Bakal! Bote! Dyaryo! SIM!

The average urban neighborhood would always have mag-bo-botes hollering "Bakaaal! Boteee! Dyaryooo!" while pushing their recyclables in a kariton.

But have u encountered the techno-mag-bo-bote?

Around Feb 2004, I first noticed cardboard signs along the busy bangketas below the Boni MRT station saying "Bumibili ng Sirang SIM".

I figured, some enterprising folks must be recycling these SIMs. I didn't think buying of rejected SIMs was popular. But when I went to Alabang yesterday, I saw a lot of these signs every ten or so strides along the busy sidewalk.

So, there's brisk buisness in buying rejected SIMs, so it seems (pathetic pun intended).

Yesterday, the re-purchase rate of SIMs ranged from P10 up to P50 depending on the SIM brand. But just tonight, all the signs I passed were freshly updated. I see they've lowered prices to P10-P30 per SIM. (Update: it's back to P10-P40 as of April 17 evening)

I asked one manong, arnd 40 years old, pepper grey hair without any tech-savvy aura, what they do with purchased SIMs.

He replied: "Hindi ko alam, may bumibili rin lang sa amin ng maramihan."

I wonder what they do with re-purchased SIMS. Until I find out the real fate of these rejected SIMs, I am left with my own speculations:

a. SIM swapped for brand new SIMs.
But only functional SIMs are qualified for SIM swapping. Thus, to SIM swap a bad SIM requires some slight of hand: showing an SIM-swap attendant a valid SIM with signal but surrendering a bad SIM.

I've done this before. But kids, don't try this at home. This SIM slight of hand trick is plain panloloko, and it's a SIN.

b. SIM repair.
I'm thinking, maybe some brilliant Filipinos have found a way to repair damaged or expired SIMs. Perhaps the trend and Filipino talent of repairing cellphones is being applied to repairing SIMs.

I heard that mobile phone repair isn't popular in other countries. The Flilipino, though, will always find a way to maximize the the phone's lifespan through repairs. (Memo: write about Tita Lyns fully functional 8-year old Nokia relic, dark-brown and as big as a brick)

c. SIM info capture.
Recovering the SIM's number and re-encoding it unto another new SIM (or maybe a Multi-SIM). Or recovering SIM phone book entries for SMS spamming.

d. SIM collecting - just for the heck of it! (Naaaahhhhhh)

e. Re-packaging and re-selling damaged SIMs to unsuspecting ignormuses (or is it ignorami?)

f. May be a front for an underground network of cyber-terrorists

Whew! Before i get carried away, here's a somewhat related term I learned from a Smart publication:

"Churn rate" - measures the number of people dropping out of a telco's service as a percentage of the total subscriber base per month.

(O, ha! At least you learned something slightly useful from reading this blog. Expect more of that in future articles.)

A higher churn rate means more used SIMs that will soon expire. That means more business for our techno-magbo-bote!

"Aaaa Boteee! Aaaa Dyaryooo! Aaaa SIIIIM kayo diyaaaan!"

:: Thursday, 15April, 2004. 11:18 PM, Boni. ::
:: Typed on Brosia, my SmartPhone ::

Any other speculations about the fate of rejected and re-purchased SIMs? Add your thoughts by posting a comment to this article. ü