Is the analog phone modem on its way out?

Geez! I didn’t even know that there were some people who still used analog modems! Although PLDT still has Vibe on their menu of services…

would prefer it to remain but unfortunately most modem chipset refuses to support GNU/Linux (with a paid driver being sold that demo at 14.4kbps speed).

I still keep my dial-up modem as an emergency way of getting online whenever Globe Broadband goes kaput!

Then again, I have Globe Tattoo for that purpose especially now that the 3G signal has improved in our corner of Cavite.

Though the sound of a dial-up modem ‘mating’ with the ISP’s servers sure does bring back fond memories from my high school days.

I really cannot see anyone using dial up these days, since the almost all sites now are mix of videos, pictures and text. Which will really make your surfing very very frustrating even if you are connection speed is more than 53 kbps. Still keeping a dial connection as a back up is not a bad idea.. specially if you need to send that every so important email.

One thing that I hope from these Broadband provider will do is to comeup with a prepaid DSL Connection or cable. Since 99.99% of our phone lines are DSL ready, I don’t see any reason why they don’t want to do that. If you can see, Smart revenue comes mostly on prepaid subscribers. Same as with the Cable provider.

The analog modem should be dead, but it can;t be in the Philippines because our business are still too backwards.

You forget that faxes require an analog modem (even in a fax machine there is an analog modem). In Singapore and KL they have almost fully replaced faxing with email. Of course in the US and EU faxes are a dinosaur, so in those places, yes, the fax modem is dead.

However, not here, and one of the main reasons for this IMO is the overblown prices companies must pay for computer equipment. In Singapore, even a small company has a mail server and every employee has access to a computer. Here, even larger companies (for instance a car dealership) has only a few computers that are used by many people.

The reason for the high prices in our domestic market is due to may sources. The price fixing done by the limited number of distribution companies who have agreed to keep product prices artificially high, for one. The ridiculous VAT tax classifying all tech and computer equipment as luxury.

However the main problem is CUSTOMS! The corruption, the incredible bloated and insane duties, the logistical nightmare in importing. The lack of infrastructure to move goods easily and cheaply to the Philippines all create an environment that destroys competition!

If everyone reading this blog had a choice to buy products via the internet and could get them here in a hassle free way (and that includes paying lawful and fair! duties), no one would buy from local stores. If that happened, then the local market would be forced to compete and remote the artificial price fixing scheme they have established.

To prove my point, why does buying something from PC Bodega cost the same as buying it from PCx (margin of error around only p100)? Yet when you shop in Singpaore, one store in Singapore/KL/HK/Shanghai/Bangkok can be 10-50% more or less than its neighbor?

no segway upselling here plz.. LOl :)

@nightcrawl:

….ah ok….ok k na….hahahaa!

still have this type of port on my sony vaio. it is still a very useful port especially in the aftermath of the storm last September-October 2009 when DSL service went kaput in my area and electricity was also unstable.

i used the pldt vibe service which is default in all pldt lines.

i needed to use the service especially to file photos and stories for the web.