Getting Prepaid Mobile services in Manila (Philippines)

As always, whenever travelling, my advise is to not use your home country's mobile/cellphone international roaming services. Unless money isn't an issue for you, international roaming charges are absurd and even more so when combined with data roaming usage. Not only will you get charged whenever you make a phone call while roaming, but receiving calls is also as expensive. And if you are using a smartphone and forget turn of international data roaming (and happily receiving your push notifications!), then you're in for a big surprise when you return home.

My wife recently travelled to the Philippines for work and I quickly went and do a search on the internet for advice and tips regarding mobile/cell services available in the Philippines. There are basically 4 big/popular service providers and they are Globe Telecom, Smart Communications, Sun Cellular and CURE (Cure's website not working, no idea why?).

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All these providers have different packages which offers voice, sms and data services. And from what I have found, you should be able to easily buy one at the Manila Airport. Prices may range from 300 pesos (roughly US$8) to more. It is best to ask about what packages are available and see which is suitable for your needs. Get a starter pack and see if it connection is good (for both voice and data) and if you are satisfied, you can then buy more reloads which is available anywhere. If it does not live up to your expectations, you could always change provider by buying another starter pack.

Many advice I see on the internet seem to also indicate that if you can wait, don't purchase it from the airport but instead buy it in town or somewhere out of the city, because the airport vendors probably sell higher denominations of the starter pack. But then again, airport is probably the best place if you have many questions to ask the vendor regarding the cellphone services and packages (unless you speak Tagalog of course).

Anyway, my wife got a 300+ pesos starter pack and I can call her. However, she only opted for voice as she was not able to get them to provide her with a microsim for her iPhone 4 (problem!).