P3.00 for a SMS

i ain't advertising this phone, and why would i? this was just the first phone i used to send a text message to my brother who was once studying in msu gensan.

J bairiza and i were in Dencio in kcc that time when we were talking about cellphones. When she mentioned that she only got her first cp when she was in grade six, something came in my mind, and i just said, "ibaBLOG ko 'yan!". Well that's the reason why i am writing this and you are somewhat somehow, reading this stuff.

SMART Telecommunications Company started building their what-we-call 'cellsite' in our municipality when i was in grade six. At first, i really had no idea what was that construction all about. There were some rumors that it would be a cellsite, some said, it would be a mall, while some suggested, it would be a house. Which was which? I really had no idea; not until they started constructing the tower. That was the time all concluded that it was really a cellsite, sorry for those who thought it was not.

The construction took more than a year and after the construction, it took a month or two before it started operating. I still remember when my brother (Adiv) and i were walking along the dusty Pansud-Poblacion road. We slept in our Lola because we had no money for our fare because we spent it playing WWE: Smack Down in Gait PS Shop. When we reached the market site of our barrio, we saw a sign saying like this: "TEXT for P3.00!". After reading that, still tired from a long hike, still, we managed to hurry home because we were so excited that time to tell our Mama that the cellsite that time was operating (though, that was just a test operation). At first, Mama didn't believe us because her N3210 (the one in the pic) got no signal. But she realized that since our home sweet home is very far from the site and is covered by some mountains, she considered our stories true! But that was just for a bit of moment, when she asked us why didn't we go home the night before that, we just said we spent the night with lola and thank God, she didn't scold us.

After we ate breakfast and took a bath, we came with our mother who that time was going to the market site to really try if we were saying the truth. When we reached the market site, my mama looked at her cp and smiled when she saw a two-bar signal. She tried to text my brother who was that time studying in msu gensan, but sadly, when she attempted to send it, CHECK OPERATOR SERVICES, duh, tagam! Hehehe. Upon knowing the truth that SMART operated that time, Mama went home and my brother and i asked P3.00 and the mobile number of my brother and she just said that we'll just include Mama in our text. We went in the house where we saw the sign "TEXT for P3.00", and there, we called out for the owner. When Ante Bebew asked us what's our business there, we just replied we were there to use her services. She lent us her cellphone, which was that time, of the same model as that of my mother, N3210. We started typing our message saying "Kuya, kumusta dun ikaw jan? May signal dun kami didya sa pansud. Regards kuno hambal mama." That was the very first time i was able to send a text message, though that time, i already knew how to type because we were using our mama's cp sometimes for games (i.e Snake and Memory). The cp stated that we did really send the message but since we got no reply from my brother, Ante Bebew returned our P3.00 concluding that we were not able to send the message or just thought that we couldn't just send a message. We just accepted our money with a big smile in our face and use that money to buy Jolens and hurried home to play.

I was in first year HS that time and after that, people started thinkin' to buy cellphones. GLOBE Telecommunications started operating more than a year SMART did and i didn't have my own cp, not until my graduation day in high school.