Smart's UNLI20 - Online All-Day For Less

Just received a text notification from 555 about - UNLI20 - Smart's latest offering on internet connection presumably to all us prepaid broadband subscribers.

Here's the exact SMS message that I received just moments ago:

Go online All-Day for less. With Smart's latest offer, enjoy unlimited internet access and music streaming via Spinnr 4 only P20/day. Text UNLI20 to 5555

I am a frequent availer of Smart's UNLISURF50. So this UNLI20 would mean 30 pesos savings for me.

It's just too bad that my unlimited surfing subcription will only expire around 4 pm in the afternoon today.

But I definitely would like to try this out the soonest.

Anyone who have availed of this service/promo? Please feel free to share your experience with this via the comment section below.

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Error 628 & Disconnection Problem on My Smart Bro Plugit

Does Smart's FREE MOBILE Internet has already reared its ugly head?

So, it seems with my Smart Bro Plugit.

In the past two days, I encountered two problems with my plugit which I seldom experienced before.

Since the launch of such promo, I have encountered Error 628 on my Smart Bro plugit while trying to connect to the internet. I have registered to the UNLISURF 85 promo, by the way.

See this screenshot below:

Error 628: The connection was terminated by the remote
computer before it could be completed.

I had spent majority of my Sunday morning clicking redial but was unable to connect.

Today, I was able to connect but I get disconnected every so often and need to re-Connect just to make the most out of what's left with my unlisurf subscription.

I can't think of other reason for this problems but the traffic and/or congestion brought about by Smart's free mobile internet.

I hope that Smart really has the infrastructure to handle majority of its 72 million subscribers availing of the promo.

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FREE MOBILE INTERNET For All - Prepaid, Postpaid, Broadband Subscribers - Until January 5, 2015

Manny Pangilinan just tweeted that Smart's FREE MOBILE Internet is for all - prepaid, postpaid and broadband subscribers.

And extended up to January 5, 2015.

Even better – free internet now open to ALL prepaid, postpaid & broadband subs of Smart, TNT & Sun #SmartFREEInternet for ALL @SmartCares

— Manny V. Pangilinan (@iamMVP) October 3, 2014

Wow!

Thanks, MVP. But please, NO to slower connection and NO to telco congestion.

UPDATE:

I was able to avail of this promo via my Smart Bro plugit. Below is the text confirmation.

Welcome to FREE INTERNET from SMART Bro! Enjoy UNLI Facebook and FREE 30MB of browsing for 24hrs. Daily registration required. Promo until 1/05/2015.

P2P, Streaming, Messaging & VoIP are not covered by FREE INTERNET. For terms and conditions, go to http://smart.com.ph.

Note: Consumption will not be seen on the Bro Dashboard

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Smart Bro Dashboard - Insufficient Balance

Yesterday afternoon, I was introduced to the Insufficient Balance notification via Smart Bro Dashboard on my Google Chrome Browser.

I was consuming the data minutes accumulated every time I loaded my Smart Bro. I left my laptop to do some other things. When I came back and opened new tabs, I was directed to the webpage that displays Smart Bro Dashboard.

The Smart Bro Dashboard webpage.

As shown in the image, the dashboard is still in Beta Testing phase. It displays your mobile number and a message:

OOPS

You were redirected here because you have an insufficient balance. Please load to continue your internet browsing. This is a FREE site.

Even though your internet connection icon shows that you are still connected, and the Smart Bro interface showing download and upload speeds, you will not be able to browse any website.

Well you just have to re-load your Smart Bro Load again to enjoy surfing the net.

How about you? What are your comments/experiences regarding the Smart Bro Dashboard.

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Smart Bro Power Duo on My To-Buy-List

I headed over to Twitter to get updated on Pres. Noynoy Aquino's SONA 2014 when my attention was grabbed by SmartCares and their Smart Bro Power Duo offering.

Smart Bro Power Duo is an improved wifi plug-it with a built-in wifirouter and a powerbank.

The wifirouter capability will allow me connect my laptop and my tablet with 3G to the internet at the same time. Instead of the tedious transfering of the sim card from plug-it to the tablet or vice versa. My tablet's tethering isn't good enough. Two sim cards will mean twice the cost of loading smart bro prepaid credits. Also, I may be able to share the connection with my room mates and have them share with the prepaid load, too. HEHEHE!!!

The powerbank feature will be useful to charge my tablet and my CP especially when I'm caught in traffic.

Those two features are major upgrade to my old white smart bro plug-it. But what's more salivating for me is the improved broadband capacity of up to 7.2 mbps.

With payday coming in two days time, Smart has me contemplating on shelling out P1895 for their Smart Bro Power Duo.

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Smart Bro UNLISURF Expiration Notification

Some two years back, I blogged/complained about Smart's UNLISURF lacking feature - checking the status of your UNLISURF subscription via SMS or Text Message.

It seems that Smart has made some improvements related to this concern.

Just moments ago, I received a text notification from Smart (via 4932) informing me that I only have one hour left to enjoy my enrollment to Smart's UNLISURF service.

Screenshot of My Smart Bro

Having this notification allows subscribers like me to be aware of my UNLISURF subscription. Especially, if my Smart Bro still has some loadcredits.

Sometimes, when we are online, we tend to forget the time so it is really good that Smart has rolled out this text notification service.

I have to say thumbs up to Smart for this. :)

P.S

This blog post serves as a bonus from my one day UNLISURF subscription yesterday.

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Enjoy 2 Days of Unlimited Internet via Smart Bro's UNLISURF85

Loadxtreme's online loading facility provides dealer/retailers the option to check their sales via e-mail. I registered my yahoo account for this purpose.

I was just accessing my yahoo mail account to check my loadxtreme sales for the day when I saw Smart's huge advertisement of Smart Bro Unlisurf 85 right before logging in.

Screenshot of Yahoo Mail Login Page

Loadxtreme provides dealer/retailers a way of checking sales through its database accessible thru its own website or via a third party e-mail provider.

Throug my yahoo mail account, I came to learn Smart Bro Unlisurf 85 which I thought of sharing to you immediately.

UnliSURF 85

You get not one, but two days of unlimited mobile broadband internet with the new Smart Bro UnliSURF85 from 100 pesos down to only 85 pesos! Just text UNLISURF 85 to 2200 from your SmartBroaccount or avail via My Smart Account.

From Smart's website.

Basically, Smart Bro is offering its prepaid internet subscribers 15 peso savings for two day unlimited internet via their smartphones or cellphones. Also, UNLISURF 85 saves you time in enrolling for another day.

When I was blogging via my own Smart Bro plugit, I usually avail of unlisurf 200. But I think that UNLISURF 85 is good enough deal if you need unlimited internet connection for the weekend as long as the connection is reliable.

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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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Smart Bro Internet Connection Problem with Error 619

Yesterday, I've encountered my worst Smart Bro Internet Connection problem.

Around 9 am, I loaded my Smart Bro USB modem with 200 peso worth of credits via loadxtreme. Then, I availed of Smart's Unlisurf 200 for 5 days of passable smart bro prepaid internet connection.

But when I tried to connect to the internet, I encountered error 619. I gave up after a few more tries at redialing to connect, thinking it would only be temporary and proceeded with other things to do.

Only to find out that Smart Bro and Error 619 would frustrate me the whole day.

Smart Bro frustrated me yesterday.
Image from Dreamstime Free Photos

Internet connection is very important for me because I send my job applications online plus I'm blogging to make some money online.

So, you can imagine my frustration when this error persisted before I took my lunch and for the rest of the afternoon.

Error 619: A connection to the remote computer could not be
established so the port used for this connection was closed.

Thinking that my Smart Bro wireless USB might be the problem, I uninstalled and reinstalled the application. Then, I used my antivirus software and ran a full system scan.

On a desperate attempt to try other things, I connected my Smart Bro USB modem interchangeably among my netbook's other USB ports. Also, I added some prepaid load. All to no to avail.

Late yesterday evening, I decided to go to the nearest internet cafe. I accessed my registered Smart Bro account and filled out the Request Technical Support form where I was promised to be contacted within 24 hours.

Early this morning, I received the following SMS message from sender. - Cust.Care:

Good day. Regarding your Smart Bro prepaid account. Adjustment has already been done on your account, kindly monitor your connection. If you need further assistance, pls call *1888 using a Smart cellphone or 6727277 (Metro Manila) or 1-800-106727277 thru a PLDT landline w/ NDD. Thank you.

True enough, I was finally able to connect. And when I checked my balance, my Smart Bro's prepaid credit remained the same and my UNLISURF subscription was adjusted to last until 3 PM of July24. Thankfully, I no longer need to contact the smart bro customer service hotline.

To be fair with Smart Bro and its customer care department; the action, the sms message and the adjustment made for my concern deserve to be mentioned here.

[I now have a theory that the Request Technical Support Form works better than the Smart Web Connect Aftersales Requests Form I used for my Smart Rewards complaint.]

This experience has convinced me that my Smart Bro prepaid's reliability will not be suitable for any work-at-home internet connection requirement.

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SMART REWARDS Program Turned Out Unrewarding To Me

Looking for info about Smart's PasaLoad Promo, got me interested with Smart Rewards.

As it turned out, my Smart Bro prepaid plug-it has already accumulated over 40, 000 points for redemption.

Unfortunately for me, redeeming items out of the Smart Rewards program proved to be unrewarding.

Or that was just my luck?

Image from here.

It was nice to know that Smart has a program that rewards subscribers for continuously reloading and using their service. Getting 5 reward points for every P1.00 worth of transaction seems like a great deal.

I load my Smart Bro 200 pesos almost weekly to avail of UNLISURF for 5 days. That alone means 1,000 reward points. I have been using Smart Bro prepaid plugit for over eight months but I'm still surprised to have accumulated over 40, 000 points.

Screenshot from my Smart Web Connect Panel

It was then that I decided to redeem one of the items the program offers - the 90 minutes Smart Bro Internet surfing time worth 7, 500 points. So, sometime in July 2, I actually did redeem the said item. And here is the corresponding notification message after doing so.

You redeemed 7,500 rewards points. Your account will be credited with P30.00 Smart Bro Load within 48 hours. Being Smart has its rewards!

RN:4028070

July 4 came and my account hasn't received the P30.00 load promised even though 7,500 was deducted from my reward points. So, I decided to repeat the redemption process. (RN:4030026)

And at the same, sent a complain via Smart Web Connect Aftersales Requests Form which responded with this notification message:

Your Aftersales Request Form has been submitted. Valid request will be attended to within 24-48 hours. Thank you for using Web Connect.

I believe that requesting action for unreceived rewards that were promised is valid enough. But until now, there isn't a response from Smart.

From that experience, Smart Rewards proved to be unrewarding to me. In that regard, Globe Rewards program is slightly better since I was able to redeem its free UNLI80 item a few times.

What's your experience with Smart Rewards? Give a little credibility by commenting non-anonymously. :)

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Smart Bro Power Plug-It Power Features Should Be on My Old Plug-It

Smart is offering a new device for PC/Laptop users to connect to the internet wirelessly via prepaid - the new SMART Bro Power Plug-It.

I heard about the new Smart Bro Power Plug-it over the radio today. My attention was specifically caught because the ad pointed out its load balance display feature that appears when you plug it in. That directly addresses one of my recent rants.

Smart Bro's New Power Plug-It
Image from Smart Website

The new Smart Bro plug-it device offers speed of up to 2 Mbps and costs Php 1, 245 preloaded with 120 surfing hours valid for 5 days. Cost for subsequent use is the same Php 10.00 per 30 minutes or avail of UNLISURF.

It boasts of power features like:

• Plug ‘n Play installer and launcher
• Smart Bro number display
• Load Balance Counter
• One-step registration to Unlisurf
• Call & SMS Capability
• Free texts everyday via Chikka

System requirements: Pentium III or higher, 512 MB of RAM or higher, Ethernet / LAN card, at least 10 GB of Hard Disk Space, USB 2.0, Operating System: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac Osx 10.4 (Tiger), Leopard, Snow Leopard

All of these features are quite tempting but my old Smart Bro plug-it still works just fine. It is unlikely but maybe Smart & Huawei can offer upgrades that are downloadable in order for old models to offer the new features. If so, then I wouldn't be having this concern.

For those interested in getting the new Smart Bro Power Plug-it device via post paid, check the details here.

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Smart Bro Fun Free Fifteen - Free 15 Mins Surfing Daily via Smart

The Smart Bro Fun Free Fifteen promo greeted me when I accessed the internet today.

As has now become customary for my weekends, I loaded my Smart Bro prepaid plugit using, of course, LoadXtreme.

When I fired up the Smart Bro interface I received this e-mail;

Welcome to Smart Bro Fun Free Fifteen Promo! Your free 15 minutes for today have been credited already. Pls maintain at least P1 load to enjoy your freebie.

There's more! As a Smart Bro subscriber, you get a chance to win a MacBook Air! Simply check in at www.smartbro15.com to learn about the exciting prizes!

Promo until Dec 21. Per DTI-NCR Permit No 7183.Series of 2010

Somehow, Smart was able to console me after getting disappointed learning that Smart Bro's UNLISURF is temporarily down.

So, I checked on the site and registered. As I understand it, I got 15 minutes free internet daily and have a chance to win exciting prizes. The Apple iPad looks really cool even though chances of owning it via promos like this one are remote. And the prize of the hour was this Creative SBS A60 Speakers.

Browsing further the site specifically made for Smart's Fun Free Fifteen promo, I just learned that the promo started December. WTF! Where am I these days!

Even so, I just have to thank Smart's Fun Free Fifteen promo. That means I have 15 minutes daily to check my email and wish the internet speed were faster.

Images via my Smart Fun Free Fifteen account.

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Smart Bro UNLISURF is Temporarily Unavailable For Prepaid Smart Bro Users :(

I was looking forward to getting online the whole weekend (Sundays & Mondays for me).

Unfortunately, Smart Bro's UNLISURF for Smart Bro prepaid broadband users like me is temporarily not available.

I have sent the service keywords at least 8 times, typing UNLISURF 100, UNLISURF 50 and even UNLISURF 200 or their lower-cased equivalents & sending to 2200 but to no avail.

Until I received this text/SMS message:

Sorry keyword is temporary unavailable, for more information please visit http://www.mysmart.com.ph. P2.50/txt

Arrgh!

I am posting this now using regular Smart Bro prepaid load. I fervently hope that Smart would not eventually stop offering UNLISURF. It's one of the reason I settled for a Smart Bro prepaid rather than a postpaid account.

Image via Smart Bro UNLISURF page.

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