Cellphones Reloaded

Just some notes: Jollijeep AutoloadMax, Smart-to-Globe "pasa-loading", Smart Money Loading Stations

Jollijeep AutoloadMax - wala lang. I had lunch at one of the Jollijeeps (Carinderias in Makati which used to be housed in jeeps) behind our school. Then I saw this AutoloadMax flourescent lamp in the jeep. Now you can get AutoloadMax from the carinderia manangs. They say the SIMs were given to them for free. not bad ....

Smart-to-Globe "pasa-loading" - I was very interested (and skeptical) when I read cris' message on my tagboard saying

cris: pwede n ngayon makpagpasalod khit smart to globe or vise versa .. 09224418061 (panocg@yahoo.com)

My initial reaction was "great! Where could I read about it?" ... but how come I hadn't heard about it elsewhere? I'm skeptical about this pasa-loading from smart to globe and vice versa happening in the near future. Although it would be great if it does happen. But here are my reasons:

• Cellphone load is a product. Would telco X allow customer to exchange product X for product Y and provide the infrastructure services of telco X for product Y?
  
• There are all sorts of load discounts and promotions of each telco that makes a "P30 load" non-standard and thus, non-interchangeable. Example, every now and then, there's a promo that says "buy product A at store B and you'll receive free P50 worth of cellphone load from telco X". This promotion is a tie-up between three companies: A, B and X. That P50 worth of load was an internal arrangement between the three parties. This P50 worth of Telco X load *cannot* be converted to Telco Y load because Y isn't in on the tie-up of three companies.
  
• The telcos are in a head to head competition. There is (as yet) no real reason for them to cooperate. This is also the same reason why I think that their G-Cash and SmartMoney services will continue to be two distinct and incompatible islands of m-commerce.
  
• But you know, it would be good to dream about this. When the markets are mature, the markets saturated, maybe the telcos (or the NTC) might find a good reason for this kind of service to transpire between the telcos.

But lo and behold, cris advertisement wasn't like what I imagined afterall. It turns out that Cris is a service provider. They have a SIM that allows cellphone load retailers to send load to both Smart and Globe. Bottom-line: you no longer need two SIMs (and thus, don't need two cellphones) to run a cellphone load retailing business. Cris, your claim is misleading ...and so is my matrix reloaded image, huh? ;-).

Oh well, read about their service at http://wbfinfo.cjb.net.

Smart Money Loading Stations - I noticed this January that there were banners hailing "Smart Money Loading Stations" around the metropolis, in busy street corners. I thought "Great step forward! now I don't need to go to Smart business center nor use Mobile Banking to load up on Smart Money."

I walked up to one of those stations. The lady tells me she couldn't load my Smart Money. She tells me that she loads only the Smart Money accounts of those that she activated. Hmmmm????!!! Okay, I get what she's saying, but why naman like that? ;-p

I called the Smart Money hotline (15177 from Smart cellphone) and this is what Lou said:

• The loading stations are meant for e-load retailers.
  
• The Smart Money loading stations are run by e-load wholesalers (distributors) and they are using Smart Money for retailers to pay the wholesalers when they order more e-load.
  
• Thus, the retailer does not need to bring cash to a wholesaler when the retailer needs more e-load to sell.
  
• There are some Smart Money loading stations that accept Smart Money loading of walk-in customers (non-retailers). But Lou says, there are some who charge 5% for Smart Money loading.

Ahh... ganun pala yun. Not such a great step forward, afterall. How come it's taking so long to simplify Smart Money transactions for dumbos like me?
There. End of sharing.

- Edwin

Read: The next killer-app: Load-to-Cash conversion
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