Tuesday, April 10, 2007 Limpag: Mobile e-mail on the high seas By Max Limpag Celltalk
THERE'S probably room enough for only 10 people on this islet of six trees (or shrubs) and a single hut.
Yet on these islets near Olango Island, and for several kilometers near it, you can still connect to telecoms networks and send and receive text messages, make calls, and browse the mobile Internet. It boggled my mind when I thought I’d “get away from it all” during a trip to several islets last week that I was never out of range of the telecoms network.
Up until two years back, I still heard of stories and jokes on how people in several areas of Cebu had to go to a certain spot or climb trees just to send and receive text messages. I seem to remember being told of connection problems in Olango.
Last week, I took my phone with me when my family went island-hopping in the Olango area. I took the phone with me because it also serves as my camera for blog photos. Before boarding the boat, I did a final check of messages because I was certain I’d be off the telecoms grid in the next few hours.
After swimming for more than two hours, our group was on our way to the floating restaurants of Olango Island when we passed a curious islet with one small hut. The boat’s guide pointed it out to us and said it was the biggest of the three islets named Tres Rosas (three roses). On one point, the name of the islets made sense: I got stung by a sea urchin half a kilometer off it.
When we passed the islet, we took photos of it and as I closed the camera cover of my phone, I glanced at the screen and found that the Smart signal was still strong. On my Sony Ericsson K750i, the signal was four bars. For a non-telecoms guy, this was disconcerting. How can the signal possibly cover this part of the seas?
In no time, I launched my GMail for mobile application to check my e-mails.
I read a fellow blogger’s e-mailed question on how to organize photos in a new photo-sharing website. I wrote him a quick reply, sent the mail, and then held tightly as the boat started bucking under big waves. After we ate at a “floating” restaurant, we proceeded to Sta. Rosa, effectively going around Olango Island. I then checked GMail again and read the blogger’s reply to my message.
The entire time at sea last week I was connected to Smart’s telecoms grid. My wife’s phone, which is with Globe, was also connected to its network but I do not know whether it was connected the entire time of our trip.
In these days of always-on-connection anywhere, can we ever get away from it all?
I can just picture myself on Tres Rosas, blogging with a laptop connected to the Internet via PLDT WeRoam. A few steps away, a huge chunk of tuna lies on a grill, beside it a smaller piece of pork belly.
