Rediscovering WAP out of necessity

IN THOSE dark, humid nights, with power out and Bayantel's landline service down (restoring the latter will probably take some time, but who knows?), I was forced by circumstance to find other ways of accessing the internet.

With nothing else much to do at times except fiddling with my Nokia 3220, necessity compelled me to retry its internet features. Previously, I did not find it very useful: for one, the default settings downloaded by Globe won't work; for another, the much cheaper texting is still the killer application for the low-tech, low-maintenance person in me.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that (1) the month-old setting sent by Globe already works; (2) and more importantly, I can check my Gmail and Yahoo emails using wireless access protocol (WAP). Y!Mail on WAP is pretty straightforward since Yahoo is a default link on the Globe internet homepage. Gmail is a little trickier; I was only able to find this wapsite when I googled "Gmail" in my celfone and limited the search to mobile websites. It's the Hotmail wapsite that still eludes me. (Anybody knows?)

Ordinarily, spending P126 on WAP usage over the last five days--that's roughly P25 a day--is still kind of pricey for me. But if one has only used up about half of his P800 consumable plan (mostly because Globe's service went awry in Milenyo's aftermath) with five days to go, he will find ways to squeeze as much bang from every buck.

So I WAPped up whenever and wherever necessary to check on my emails: at night before calling it a day; in Legazpi City the other day where the situation is a lot worse and there is no internet access at all, even in the internet cafe at the Pacific Mall; early in the morning when I wake up. And one begins to appreciate these little technological miracles that are within reach, only if we are brave, and bored enough, to find out.:)

Image nicked from www.fortehosting.com