SmartBro Network Settings

After doing some research, the best providers for 3G internet access around the islands of the Philippines seem to be Globe and Smart – with Smart ahead by a landslide. As you get off the plane in Manila, there are a number of Smart booths where you can pick up a SIM for 40 pesos (about $1 Canadian). They’re even open late as we got in at 11pm and they were still staffed. If you arrive at 3am, there are vending machines to provide the SIM cards.

Enabling 3G access on our Nokia E51 was simple – simply text “SET E51″ to 211 and you’re done. Internet is 40 pesos per hour.

The iPhone however, wasn’t recognized and required going to the SMART Wireless store in Robinson’s Mall as the telephone operators were pretty clueless. I’ll save you the trip – in order to enable it you can simply text “SET E51″ to 211 and then go into your network settings and enter “Internet” into the APN field.

You can also get a USB Internet stick for $22 Canadian if you prefer to plug that into your laptop over tethering. I’m hoping the USB stick will work with Airport Extreme so I can setup a local wifi network to share the 40 pesos per hour rate.