improvement

i had my SIM card replaced at the Sun Shop yesterday.  i was advised by the customer service hotline to do so.

for a couple of months now i've been experiencing frequent network disconnections.  i get a notification saying,
"No service.
Selected network (Sun) not available."

i'm on auto-connect but still i reconnect manually and then i get disconnected again, sometimes immediately, sometimes hours later.

i've cleaned my SIM card.  i've switched SIM slots.  i turn my phone off and on.  the problem persists.

i'm not sure whether location is a factor.  i experience it most often in quezon city, at different areas.  i have, however, also experienced it in mandaluyong, pasay, parañaque and taguig.

i have a dual SIM phone.  the other slot has a Globe SIM and it works fine.  it's just the Sun SIM that is having network problems.

i did receive the following SMS from Sun last march 24:
"1/2 To serve you better, we're upgrading our cell site equipment in parts of Metro Manila on Mar 24-Apr 1. You may have intermittent signal while this is being

2/2 done. To get the best signal in your area, please set your Android phone to AUTO-CONNECT to 2G/3G/LTE or to 3G or LTE for iOS. Sorry for the inconvenience."

anyway, so my SIM card was replaced.  i tested it.  the only difference is that when i scan for networks now i get SUN in all caps instead of Sun with just the first letter capitalized.  the customer service hotline did ask me that earlier, i.e., whether i was seeing SUN in all caps.

after successfully sending a test SMS, i asked how much i have to pay.

guess what, i was told that it was free.

really?

they charged me P150 when i had a similar replacement years back.  my phone suddenly stopped detecting my SIM and diagnosis was defective SIM card.  i thought then replacement would be free but it was not.  now it is?

according to the Sun Shop staff, it became free when they were acquired by Smart.

ei, nice one, Smart.

thank you...  : )