Just a warning, Smart Telecoms has discontinued it's cheap Plug n Talk call and text service on the 31st of July with zero notice to its agents or its customers thus rendering the dedicated hardware that users required for the service useless. This hardware was not cheap for early adopters it cost in the region of 4000 peso currently it retails at around 1000 to 2000 peso, retailers have been left to bear huge losses on stock of hundreds of these devices which are now completely useless. The replacement web based soft phone appears to lack features of the hardware device, it can send SMS but it cannot receive SMS so the likely hood is that Filipino family members will now have to pay 20 peso for every text message they send to loved ones in foreign countries instead of 1 peso for the Plug n Talk computer based service. This is a major retrograde step by Smart. Another nice touch is that to register for the new service you have to use your existing Plug n Talk to receive an activation code, ah very SMART that is, sadly it cant do that because they turned off the gateway so those whose only SIM is a non roaming Plug n Talk SIM have just had all their remaining load stolen by SMART Telecoms. My UK load supplier has just been left high and dry with 300 of these units, I am guessing he has lost thousands of pounds. While I lament the passing of this service it is worth while stating that the hardware was notoriously poor and very often failed to work due to corruption of the devices file system, SMART could not care less. So basically everyone DO NOT BUY one of these devices after 31st July 2012 as SMART (laughable name) did not even have the courtesy to warn customers or suppliers that the service had been closed.
My wife is moving away from smart with her phone, seems they are just as lousy with their service on that aide of things too.
Have you tried www.chikka.com? It is free to send Chikka Texts from the Web, Mobile, Windows Desktop, Chrome Extension, iPhone, Android and Facebook to any Philippines mobile. If you have a Philippines mobile in the UK, you can register that with Chikka so you can receive Chikka texts too. If you don't have a Philippines mobile just register your email address instead with Chikka and any SMS sent from your Mahal's phone will go to your email address. If you are logged into the Chikka client, text messages can be received there too. Single texts from a Philippines mobile to Chikka are 2.5 PHP or as little as 5 PHP for a bucket of 10 messages (depending on the mobile carrier).
It's the replies that matter Howerd, I use Skype to send text it's a little more expensive but with Skype you get delivery confirmation, what I need is a way to have the family be able to reply to me for around 1 peso a text as right now it is 15 times that price. I see that they mention reply plans on chikka so I will take a look into that.
Yes texts out is very expensive for my wife and am to looking for a better way, just downloaded chikka and just sent a text to see if wife gets it...!
I have been using a UK company for "low cost" O'seas calls for 15 years. They withdrew this service last month. Once my PrePay ammount expired I lost the service. No warning.!! SMART.! Huh... customer service?? I have just set up APPLE Messages which are free to any MAC device ?, iPad,iPhone and MAC computer but I now get 3 confirmations of each TEXT.! Back to the drawing board. I used SMART last time in PI as does Tex so I await further advice from this Forum. Ta. Tom
Thanks Howerd, this is a good enough solution for me, free from UK to Phils and 2.5 peso when she replies, tested and working.
Turns out Chikka is owned by PLDT-Smart, typical why could they not have passed all the users of the Plug n Talk over to Chikka when they shut down the plug n talk? The combination of their new talktipid service and this would have been the same as the Plug n Talk effectively without the need for a dongle with a SIM.
Here are the full options for her... Globe ◦Bucket plan for P5/10 messages valid for 1 day. Text 5 to 2814. ◦Regular Rate — P2.50 per message. Sun ◦Bucket plan for P5/10 messages valid for 1 day. Text 5 to 2814. ◦Regular Rate — P2.00 per message Smart ◦Regular Rate — P2.50 per message
Had no idea Chikka is owned by Smart, strange then that the only bucket plans you can get are with Globe and Sun. I learned of Plug N' Talk from you and never really saw what it offered over Chikka - Chikka can be cheaper for your Mahal (down to 0.5 Pesos/text) and your texts to her are free. Then there was the upfront cost with Plug N'Talk. I see that it is still being offered for sale in the UK here... http://www.plugandtalk.co.uk/home/index.html
You are welcome, Tom. If you want to make cheap calls to the Philippines, check out this... http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/ or this... http://progx.ch/home-voip-prixbetamax-3-1-1.html
It seems pretty reliable when I used it, but I prefer to use another service that keeps a record of texts sent, even though it costs a few pence. A record is invaluable for any Visa application. https://www.poivy.com/sms-rates.html
It is possible to call Philippines phones for free, provided you have a call plan with free calls... It works by building credit by dialling an 0845 number or even an 03 number! The 0845 number builds credit at the rate of 2 units/minute. Calls to the 03 number build credit at the rate of 1 unit/2 minutes. Once you have enough credit you can call Philippines mobiles for 9 units/minute... http://www.precaller.co.uk/
Chikka was acquired by Smart in 2010 see near the end of the page http://corporate.chikka.com/2012/08/chikka-founder-rallies-new-innovators/ Re the plug n talk guys, yeah I know those guys in the UK, not sure they would fulfil the order they know perfectly well that it no longer works and have always struck me as decent people, although saying that they have been landed with about 5000 quids worth of useless stock. What the plug n talk offered was unlimited calling from the Phils to the remote VOIP phone in the UK or elsewhere once you bought an UNLI plan with Smart, the cost of texts was symmetrical and predictable 1 peso each way, it also provided a permanent log of the calls and texts (text content that is). If the SMART user in the Phils bought say an UNLI 299 plan which is valid for 15 days they could call your plug n talk for 10 hours or 20 hours free of any additional charge during that 15 days, that was one of it's best features, it was basically just a local phone in the Philippines that happened to be plugged into a computer 8000 miles away.
Would be good if it was possible to get a PH virtual number for a couple of hundred Pesos and no monthly charge.
Yeah it was good for the three and half years it lasted, also because it was a real SIM I had the same number when I arrived in the country, would just transfer the SIM to my local phone and away I went. There is word that Smart is planning something for the plug n talk users, this comes from developers in the US but I have no idea what they are planning.
So, in effect, it was both a real mobile number and a virtual VOIP number - pretty good idea really but I guess it requires carrier support and you just cannot stick any SIM card in there? It would be nice if an Android phone could, in some way, be connected to a PC so that incoming calls could still be made to the phone's mobile number when there is no GSM/3G signal. That would also mean there would be no SIM-swapping. I can no longer get a Vodafone signal at home (don't know why) so have a geographical VOIP number (with my home area code) on my Android phone so that number at least stays with me wherever I am. In effect, I have my land-line number wherever I may travel - only problem is that it needs a pretty good GSM or 3g signal once I leave a Wi-Fi area. As I am also signed up with FON there are millions of free Wi-Fi hotspots around the UK I can use to make phone calls - on the FON map there are even a few showing in Cebu!
