If you are a foreigner, communication with family, friends and colleagues in your home country is always important, while communication with contacts in the Philippines remains essential.
If in case you were not able to bring your own cellular phone from your country to the Philippines, all it takes to have one of the cheapest yet reliable handsets are $25 and a trip to the nearest gadget shop. Buying handsets that are recently released in the international market have a slightly higher price in the Philippines compared to the countries where they were manufactured. That said, it is not recommended to buy expensive mobile phones if you just need to stay for a few weeks in the country.
In choosing a local Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, there are two competing telecommunications companies having six widely recognized network service providers in the Philippines. Whether prepaid (pay-as-you-go) or postpaid, you can subscribe to any of the 3 major networks in the country, each with their different advantages.
- Globe Telecom (Globe) - Together with their sister company Touch Mobile, they are the only remaining competitor of Smart Telecommunications and its subsidiaries. With a smaller subscriber base than their main competitor, they offer very reliable call, SMS/MMS messaging and web surfing services. For calling your loved ones in any other country, they generally offer cheaper international call and text services than other networks.
- Smart Communications (Smart) - The biggest network in the Philippines, they have sister companies Talk n Text and Red Mobile. With the biggest subscriber base, more partner industries and greater company assets among telecommunication companies in the country, choosing this network will enable you to connect with more subscribers on the same network while having less expenses.
- Sun Cellular (Sun) - Now a subsidiary of Smart Communications, they offer the cheapest call, text and surf promos to Sun and Smart networks. Though their services are cheapest, subscribers should watch out for network congestion, as these may delay calls and texts.
To be able to obtain full support for calling and sending messages to international numbers, buying a SIM card from any of the three major networks is recommended. The international call and text rates vary depending on network and the country of the number that you wish to call or text.
Calling international numbers from any of the networks has an average flat fee of about $0.40 per minute, while sending an SMS message will cost about $0.3. If you are subscribed to a promo in which your country is included for heavily discounted rates, you would be able to make international calls at $0.03 per minute, and international texts for as low as $0.01 per 160-character message sent.