This is for all those geeks out there who are fascinated with this kind of stuff as well as anyone traveling in the Philippines who wants to get Internet access on the iPhone.

Since I've been in Manila, I haven't had the constant 3G Internet access I had in New York, which is crippling for an iPhone, as any iPhone owner will attest to. So, I finally decided to look into the options Globe, my prepaid cell phone provider in Manila, offered. I was pleased to find that mobile Internet access was available, and it was cheap, too--20 pesos an hour or just over 40 cents. Great. Now, I just had to figure out how to enable it.

Just opening up Safari or email wasn't enough. I fished around Globe's website some more and found a 24-hour support line. I called it and spoke to a woman who told me that while they do have Internet access for iPhones, since I didn't buy mine here it wasn't supported and they couldn't guarantee I'd be able to use it.

"Okay," I said. "So, how do I get Internet access then?"

"Sir," she said, "you need to change the APN settings in the phone, but I can't assure you it will work."

"All right, so what are the settings?"

"You need to download them via a wi-fi connection onto your iPhone. Do you have a pen?"

"Yes, go ahead."

"You need to go to https://iphone.com.ph/config."

I entered the settings in my web browser. The page timed out.

"Thanks," I said and hung up. She didn't seem too helpful or willing to help, but she was actually more helpful than I thought at first.

I typed the following into Google: iphone apn settings for globe in manila.

After clicking on a couple links, I found this site: http://philmug.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=24153. The correct url the customer service rep should have given me--https://iphone.globe.com.ph/config--was there. You would think she would know the correct address. It didn't matter anymore. I clicked on the link, and it downloaded a file of an unknown type named "config." I opened it with Notepad just to see what was in it. Just a bunch of code and some references to xml and Globe Telecom. I looked back to the site where I found the link. There were instructions for changing the APN settings. I checked my phone. I assumed iPhones that hadn't been unlocked or jailbroken wouldn't have this feature available but that I might. Yes. It was there a couple levels down under settings. I clicked on Settings, General, Network, and Cellular Data Network. There were fields for APN settings for Cellular Data and MMS as well as login fields. Since I'd used MMS successfully on this phone already and there weren't any login settings entered there, I figured I'd try changing the APN settings for Cellular Data and see what happened. I changed internet.globe.com.ph (postpaid) to http.globe.com.ph (prepaid) then restarted my phone for good measure and gave it a try. Bingo! Online again. I don't know why I didn't look into doing this sooner.

Labels: 3G, APN, Globe Telecom, Internet, iPhone, MMS