In 2007, Daniel Miller presented his paper on “What is a Mobile PhoneRelationship” in the “1st Living the Information Society Conference” held inManila. In his presentation, he mentioned the work he was just embarking onwith Mirca Madianou on long-distance relationships of separated families andthe ability of different media to sustain those relationships over time (Miller,2009). He was then building on the extensive work that Parrenas (2001, 2005a,2005b) had done on Filipino transnational families, and in particular, on motheringfrom a distance