 4 pesos, my wife could talk to her aunt, check her mail, play games on facebook and (ahem!) buffer Fringe and White Collar, while looking up Philippine and US jurisprudence for her research project. Talk about convergence.

And even if my wife had used Globe’s internet service on her mobile phone to dial her aunt’s mobile through Gmail, it would have cost only P60.


I long for the day when I wouldn’t have to pay separate bills for services that are converging because of technological advancement. It goes without saying that I don’t want prices to go up. Prices ought to go down as technology advances. I don’t know, then, why for just voice, you have to pay more. Wouldn’t it be something to turn the tables around, and instead of classifying internet as VAS, make voice the VAS, and internet the carrier?


Christopher John P. Lao
Entry # 10


* It seemed appropriate since my wife is an Elvis fan and she was calling Vegas.

1) Viva Las Vegas image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viva_Las_Vegas


2)PLDT landline rates
http://www.pldt.com.ph/products/consumers/landline/Pages/PLDTLandline.aspx

3)Globe Mobile internet rates
http://site.globe.com.ph/prepaid/mobile_browsing?sid=TUDZcMuxpRYAAFITYE8AAABDe