Smart Plug & Talk

[JimOttley]

Hope this is the right place to post this, I've done a forum search and no one appears to have mentioned this device? I just thought some folk that are short of funds might benefit in keeping in touch with family, it's not always possible to use computer and Skype /Yahoo for all families and txt is such an all pervasive medium in the Phils that I think this device can be useful for keeping in touch with family and extended family.

http://smart.com.ph/corporate/newsroom/plugntalk.htm

I've been using this for six months it's 1 peso for any relative to txt you and 1 peso for you to txt them, calls are not so reliable but do work, you really need to set up a separate USB microphone and configure the device to use voice, so voice is a bit more technical but it's still local Philippine call rates! (round about 5 peso a minute)

The device is a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol phone) it works on most ISP networks that I have tried, there are problems using it in countries that bar VOIP traffic but they are few and far between.

Skype voice calls to mobile are around 15 pence from the UK and a little less to landlines (you're lucky if you have a working PLDT line in the Phils we were approved and they still hadn't installed it 6 months later )

The Plug and Talk user interface is not so great but it does work and txt is reliable and extremely cheap.

There are places in the UK that you can buy these devices, had to search a bit but eventually found the reference that pointed me there in the first place

http://www.tawagsmart.com/#/product/4532653771

Hope this helps someone.


Jim

[MarBell379]

That looks interesting. Thanks JimOttley.

Not wishing to hijack th thread, but Ive just returned form Philippines and my prepaid SMART SIM which worked finr in roaming mode here before I went, and fin in Phils with roming turned off, no longre picks up any movile network at all.
Has anyone experienced this and has any advice how to get it working again?

Thanks

[darren-b]

I did originally post about this back in January.

http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php?t=13430

We've been using one for about about 5 months now, though only for the text part rather than the voice.

[JimOttley]

That looks interesting. Thanks JimOttley.

Not wishing to hijack th thread, but Ive just returned form Philippines and my prepaid SMART SIM which worked finr in roaming mode here before I went, and fin in Phils with roming turned off, no longre picks up any movile network at all.
Has anyone experienced this and has any advice how to get it working again?

Thanks

Are you absolutley sure that roaming was on and working? I've not used a Smart SIM in roaming mode but I did have a Globe SIMs in roaming mode here in the UK.

If you had one of these SMART Plug & Talk thingies you can put your Smart SIM (not roaming) into it then activate Roaming on the SIM as you shut the device down, take the SIM out of the Plug and Talk then put it back into your phone, apart from that I don't know sorry.


Jim

[JimOttley]

I did originally post about this back in January.

http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php?t=13430

We've been using one for about about 5 months now, though only for the text part rather than the voice.

Ah sorry Darren I missed that, I obviously didn't use the search properly :(

I see you had some problems on Vista, there is somthing strange in the Plug&Talk hardware that makes the USB host drive look corrupted to the operating system on Vista, the trick is don't allow Vista to attempt to repair the disk, UAC (User Account Control) on Vista will also make it harder to launch the main program and the Autorun.inf on the device will also often be inhibited on Vista.

The main program is in a hidden folder on the second of the two drives that appear when you plug the device in.

The hidden folder is called

\MyPhone

and the program you need to launch is

SMART_PlugNTalk.exe

there is a loader on the first drive but it can fail, so better to launch it directly.

Windows Firewall may try to block the device so you need to allow access if asked also some ISP's routers block SIP traffic but that is a more involved issue to try and fix.

All of the above advice applies to Windows 7 as well, I run mine on Vista 32 bit and 64 bit and on Windows 7 64 bit.


jim

[maria_and_matt]

hi jim thanks for the info, i am looking to buy one, do u know if the company you posted is based here in the uk?

[JimOttley]

hi jim thanks for the info, i am looking to buy one, do u know if the company you posted is based here in the uk?

I'm not sure, sorry, I think they may be related to the moonfruit site the uk phonecards people as they were the ones that first emailed me about it but I really don't know.

I bought mine in a Smart shop in Mall of Asia after waiting in a queue for nearly 30 minutes


Jim

[darren-b]

The problem I had wasn't actually a Vista problem. I was trying to use it in Manila whilst connected to the Internet using my mobile phone as a modem and it looked like a problem with Vista. Actually worked ok when I tried it in the UK on my Broadband.

[JimOttley]

The problem I had wasn't actually a Vista problem. I was trying to use it in Manila whilst connected to the Internet using my mobile phone as a modem and it looked like a problem with Vista. Actually worked ok when I tried it in the UK on my Broadband.

Ah I see, there would have been a fair chance that the SIP protocol is blocked on your mobile or rather on the 3G/GPRS networks in the Phils, although saying that mine worked on our SmartBro 3G modem.

It's a great wee device, voice quality is extremely good even on the little headset supplied with it, problem is that the headset is very fragile.

Jim

[darren-b]

Ah I see, there would have been a fair chance that the SIP protocol is blocked on your mobile or rather on the 3G/GPRS networks in the Phils, although saying that mine worked on our SmartBro 3G modem.

It's a great wee device, voice quality is extremely good even on the little headset supplied with it, problem is that the headset is very fragile.

Jim

I was using it with a Smart SIM in my mobile so I thought there was a reasonable chance of it working.

[JimOttley]

I was using it with a Smart SIM in my mobile so I thought there was a reasonable chance of it working.

Yes I would have expected that to work too!

[irobot]

Irobot... " Sunny... Different From The Rest ... "

Hi Peeps... I have no mobile phone or Skype, and i keep in contact with my mates in the Philippines with a computer to mobile program called CHIKKA... free to computer to mobile texting... not sure if it free to mobile to computer though ??... Check it out...Piip

[JimOttley]

Irobot... " Sunny... Different From The Rest ... "

Hi Peeps... I have no mobile phone or Skype, and i keep in contact with my mates in the Philippines with a computer to mobile program called CHIKKA... free to computer to mobile texting... not sure if it free to mobile to computer though ??... Check it out...Piip

Most of the free ones are asymmetric i.e. free one way, very expensive in the other direction, Smart Plug & Talk is symmetric in charging, by virtue of being a remote presence in the Philippines.

For the last six months I have been the one enjoying the cheap deal, my partner was having to pay 20 peso a text because her Philippines phone was roaming in Korea. Here in the UK with my remote presence in the Phils I was still able to text her in Korea for 1 peso a text!

Cheers I will check out Chikka and find out how it works.


Jim

[darren-b]

Irobot... " Sunny... Different From The Rest ... "

Hi Peeps... I have no mobile phone or Skype, and i keep in contact with my mates in the Philippines with a computer to mobile program called CHIKKA... free to computer to mobile texting... not sure if it free to mobile to computer though ??... Check it out...Piip

We use CHIKKA as well. The problem with CHIKKA is it is more costly for anyone in the Philippines to reply to messages.

One advantage of Smart Plug N' Talk over Chikka is it's ability to send load to mobile phones in the Philippines. My wife sometimes sends load to her sisters (when they don't have load to reply to her...) and where the minimum you can send with Chikka is 30 pesos (costing $1), she now sends 10 pesos (maybe costing £0.15).

[JimOttley]

We use CHIKKA as well. The problem with CHIKKA is it is more costly for anyone in the Philippines to reply to messages.

One advantage of Smart Plug N' Talk over Chikka is it's ability to send load to mobile phones in the Philippines. My wife sometimes sends load to her sisters (when they don't have load to reply to her...) and where the minimum you can send with Chikka is 30 pesos (costing $1), she now sends 10 pesos (maybe costing £0.15).

The only problem with small denominations of shared load is that they expire really fast.

But you're right it's a useful feature.


Jim