Taking a philippine phone to the states

[BigJohn 4]

I have heard of people taking their philippine's phones to the US (my wife has smart) and then having relatives in the philippines buy them loads. Will this work? Will a philippines phone that someone in the philippines buys a load for be able to send a text from here without additional charges?

[marklovetina 52]

uhmm i think its not the phone she will take with her but the sim card.. the roaming sim hehehe....

and yes it work there too....

[charlie and tahne 8]

I have heard of people taking their philippine's phones to the US (my wife has smart) and then having relatives in the philippines buy them loads. Will this work? Will a philippines phone that someone in the philippines buys a load for be able to send a text from here without additional charges?

phone will work there and the sim she need to do roaming..i did that when i was waiting the plane and when i get in malaysia it works my mom can load my sim and i can text her.type ROM ON and send to i forget where to send,she need to go smart center to ask how to do roaming..god bless you, i hope i can get the pink slip too.

[happyme'11 3]

I have heard of people taking their philippine's phones to the US (my wife has smart) and then having relatives in the philippines buy them loads. Will this work? Will a philippines phone that someone in the philippines buys a load for be able to send a text from here without additional charges?

Yes it will work here provided she uses a roaming sim card. She can buy a prepaid load so she can text her family. I am not sure though how much it charges but what i been doing since i got here till now is i txt my mom from my ym to her celphone and she can txt me back from her celphone to my ym or to my celphone when am not online. It will cost my mom a lil bit but no charge to me.

[Atencio 43]

Yeah I brought one over to text. Just need the roaming sim chip. Good idea in theory but became a pain in the butt in practice for me.

I stopped using mine for that purpose aster about a month.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

I bought a phone in the PI and also have a roaming sim card. It works fine all over the world (even took it to kuwait when I deployed) Just make sure it is in roam before they leave the PI. I also used the same sim on my second vist down there. Pretty slick idea and it saves family lots of money down there. (just the price of a normal txt) Texting back with the roaming is a little spendy, but it works in a pinch. If you want to send a load to anyone in the PI there are many sites to do that. I used aryty.com and worked great and depending how much load you send, there are some free txt messages too.

Edited January 30, 2011 by Scott and Mhay

[A and T 82]

If she has an iphone or android, she can get a text free app and send free texts to the philippines

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id399355755?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6#

"CAN I TEXT TO OTHER COUNTRIES?Free texting to: Australia, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guam, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Venezuela. Give other countries a try!"

[J.W. 4]

If she has an iphone or android, she can get a text free app and send free texts to the philippines

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id399355755?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6#

"CAN I TEXT TO OTHER COUNTRIES?Free texting to: Australia, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guam, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Venezuela. Give other countries a try!"

I tried this app (text free with voice), they don't received it there in PI been trying to. But it's a great app sending text, MMS and calls for free here in US.

[crystal01 29]

PI phones work in the US as long as it is multi band (supports roaming) since different countries use different frequencies.

Roaming charges cost a fortune though. If you want to be practical, there are other ways to connect to the people here in the PI for less.

If you have an iPhone, the Chikka app enables you to send free texts here and abroad. Replies from cellphones costs just 2.50 pesos. Just a little more than regular txt.

My fiance and I both have iPhones so we're constantly connected through YM or Kik Messenger when we are mobile. Lets us do voice calls too

PS. Yahoo Messenger (even the iPhone app) also works in the PI for sending/ receiving txt messages.

Edited January 30, 2011 by crystal01

[J.W. 4]

PI phones work in the US as long as it is multi band (supports roaming) since different countries use different frequencies.

Roaming charges cost a fortune though. If you want to be practical, there are other ways to connect to the people here in the PI for less.

If you have an iPhone, the Chikka app enables you to send free texts here and abroad. Replies from cellphones costs just 2.50 pesos. Just a little more than regular txt.

My fiance and I both have iPhones so we're constantly connected through YM or Kik Messenger when we are mobile. Lets us do voice calls too

PS. Yahoo Messenger (even the iPhone app) also works in the PI for sending/ receiving txt messages.

Not all people have iPhones though. And I can't get chikka app to work at all.

Anyway, if they do have a wifi enable phones (like N80 etc) they could download skype or IM + if their sim is not roaming as long as they are connected to a free wifi hotspot, they can communicate with you.

If not, then having a roaming sim wouldn't hurt. Once they are settled here, they will of course (I'm willing to bet) have new phones. And there are lots of ways to communicate to your loves ones in the PI.

[tallcoolone 102]

I have heard of people taking their philippine's phones to the US (my wife has smart) and then having relatives in the philippines buy them loads. Will this work? Will a philippines phone that someone in the philippines buys a load for be able to send a text from here without additional charges?

Here is how you recieve and send text to philippine for free

In USA purchase a MetroPCS cellphone plan, runs $40 per month. Unlimited talk time, Unlimited Internet Connection, and unlimited texts and that includes internaional text.

Bring you cellfone from PI, get some type of Sims card that allows you to reciecve text in USA (my wife has this set up). You will not need to keep a load on it.

When she arrives in USA - receive text on PI cellfone, and text back on MetroPCS cellfone.....

[Dogwood_Poet 16]

You don't have to have load on your SIM card to receive texts, but you will have to add load every 3 months or so or they will deactivate the SIM card.

But 3 or 4 dollars every few months is a small price to pay for easy contact from the family in the Philippines.

My wife uses Chika and we buy a monthly international package for texts as well.

[tallcoolone 102]

You don't have to have load on your SIM card to receive texts, but you will have to add load every 3 months or so or they will deactivate the SIM card.

That is in correct

I have 2 PI phones and I have not put a load on either in 2 years, Works like a champ here in the Great U S of A.......

[Atencio 43]

My understanding with Smart was that you had 120 days after zero balance to reload or lose the number

[maximus 0]

I havent loaded my Smart buddy roaming SIM in months also and it still works. I was able before to use the Smart SIM to tx to PI (20p per tx) but now I can recieve tx only but unable to reply, although I still have 200p load on it.

When the balance runs low I use the arty.com to reload my Smart SIM as the other poster stated.

I use the MetroPCS phone to send tx and it works very well but you will need to pay for the $40 plan and then you have to hassle with 2 phones to carry around also but to tx PI is free unlimited tx. The MetroPCS phones use CDMA and dont allow for a SIM to be installed on there phones...no slot for it.

Edited January 30, 2011 by maximus