The conversation was nothing expansive – the usual mother-son: How are you? Fine, and you? Hanging in here. And the boys? They are in school.

How’s work? Fine, things under control. And BA?

She’s fine, and busy with household and organizations. A few minutes of this, and my Smart mobile goes dead.

I had used up on that call all P600 ($12) worth of Smart card I had just purchased.

I was so pissed. Is that highway robbery or what, on the part of the cell phone company?

One can imagine my joy at seeing a poster outside my favorite photocopy shop.

ONE PESO PER MINUTE CALLS TO THE USA, CANADA, CHINA, UK, SINGAPORE. PeerMe – www.peerme.com <http://www.peerme.com> "PeerMe Credits" With PeerMe Credits you can buy various products in PeerMe Website: ringtones, music games, wallpaper, video conferencing and Call-to-Phone TAWAG NA! WORLDWIDE!"

A peso-a-minute overseas call? Really?

I walked to the manager to ask about the offer of the poster. I asked if it was a joke. The manager said, Oh no, this is for real. That’s all PeerMe charges. In fact, the marketing person is there outside, familiarizing the staff on how PeerMe works.

A peso-a-minute overseas call? Wow!

I went over to meet Judith Pedral, a very charming, very savvy young Filipina who speaks English with a British accent. (She was born and raised in Mindanao.) She was living in Singapore when she encountered PeerMe and has since joined the company. PeerMe has sent her back to the Philippines to be its marketing person.

A peso-a-minute overseas call! I need this!

I bought a P100 "PeerMe Credits" card good for 119 minutes. Judith helped me do my thing. My dear friend Shirley in Las Vegas answered and we chatted. I couldn’t call my son as it was 3 a.m. in the morning in the east coast. I dialed my brother in Dubai. I used up P15 for that long chat with Shirley.

A peso-a-minute overseas call! This is great!

Judith told me all about her company, PeerMe.

All PeerMe is a privately-held international peer-to-peer communications technology company.

Its mission is to bring human connection to the internet through voice-enabling the web. Founded in 2004 by Tom Lasater, who’s PeerMe’s CEO.

PeerMe has developed a peer-to-peer voice and instant-messaging platform, which supports Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), PC-to-PC and PC-to-Handheld Voice Communications, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer file transfer over public internet connection. PeerMe keeps offices in Mountain View CA, Austin TX, Tokyo, South Korea, China, India, Bulgaria.

PeerMe has a suite of mobile and desktop applications that allow to communicate and connect with people from any internet-connected device. The basic PeerMe mobile software (www.peerme.in/mobile.php) allows users to IM from their mobile phone to any user on any IM network. PeerMe also offers users functionality such as the "one-click" photo upload, which allows the user to take and post a photo to the internet with one click.

Simply, the goal of PeerMe is to bring the ease of functionality of the iPhone to the lowest common denominator cell phones in the marketplace. PeerMe’s desktop applications offer free peer-to-peer voice communications and it has launched subscription-based multi-party video conferencing.

PeerMe has scheduled the following milestones in the next three to six months:

• – Customer adoption of up to 3,000 to 5,000 new users per day.

• – Finalize distribution deal in the US as well as Asia.

• – Implement open API strategy and become a platform for mobile distribution.

PeerMe has launched its Mobile Advertising Platform http://www.peerme.net <http://www.peerme.net/> and http://mobile.peerme.net <http://mobile.peerme.net/> and is selling keywords in place for advertisers who want to promote their products with PeerMe.

These ads will appear in two locations, on every mobile cellphone (java, windows mobile, pocket PC, Motorola, Smart Phone, etc.) and in its website’s Search, a very inexpensive way for people to advertise their business and products on mobile.