Words For Moolah

Here’s my first attempt at an online product review. For the sake of full disclosure, I will inform you that this review is being done for no financial consideration whatsoever. Peksman.

The focus of this review is Sun Cellular’s new product, the new Call & Text International SIM. Before anything else here are the important details you should know.

Cost: P49

Special rates:

• P1/iSMS or International Text to 20 destinations:USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Macau, Japan, Qatar, Brunei, Guam, Hawaii, Oman, Cayman Island, Cyprus, Turkey, Northern Marianas Island, Jamaica, Bahamas & Puerto Rico.
  
• US$0.10/IDD Call to 10 destinations:US (Mainland), China, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Guam, and Macau
  
• US$0.20/IDD Call to 20 destinations:Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Indonesia, Hawaii, Kuwait, Bahrain, Germany, Spain, Israel, France, Greece, Jordan, Northern Marianas Islands & Cyprus.
  

Now for the review. First off, the Sun Call & Text International Sim delivers as advertised. I let my auntie place a call to my cousins in Los Angeles, California. My aunt, being the chatterbox that she is, took all of 28 minutes just talking to one of my cousins. I know because I timed it. After their conversation I checked how much was left of the P150 special load that I had pre-loaded. There was P10 left. I did the math. At P140 divided by 28 mins, the call to LA cost P5 per minute. At an exchange rate of P50 to the dollar that’s US$0.10 per minute. Not bad at all.

But affordability isn’t everything where overseas calls are concerned. In fact it doesn’t mean squat if the call quality or reception isn’t optimal. I was observing my aunt while she was on the phone and not once did I see her strain to hear my cousin’s voice nor did I hear her raise her voice. That tells me that the reception was just fine. Well, I also asked my aunt how it was and she confirmed that the call quality was ok.

It’s been a few days now since that successful call to my cousins. I haven’t reloaded yet so my loquacious aunt is now making do with just sending text messages. Again, as advertised, the Sun Call & Text International Sim connected my aunt to our relatives overseas at only P1 per iSMS.

This SIM card can also be loaded with Sun’s regular load. Doing so would allow you to avail of the unlimited Sun to Sun local call and text services.

All in all, I can say Sun has a very solid offering. If you need to make IDD calls every now and then especially to the specific territories where this service applies you would definitely benefit from using the Sun Call & Text International Sim.

By the way, as a first time Sun user I was pleasantly surprised that I haven’t had any problems making or receiving calls or SMS through the other networks. I guess Sun Cellular has started making good on its commitment to beef up its network.