These days, most smart phones have tethering capability so your laptop can access the 3G / 4G service directly through the phone.

SMART CELLULAR also advertises a DATA MICRO SIM that may work with UNLOCKED cell phones.

Does anybody have ASIAN experience with these?

Does anybody know how difficult it is for a foreigner in Philippines to buy the SMART PLUGIT or GLOBAL TATTOO prepaid plans for use when in country?

I have no experience with Smart Plug It. I don't see why it would be hard for a foreigner to purchase one of these though.

As far I know, only iPhones and iPads use micro sim. All other smartphones use full size sim so if you get a micro sim you will need a micro to regular sim adapter.

But here is what I have done in the past. I am running an LG Tmobile G2X which is rooted with a custom ROM called Cyanogen. It is also unlocked as the good folks at Tmobile gave me the unlock code.

I just purchased a regular ole smart buddy full size sim and loaded it with a 500 pesos. Then I sent a text with "SURF" in it to 211 to select my unlimited prepaid data plan.

or browse to....

http://m.smart.com.ph/surf (only works on the smart network from a mobile phone) and select one of the following plans.

Unli Surf Daily P50 / day
Unli Surf Weekly P300 / Week
Unli Surf Monthly P1,200 / month

Then I fired up the WiFi hotspot on my phone and connected my laptop to it. No need to tether with a USB cable.

I also know the HTC phones you purchase in the Philippines (like the Desire HD) have the WiFi hotspot functionality built in.

But the service for 3G is not that reliable. EDGE is fairly reliable, but slow. 3G when it works is good, but you have peaks and valleys with the signal and it rarely maintains 3G for a very long time which is very frustrating.

I have determined that Globe 3G officially, totally sucks big time and after messing around with them quite a bit only because Globe sells Tattoo SIM's on the plane on Philippine Airlines flights with for $1 with 200 Piso load already on them. But even with the free load they still suck so much it's not worth it.

By "SMART PLUGIT" I think you are referring to the USB dongle SMART sells for use with their "Bro" SIM's ???. This would be good for a laptop if you weren't interested in in tethering or cellular service. I think you would probably have to go to a SMART store in a mall or something if you really wanted that.

But if all you want is to get 3G data for your smartphone that is already capable of tethering. Just get a garden variety "SMART Buddy" SIM from any of the MILLIONS of street vendors. They cost 40 Piso and you just pop it in. Buy one of those and maybe a 500 Piso SMART load card and you are set for 3G data and local calls.

To activate. Pop it in, load in the "Load" card by scratching off the PIN and dialing a call starting with 1510 followed by the PIN on the card and hit send. It should send you a msg acknowledging the load and now you should be good for regular calling. Look at your phone and see if it is showing 3G data service on its own. Allot of phones may have SMART's APN already built in. If not, activate 3G by composing a SMS message saying "SET [your phone model] and send it to 211. If it replies unsupported model, try similar phones from the same manufacture since the settings should be the same. When it sends you the settings accept them and you are set to go. If all else fails go to http://smart.com.ph/corporate/support/FAQs/GPRS+and+MMS+Settings.htm and then go muck around in your phones APN settings and set it up manually but you shouldn't have to do that.

Then, you need to activate a unlimited data plan. This is easy.

Just write a SMS message saying "Unli 50" for 24 hours unlimited data for 50 Piso or "Unli 300" for 7 days for 300 Piso or "Unli 1200" for one month for 1200 Piso. Then send that SMS message to 211. You should get a reply saying your is unlimited plan is activated and away you go. Tether or smartphone to your hearts content.

Just REMEMBER, DO NOT leave your data turned on if you don't have an unlimited plan active and remember that if an unlimited plan expires and you do not renew it by sending another SMS to reactivate it, you revert to 10 Piso per 30 minutes of data any time your phone pings some server in the background or something which will quickly use up ALL of your load. Say for instance you are only going to be in town 4 days and have 500 Piso of load. For 4 days it's not worth it it activate a weekly plan so you activate the one day for 50 Piso plan. Then the second day you reactivate it but the third day you get drunk, forget, wake up next to a naked brown girl, become preoccupied with that, then go out drink some more, find another brown girl...... and finally remember about renewing your unlimited plan again like about 18 hours later when your phone stops working because the rest of your 500 Piso of load is all used up at 10 Piso per 30 minutes. Not that I would personally know anything about that, just I heard stuff like that has happened to others.