ümobile's branding and concept was cool. Ad supported network, free credits, cheap GPRS/3G per minute rates, and the ability to change your number on the fly. Now after almost 6 months of beta testing ümobile, the head honchos of CURE decided to scrap everything they marketed 5-6 months ago and go full blast with a generic looking Red Mobile brand logo. Yes, the weird TV commercials you're seeing about some new mobile company is the new ümobile. ümobile is now called Red Mobile minus the cool ad supported/free credits concept, non-2G support, number customization, and cheap 3G/GPRS browsing rates. No more invite codes. No more exclusivity to 16-35yr olds. No more free credits!
Instead of relying on invite codes, anyone now can buy their own Red Mobile SIM for just Php39 per piece. Ironically, the Red Mobile SIM card is cheap but the 3G phones are not.
Red Mobile is obviously targeting Sun Cellular with their TV Ad Campaigns. From the "sorry all lines are busy now", to the choppy signal, and to the funny "tone" sound. I've been a subscriber of Sun Cellular since March 2003 and believe me, these 3 commercials are aimed at SUN.
The commercials are quite good, unfortunately, the new "re-branding" isn't. The old ümobile logo was cool while the new Red Mobile logo looks like it was made by a grade schooler. That guy must be very rich by now. :P
Seriously, what was CURE thinking? umobile's branding IS cool. Why change it? Here's some rundown on what have changed:
From the original P0.15 ümobile to ümobile SMS, it's now at P0.50 red mobile to red mobile.
From P0.75 ümobile to other networks, it's now P1.00 red mobile to other networks SMS.
From P5.00 ümobile to ümobile voice calls, it's now down to P0.50 red mobile to red mobile.
From P7.00 ümobile to other network voice calls, it's now down to P6.50
From P6.50 ümobile to ümobile video calls, it's now down to P0.50 red mobile to red mobile.
The original ümobile browsing rate of P0.33 per minute is gone. From the current rate of P7.50 per 15 minutes, Red Mobile provides the most expensive 3G rate in the country.
No more invite codes. Anyone can buy the SIM for Php39 each.
So, will I ditch my Sun Cellular prepaid in favor of Red Mobile? Probably not. Not yet. I'm currently contented with Sun Cellular even with their "Sorry all lines are busy now..." and choppy calls. It's still tolerable :P
Sun Cellular's P150 Text Unlimited is STILL cheaper than loading the P300 credits of Red Mobile. P150 Text Unlimited translates to unlimited Sun-to-Sun SMS for 30 days plus 4 hours Sun-to-Sun voice calls. While Red Mobile's P300 can mean 600 RM-to-RM SMS or 600 minutes of Rm-o-RM voice calls. Sun is still cheaper. Besides, I still have my 10 year old Globe Handyphone as my main line and I also happen to have a PLDT Landline Plus.
Who knows, I might ditch my Sun Cellular SIM if Red Mobile even lowers their rates to P0.15. *wishful thinking*
Talk about cheezy commercials. Makes you wonder, Smart is very rich just to scrap a brand that they marketed with hundreds of free 3G phones, parties, etc.
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THERE ARE 2 COMMENT(S) ON THIS POST:
I definitely agree on what you posted here. Yep, umobile is better than redmobile.
umobile rocks bro. I hope someday our old umobile sim will have signal again.
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