A Bugged Life // Jayvee Fernandez » Blog Archive » U Mobile (ümobile): Country’s 5th Telco is the Free, Advertising Based Service

U Mobile (ümobile): Country’s 5th Telco is the Free, Advertising Based Service

Posted in Philippines, Tech on 20/05/2008

EDIT: Erratum on the free load and how it works

EDIT II: Apparently the referral system is now up. I’ll be referring people who want a umobile number. The application requires me to input your name, email and a current cellphone number so if you’re comfy with giving that out to me, send me an email. All info you provide will be held in strict confidence.

EDIT III: Short video walkthrough here

SMART Telecommunications, Globe Telecommunications, SUN Cellular, Bayan Telecommunications. And now there’s room for one more.

There’s a new number in town and that number is “+63999.” Word is out that a telco called CURE which was bought by SMART has been launched for the public, and their name is U Mobile or ümobile, the country’s first free advertising-driven telco. It’s sort of like Inquirer Libre which we get to pick up on the train station free of charge — because everything is subsidized by advertising.

ümobile is a brand owned by Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise, Inc. CURE belongs to the family of the 2 leading telecommunication giantsPLDT and SMART. We maintain our independence as far as strategic business decisions and day-to-day operations are concerned. SMART supports us in our needs especially on network complement. [FAQ]

Is this the telco for the masses? Well no. Not really. Not yet. Currently, applications are by invite only and I heard that people who have been invited to the service (those who went to the launch party a few hours ago) will be able to refer friends who can join up and avail of the free service. I heard as well that there is an allocation of ~~P350 worth of credit per month for users~~ P100 a month for the first 6 months for free. The P350 is the maximum amount of load you can receive by participating in the ad program that is sent to your mobile. We were blown away and I really have so many questions to ask. But as of the moment, that’s all I know.

Commenting on the worldwide telecommunications scene, this is something Google wanted to do - buy their own spectrum and launch their own telco free of charge, driven entirely by advertising. The Philippines is the first in Asia to have an Ad Driven telco and yeah, this is huge. Freakin’ huge. The telco has been in operations for more than a year now undercover and have now launched officially with several partner establishments to deliver advertising directly to the mobile phone.

Ads are purely contextual and users will have to answer a thorough survey which is updated every year in case interests changes. So yes, “contextual” is dependent on the survey as far as I was informed.

Cool beans. Freakin’ cool beans. This is big.

P.S. I won an LG KU380 Phone from the raffle — well I think everyone went home with one! Marketing is surely aggressive. Open bar. Piss drunk. Wheeee!

You have 22 Responses

Oh sh*t, that’s big! Big news for freakin’ smart and globe who rips off people! Update us when you get some news!

Poyt on May 20th, 2008 at 10:40 am

@Poyt — U Mobile was bought by SMART actually, before they launched. But they are run independently although they may use SMART’s existing network.

Hmmm…..

Jayvee on May 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am

Hi Jayvee, you got any invites for U Mobile?

SoNn on May 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Comments from the service?

myrae on May 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

@SoNn, not yet. I still haven’t received my SIM card I still have to figure out how everything works

Jayvee on May 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

Pasa-invite naman when you get it o

Allan on May 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

You can check their site -www.umobile.com.ph.

digitalwormfreak on May 21st, 2008 at 12:13 am

[...] read Jayvee’s post, U Mobile (ümobile): Country’s 5th Telco is the Free, Advertising Based Service , and it got my interest more than usual. And this is because of the words free, advertising, and [...]

üMobile gets a c for cunning | baratillo @ cubao : www.baratillo.net on May 21st, 2008 at 1:08 am

got their video! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M78A7_5×8ro&feature=PlayList&p=DE0A405830A2A2C3&index=0

animalemonster on May 21st, 2008 at 1:30 am

this sounds really awesome. don’t forget to post new updates about this, and to share invites

aldwin on May 21st, 2008 at 4:23 pm

Wow! I’m excited to try uMobile (how do you input the “u” with the .. on top in Mac?). Good thing someone sent me an invite code.

Jeric on May 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 am

PhP 350? My phone bill is waaaaay more than that. Hope you won’t have to view too many ads to get that small subsidy.

Mike Abundo on May 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 am

To justify their low ad-supported credit cap, U Mobile should send no more than four ads a day.

Mike Abundo on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 am

[...] have a grand launch here in Mindanao.. specifically here in Davao City! I wanna win a 3G phone (jayvee got an LG 380) [...]

umobile to launch in Cebu | Migs Mobile Network on May 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Each ad gives you only a penny of load. The time and effort it takes you to grab your phone and delete an ad is probably worth more than a penny.

Mike Abundo on May 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm

hi jayvee! seems umobile is cool.. been finding ways to get an invite..
hope you could give one..

mapi on June 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm

hi friends, here is updated information on how to get a umobile invite faster:

http://abuggedlife.com/2008/06/06/how-to-make-a-umobile-invite-move-faster/

Jayvee on June 6th, 2008 at 1:54 am

thats cool!!!

Ian on June 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

It took them 2 weeks for my application to get approved! But then again, it was worth it, and I might be getting my SIM within this week and ready to load it up. I’m so excited to get that 0999 area code, hehehe. =)