Internet Crawls

Last night, i tried connecting to the internet via the Smart network using a cellphone as modem. I used the bundled Nokia PC suite to connect to the network. Our town's cellsite is not G3 enabled so the connection is still via the good old GPRS. Boy, it was the slooowest internet connection I ever experienced in my entire life. I gave up opening yahoomail after 15 minutes. Browsing is almost impossible. I hope it never happens to you.

Pangea Day

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim wished for a day where people all over the world would unite through the power of film.

Pangea Day is a 4-hour program of 24 short films from storytellers around the world. Films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform and allow us to see the world through another person’s eyes.

This event happened early this morning, 2:00 am Philippine time. I tried to wake myself up at 2:00 am using my biological alarm clock but it rang two hours late. Anyway I tried watching the webcast but it looked like a trip-to-jerusalem parlor game that stops every five seconds or so. I thought the internet speed would be fast enough in the early morning to allow a live webcast of the event but I was wrong. The connection speed was slow even on that wee hours of the morning. I gave up after a few minutes and tried the TV. I read on the pangea day website that it would be on Star TV in Asia. Unfortunately, the only cable TV service in town was down. So I went back to sleep.

I first read about this event a couple of months ago while browsing the TED website. I signed-up to host a public viewing event in the college where I work but I later found out that it would be up at 2:00 am where most of us would be dozing off. When I later found out that they will have a satellite feed of the program, I contacted the organizers to ask if I can get the satellite coordinates for a possible broadcast in our local cable TV since I know the owners and I believe they will give time for it. Unfortunately, they answered that Current TV is the official cable TV broadcaster of the show and they can't allow other operators to show it. Current TV is not available in this small town of mine so its a lost. Anyway I decided to watch the webcast instead which, as I've told earlier, is a failure. The program is still online on the Pangea Day website. I still can't watch it. So off to plan B. The program selected the 24 short films shown via youtube, so the films are actually available there. All I need to do is check the titles at the pangea day website, search it on youtube and voila!

And here's a sampler, one of the winners, Moving Windmills, about William Kamkwamba (who has a blog) , a kid from Malawi who built, and still building, windmills based only on a picture in a book. The windmills power their lights, radio and TV and even pumps water for their farm.



I'll be posting more Pangea Day videos in the coming days.

Penetration

According to internetworldstats.com, the Philippines has 14,000,000 internet users or 16% of the population. So the figures are steadily climbing. Three years ago, it's 9.3%. I don't know if the government has figures on provincial or even regional internet penetration. I like to know how many internet users are there in my province. Or how many internet connections are there. There are lots of sanitary napkin-looking Smart Bro antennas in this town. The service was offered here more than two years ago, immediately when the service was launched. Places like my town where there is no other internet service available is Smartbro's bailiwick. They don't need much promotion or improvement of service because we have no choice. The only other options are either very expensive (satellite internet or the PLDT WeRoam service) or requires above average technical knowledge and crawls slower than a turtle on downers (using your CP as a modem). I was involved in setting-up the very first permanent internet connection in our Province. We went the satellite way and we used to pay almost 20k for the same speed that SmartBro is offering now. So after four years, we decided to pack the dish and dive in the Smartbro waters. Saves us lots of money. Can't complain on the speed. It's not DSL speed but we can manage. As i've said, we have no choice.

I've been hearing rumors that our town, plus the other three adjoining it holds the Smartbro records for the highest number of subscribers. Our local dealer, they say, even received an award or prize for it. A friend working at Samrtbro says that our area really packs a wallop in terms of bandwidth use. It's not a good news because it means more users sharing the same piece of the pie. My piece is getting smaller and smaller and slooower and sloooooweeerrrr.

I hope DSL and wimax consider having a vacation here.

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memehopping:
1. yugatech.com - Universal McCann's Social Media Research
2. internetworldstats.com

Smartbro Prepaid

What's with all the running? Hey peeps, you don't really need those 4,500 pesos gadget to connect to the internet. Your cellphone can do that. All you need is your no-so-old CP, a software like Nokia PC Suite and your good old PC or laptop. The same prepaid rate and connection speed applies.

Question: If your connection speed is slow, is it still okay to call it speed? Oh, well.

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Memehopping:
1. Smartbrp prepaid commercial on TV
2. Youtube.com - Smartbro Prepaid