Online e-loading site created for global-roaming Filipinos

Mar 30, 2005
Updated 03:18am (Mla time)
Erwin Lemuel Oliva eoliva*inq7.net
INQ7.net

AN American expatriate has "quietly" launched an online electronic loading service for Filipinos here and abroad, INQ7.net learned on Monday.

Investing a few hundred dollars, Jamaican national Boris Rose has created pasaload.biz website that offers electronic top-up service for subscribers of Smart.

Rose said the service, barely a week old, is still in the "advertising phase," but will soon include support for Globe Telecom subscribers.

"This is independent of the operators," he told INQ7.net in an online chat, adding, "I hope this is not illegal."

While PLDT currently sells Smart e-loads in the PLDTOnline website, the pasaload.biz website offers incremental amounts of 30 pesos (.55 US cents) up to 1,500 pesos (US 27.71), Rose added. The service is now available to Filipinos, he stressed.

How does the online service work? A customer buys an electronic load from a specific network, say worth 500 pesos from Globe Telecom. He then specifies a recipient cell phone number to load the specified amount.

"Presently, I check the records (database) for load-sending requests. If there is one, I will use my phone and send the e-load to a requesting party. Then I indicate this in the database. Presently this is manual. But I have an idea how to make it automatic from server," said Rose.

He says that pasaload.biz is similar to PLDT’s online e-loading system, "I was looking at the PLDT service and it is exactly the same as mine, same ordering process (they use PayPal) and same manual sending .The only difference is their prices are lower, since I must factor in my personal profit. So I must advertise to get a customer base," he added.

"Keep in mind this is primarily for people outside the Philippines," Rose said.

The pasaload.biz website indicates that users can pay through credit cards such as Mastercard and Visa, and other payment gateways like Discover Cards and PayingEZ. North American users can also pay through the same credit card companies or through PayPal.

"I will use two companies that offer credit card (and check) acceptance to individuals," Rose added.

He developed the online service due to his experience loading up abroad. "I studied some computer science and I'm doing all the database work. I travel and speak a few languages also. I'm doing some coding right now here in the Philippines," he added. He is married to a Filipina.

Smart officials were unavailable when asked to comment.