Free 15 Minutes of Internet Surfing from Smart Bro this early on 2012

Perhaps Smart Bro wants to get the attention of prospective subscribers that this early on the year, they offered Free 15 Minutes of Internet surfing to their current subscribers.

Got a text message when I launched my Smart Bro plug-it today.

Hello Smart Bro user!Want free minutes?Send BRO15 to 2200 any day between Jan 9 & 22 and get free 15mins of internet the next day until Jan23.For more info, visit http://smart.com.ph/bro. Promo is from Jan 10 to 23 only. DTI NCR Permit No. 1132, series of 2012.

Unfortunately, I can not verify this promo at the moment on my smart bro prepaid plugit because it is currently enrolled in Smart Bro's unlimited surfing service for five days.

Just for the fun of it, I tried this promo on two cellphones with regular Smart SIMs but unsuccessful.

The response message says;

You are not allowed to avail of this service. You may call Smart Hotline for details, *888 or 888-1111.P1/txt

By this time, I am skeptical about any promo by all telcos in the country. I would really appreciate it if someone who has availed of the Free 15 minutes internet surfing promo from Smart Bro can confirm if this promo is genuine or just simply pure marketing BS.

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Help CDO, Iligan City After Sendong

Let us all help those devastated by Typhoon Sendong. Cagayan de Oro City & Iligan City are the two areas hardest hit by the tropical depression over the weekends.

One way to help is by donating to the Philippine Red Cross thru our cellphones.

You can donate a part of your prepaid load to the efforts of the Philippine Red Cross in their relief & rescue operations in Cagayan De Oro City & Iligan City.

You can do so via SMS.

Text RED[space]AMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4143 (Smart)

You can donate the following denominations:
Globe: 5, 25, 100, 300, 500 or 1000
Smart: 10, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500 or 1000

Globe subscribers can also donate to the Philippine Red Cross via G-cash.

Text DONATEAMOUNT4-digit M-PINREDCROSS to 2882

You can also directly contact the Philippine Red Cross to inquire how you can help.

Call Hotline 143 or (+632) 527.0000


NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
Bonifacio Drive, Port Area
Manila 1018, Philippines
Email: prc@redcross.org.ph

I have only a little amount from my prepaid credits to spare. But I hope that this blog post can help in spreading the word in helping Cagayan de Oro City & Iligan City move on and rise again from this disaster.

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LoadXtreme Unavailable on December 11

I just read from Vmobile's Facebook page that LoadXtreme will be unavailable on December 11, 2011 from 12:00 AM to 12:00 PM due to the power maintenance that will be conducted by Robinsons Galleria Corporate Center Administration.

Also, I came to know about this scheduled service interruption via twitter @loadxtreme

No loading or other transactions over the LoadXtreme system will be possible during that time period. Retailers will surely be angry at the loss of revenue. LoadXtreme members that use it only for personal loading should remember to load their cellphones on Saturday.

It is only now that I learned that Vmobile is working to have its own genset for quite some time now. I just wish that goal can be achieved a little faster.

Again, I reiterate to the management that improving the system is the key for the business to flourish. Real product movement (i.e dispensing of prepaid load by dealers & retailers) will ensure LoadXtreme's existence. It can only be done if the system is regularly upgraded to be able support the growing number of dealers and retailers that dispense load daily.

Though I am no longer active finding retailers or selling prepaid load, I still long for the day when loading via LoadXtreme will be as reliable as traditional loading business.

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Maintaining Multiple SIM Cards

Prepaid cellphone users stands to benefit from maintaining multiple SIM cards. SIM cards being cheap these days combined with multi-sim capable cellphone models make it a lot easier.

I, myself, maintain 3 sim cards. My dual-sim Nokia C2-03 contain my default Globe SIM and my old Smart number. I also have a Sun Cellular SIM on the side. Yesterday, I loaded all three of them to keep them all active.

How do you maintain multiple SIM cards? Do you have a cellphone unit for each of them? Do you have a schedule, say every month reloading for them?

Various SIM Cards from Philippine Telcos
Image taken from here.

My Globe SIM is loaded regularly. For my Smart SIM, I periodically PASALOAD 2 pesos worth of prepaid credits from my Smart Bro plug-it. It is my Sun SIM that seldom get loaded.

Yesterday, I checked the LoadXtreme online loading facility for the lowest amount of credit for Sun Cellular. I decided on Sun Xpressload Budgetxt 5. However, it is only for 10 text/SMS message to other networks. Just to be sure, I again loaded my Sun with 10 Php regular load.

That's extra expense on prepaid credits for me but necessary so I keep all my SIM active and that I can avail of unlimited offers in any of those networks. Also, to be easily contacted by friends from other networks that uses unlimited services.

I remember in the early days of cellphones, a SIM card gets deactivated when left with out prepaid load for 120 days. I am not sure if that is the case till now. But as much as possible, I see to it to reload my secondary SIM cards once every month.

Do you also maintain multiple SIMs? Do you have a cellphone unit for each? Perhaps you use dual-sim cellphones or even a quad-sim one? Kindly share tips in maintaining your multiple sims.

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