#TBTH: We look back at 20 years of Internet in the PH

In March 1994, the Philippines was first connected to the internet. twenty years hence, a lot has changed in the way we communicate, work, learn and make friends.

In this week’s edition of our #ThrowbackThursday, we go back and reminisce the things we used to do with the limited amount of connectivity that we had.

1) Email was a novelty. It was scarce and when available, you had to pay for it. Our school-issued email account had no visual interface (GUI) and we had to memorize how to use the Pine command to read and send emails. Our first commercial email was Yahoo and HotMail.

2) Netscape Navigator rocks! Before that, we had to use Lynx to check out the scores on NBA.com.

3) Google did not exist then. Yahoo! and AltaVista were our default pages. We did not search, but instead, scrolled thru directories to find new websites.

4) Those who dared creating their own website had to deal with Geocities or Angelfire.

5) You had to memorize your ICQ number if you want to chat with friends or just randomly find new ones to chat with. Do you still remember your ICQ number?

6) Want some MP3 with your chatroom? Try mIRC.

7) US Robotics might sound like a really high tech company right now but back then, it was the single most popular 64kbps dial-up modem of that time.

8) Ten years ago, a SmartBro connection (before PLDT bought Meridian Telekoms, Inc. and named it Smart Broadband Inc) would fetch as high as Php8,888USD 151INR 12,840EUR 144CNY 1,103 a month for a 128Kbps fixed wireless connection. That was already cheap considering an unlimited dial-up connection from big ISPs like MozCom can cost you over Php5,000USD 85INR 7,223EUR 81CNY 621 a month. And who could not forget the early morning promo of ISPBonanza that made me a nocturnal animal during my early days of blogging?

9) WAP is the only way to get internet to your phone. I remember getting charged Php50USD 0.85INR 72EUR 0.81CNY 6 by merely browsing the homepage of YugaTech in 2003 on my Nokia E51.

10) Friendster was the coolest, hottest website in town. It changed the way we “defined” who our friends are.

How about you? Do share with us what you remembered most about the early days of the internet in the Philippines.