Small fishing village goes hi-tech

DUMAGUETE CITY – Tañon Strait in Negros Oriental, a major source of fish products in the South is one of the country’s 10 richest fishing grounds. Also known as a dolphin-watching site, the channel is the chief source of food and livelihood for the people of Bonawon, the biggest Barangay in the town of Siaton.

For years, however, Bonawon could not quite reach its full potential largely due to its topography. Mountains surrounding the village isolate it from the outside world, even though it is just an hour-and-a-half by bus from this capital city. No land-based radio transmission (TV, am/fm radio, cellular, transceivers) is possible. There are no telephone lines either.

All this, until Smart Communications, Inc. recently opened a satellite-based Tawag Center right in the heart of the village. The Smart Tawag Center utilizes the AceS satellite technology, the latest in telecommunication service, which makes use of a satellite to transmit and receive messages from satellite mobile phones. The system covers the entire Asia-Pacific region, with three gateways in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines which makes it ideal for areas with no GSM coverage.

Siaton Vice Mayor Vincent Arbolado says that the improved communication, particularly between fishermen and big dealers in Dumaguete City and Cebu will surely boost economic activity.

Located adjacent to a sari-sari store the Smart Tawag Center quite literally connects Bonawan to the whole world. It is equipped with SMART Link, a fixed satellite unit.

Fishermen used to go to great lengths just to contact dealers and check the day’s prices. "We had to sail back to the open sea to be able to catch a signal, using a citizens’ broadband radio (CB)," Jojo Dimopol recounts in the local dialect.If the weather was bad and the seas, rough, fishermen had to go to Siaton poblacion, about 15 kilometers away, the nearest place with a public calling office. The bus ride costs P28. There they’d wait for the calling station to open at 9 a.m.

"In all, it used to cost us P50 in transportation and an hour’s travel time. Being late meant lower income, or none at all, because fish doesn’t stay fresh for long," he says.

"But now my pricing is competitive, as I am able to call my contacts in Cebu the moment I come ashore," he explains. "I can call my dealer in Cebu directly, without any middlemen to cut down my earnings."

At P13 a minute for NDD and cellular call terminating, he thinks the new mobile phone service is worth it.

Smart opened its first Tawag Center in 1998, using analog (ETACS)-based terminals. Shortly afterward, GSM-capable terminals were used. By 2000 Smart had launched the first satellite-GSM dual mobile phone service, and in January this year, the first satellite-based Tawag Center opened in San Miguel, Catanduanes.

"This is all part of Smart’s public access program, designed to help bridge the digital divide by making available a user-friendly telephone service unreached by other means of communication," says Cristina Z. Mariano, Smart’s public access department head. "We want to assist local governments in developing rural areas by providing affordable, accessible, and state-of-the-art telecommunication facilities. The Smart Tawag Centers service areas where there are no cellular service."