THE MALLS

Ayala Mall is huge! I don't remember if it was four or five stories. I got lost in it on numerous occasions. But why was I there? I remember hearing rumors that there existed wireless 3G modems, not much larger than a credit card, that you can plug into a USB port, giving you cellular internet access anywhere you can find a signal. The 3G standard is alleged to reach speeds of up to 2 Mbps, which would explain why people in Japan and Korea are already watching live video broadcasts and doing video chat on their cellphones. So I woke up today with a mission to prove the existence of these modems, and if it were true, and in a reasonable price range like most things here, I would get one, forever solving my internet woes.

I hopped into a taxi and took the trip down to Ayala Mall, for a price just over a $1.00. I walked into this mega structure and immediately thought to myself, even if these things do exist, how will ever find them in here? This place was beyond belief. Multiple levels, Bright Lights, a huge food court, KFC, Pizza Hut, Shakey's Pizza, McDonalds, they were all there. Now there are probably places just as big or bigger in L.A., I just didn't make it out to see them. I remember The Galleria was pretty amazing. The mall fresh in my memory, though, is the Fashion Show mall in Sherman Oaks, which is where I bought my iPhone. That mall is a corner plaza compared to Ayala Mall.



So I searched around this place looking at all manner of amazing sites. The mall seemed mainly fashion oriented, but there were some technology stores. Plasma screens, video games, cellphones, computers, there was a lot to look at and sift through. Finally I decided to ask someone, and he explained that they don't have that type of thing, meaning the 3G modem, in this place and that I would have to go to this other even bigger mall. (He was wrong, though, but that's another story.)

So off to the, even bigger, SM Mall I went. I passed by this one on the drive in from the airport so I knew of its scope and scale. Seeing a huge building from the outside, though, is no comparison to getting lost multiple times on the inside. Eventually I found a huge area called The Cyberzone. This was where all the geeky stuff was to be found, even though this mall, on the whole was much more technology oriented than Ayala Mall. In here I found the SMART store I was looking for, SMART being the company that I eventually discovered to be the maker this rumored modem. It was real. It cost about $89 and so, after much hassle, I bought it and took it home.

By the time I arrived at home I was starving. I had to eat something. I went to the downstairs restaurant and they were taking a "time out". One thing to note about the Philippines is that it is very laid back. I guess if the cook has something better to do, there's no cooking going on. The lady at the front desk directed me to the restaurant next door. So I walked outside and around the corner to this little cafe next door. Inside, I see numerous people on laptops and hand held devices. Some are even doing Skype and streaming video. Sure enough, this place has WIFI and apparently very fast WIFI too. They're also open pretty much all day. If I had known this, I could have simply taken the couple of steps next door and had high speed internet yesterday. If it wasn't raining, I'd go there right now and upload these two posts. But wait a minute! What about the modem I just bought?

Well, I plugged the modem in and it worked! I didn't find a 3G signal to connect, but I did find a signal and I was on the internet! I went to speedtest.net to see just how fast it was and I got the results you see on the left. The 384 Kbps range ain't bad for cellular that will work anywhere and anytime. But the story doesn't stop there with a happy ending. You see, like many such services here, this was a prepay cellular service. You basically buy "loads" to put on your SIM card and then talk or surf until you use it up. I bought a 900 Minute load card to go with my modem, which came with 30 free minutes, probably to give you ample time to set it up. Sadly, I neglected to ask how you activate this load card. Reading the instructions on the back of the card, it is assumed that you have a cellphone. My iPhone, being locked to AT&T, doesn't work here except as a WIFI device. To activate the card, I needed to send an SMS message to their activation service.

I experienced it. I got to play with it! I got to feel it! All for about thirty minutes. Then my time was up. Tomorrow I must return to Ayala Mall because, while there is no SMART store in there, I, at least, learned there is an authorized reseller called Junrex. There I will get my load card properly activated, and this story will, hopefully, be at an end, a happy end.


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