I briefly mentioned that I need to go to town daily to get an internet connection. Our home is situated along the national highway (Sorsogon-Gubat) and some 5 kilometers away from the nearest town (Gubat) and 13 kilometers away from the province capitol (Sorsogon City).

Though we are located along the main road, there is only a meager signal enough for SMS to slip through in mobile phones in both leading networks of the land: Globe and Smart.

If your outdoor antenna is tall enough, you’ll get a decent reception on local TV, depending on where you are: you’ll either get ABS-CBN or GMA-7. Where we are (unfortunately for me!) it’s only ABS-CBN. Unless you are on Dream Sateliite TV, then you’ll have cable channels too at optimum reception.

At the moment, I need to convince 10 households in my area before a normal telephone line to be installed. Our neighbors are mostly farmers who’s got mobile phones, why would they need a land line?

There goes my options for a dial-up. :-(

Months before I came here, I’ve already researched how I’ll get online at home:

1) Smart Wifi: Unfortunately, currently available in towns of Bulan and Irosin…God knows when the service will reach Gubat.

2) A satellite phone, SMART LINK: A whooping $650 a unit and will give me only dial-up.

Meanwhile, I have an old classmate who owns a computer shop in town. Internet is running on DSL at 25 pesos per hour. ;-)