by Cecile Cinco
In 2000, one of my brothers-in-law gave us an old mobile phone. It’s one of those jurassic phones, as we call it. I’m not sure of the model but I think it was Motorola and it was about an inch and a half thick, about 7 inches long and 2 inches wide. It had a digital display where the numbers you punch in are reflected in red. You pull the 4-inch antenna when you have to use it. The charger is about 3 inches square and an inch high. The battery is half the phone which occupies the back. You make the phone stand on the charger slot to have it charged which lasted only for about 3 hours, and as the battery weakened over time, you have to have it charged while you’re talking with someone.
Then I had a chance to buy a Nokia 6210. It was the funniest phone I had because I have dropped it several times and the parts scattered all over the place within a 2-meter radius and I picked every part up, and like a jigsaw puzzle, put them together, and still worked! I was able to use it for 3 years, I think. It was very used that you can’t recognize the numbers and letters on the keypad. I finally gave it rest when I got fed up tinkering on the small parts to keep them together. Lost tread was basically the reason parts kept on falling apart.
The next phone I had, which I bought second hand also was a Nokia 5210. It was one of the best, I think, for the purposes I needed at that time, most especially, texting (SMS). The Philippines is not the Texting Capital of the World for nothing. 
I don’t have any interest with phone games at all so it doesn’t concern me. The phone was small, fits in my pocket, and it’s shock proof so rugged motions and even some drops was nothing. Later, my eldest started to use it until she lost it while biking.
Last year, in February, I bought the most awaited ASUS V80. Hubby compared phones on the net for about 5 months to see what fits me, budgetwise, basic features and a 2-Mp camera. It was the best 2-Mp camera in the market. (I don’t need more than 2-Mp since I meant to use it for the internet.) Up until now, that’s my phone.
I’m just one of the subscribers who enjoy the benefits of a GSM phone. I’m in sales (real estate) my phone has helped me a lot, communicationwise and photowise. I’m just one of those subscribers who has never changed number for 4 years now.
It took 12 years to hit the 1 billion subscribers until 2004 but only 2.5 years to hit the next billion. With 3.3 billion at the moment and still growing, there is no doubt that the telecommunication industry is the future. It also means that more cell phone towers are bound to be installed in the next few years to accommodate the growing subscribers.
How about you, what’s your GSM story?
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